Dozens of doughnuts, served family-style

PINELLAS PARK -- The Dunkin' Donuts drive-through line backs onto U.S. 19, which is bumper to bumper. A cherry-red SUV at the end of the line risks losing its rear end.

Inside, at the front counter, Theresa Ponte, 47, is hustling a dozen glazed into a cardboard box. Her daughter Christine Golczewski, 27, puts cream in a coffee.

On this Friday, about 1,000 customers will pass through the doors.

For eight years, Jose and Theresa Ponte and their daughter, Christine, and son, David, 19, have owned this location at 7315 U.S. 19 N, along with a Dunkin' Donuts at 6132 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N in St. Petersburg.

"My kids have always been around us while we worked," Mrs. Ponte says. "They have seen how important it is to work hard in life."

"This family is wonderful. They all work here. There's the mother, there's her daughter, and the father is somewhere," says Stephanie Wolfe, a Pinellas Park resident and a customer for five years. "This is the neighborhood Cheers of doughnuts."

In 1971, Mrs. Ponte, born in Portugal, persuaded her future husband, a veteran of the Portuguese military, to follow her family to the United States. While they courted, she worked at her cousin's Dunkin' Donuts in Rhode Island. "That's where I got my experience, and I learned English through dealing with the customers."

In Rhode Island, the Pontes had their babies and an extended family surrounding them. "But in 1990, we came to Florida on vacation, and we loved being in so much sun," Ponte says. "I told my wife, 'Now let's move to Florida.' And we did."

In 1995, the family bought the two franchises for about $1-million.

Eight years later, the family remains committed to their business and each other. David Ponte was 11 when the family moved to Florida. After attending Sacred Heart Catholic School and graduating from St. Petersburg Catholic High School, he became manager of the St. Petersburg store.

His sister operates the Pinellas Park store with her parents.

"I left Rhode Island after my senior year of high school, and I was kicking and screaming. Now my whole life is here," says Ms. Golczewski, who received associate degrees in accounting and business management from St. Petersburg College. She and her husband, Scott Golczewski, a Pinellas Park police detective, have a 6-month-old daughter, Vanessa Leigh.

In the kitchen, Jose Ponte is up to his elbows in dough. In the next 24 hours, he plans on using 175 pounds of yeast dough and 180 pounds of cake dough. "I came in at 3 a.m. We have to start early," he says.

Saturday is Jose and Theresa Ponte's day off. They'll attend afternoon Mass at St. Catherine of Siena.

"Is this a comfortable life?" asks Mrs. Ponte. "No, we work too many hours a day. We always like to have at least one of us owners here. It's nice to have this investment in the family but, for example, my son knew how hard I was working, and so he's taking time off from school to run our other store. I wish he was able to get his college education right now.

"But this is our little place in the world, and I'm proud knowing we make a difference in this neighborhood."

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