A new shop, St. Pete's Finest, gives customers license to associate cops and doughnuts.
By DAVE SCHEIBER
Published April 16, 2004
[Times photo: Cherie Diez]
Shelly Allen, left, and Tara Kenyon are co-owners of St. Pete’s Finest. They also happen to be married to police officers. And hey, they serve bagels, too.
ST. PETERSBURG - As a rule of thumb, it's best to keep the doughnut comments to yourself when in the presence of a police officer.
Specifically, as one cop-and-doughnut Web site with a link to Krispy Kreme points out, if a police officer says to you, "Have you been drinking? Your eyes are red," definitely do not reply, "Have you been eating doughnuts? Your eyes are glazed."
They've heard the jokes a million times, seen the unflattering TV images of a portly law enforcer downing a handful of jelly doughnuts in one fell swoop.
So why have an area businessman and the wives of two St. Petersburg police officers just opened a doughnut shop called St. Pete's Finest, playing directly off the longtime stereotype?
"To turn a negative into a positive," says Mark Taber, a property developer and driving force behind the cozy, revamped spot just beyond downtown at 689 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N.
Taber, 52, bought the building, a defunct community center, a year and a half ago, as the stretch of King Street began a turnaround. Taber approached two friends, who are community police officers, about opening the business with him. Doug Allen and Rick Kenyon had been instrumental in cleaning up the block, beset for years with drugs and crime.
They declined because of unpredictable hours and busy schedules, but passed the idea on to their wives. Both Shelly Allen, 40, and Tara Kenyon, 38, already had business experience, operating a landscape and marketing company, respectively.
They loved the idea and joined Taber and a handful of other investors in bringing the cop-and-doughnut shop to life last month, furnishing it with oriental rugs, cushy vintage chairs and sofas, modern oil paintings, computers for Internet browsing, and walls painted with two shades of police officer blue. It's open from 5:30 a.m. to about 2 p.m. weekdays, managed by Taber's sister, Rayhl Taber-Lang.
But weren't the pair of police wives a little worried the venture would perpetuate the doughnut image?
"I thought it sounded fun," says Kenyon, who has designed the logo and fliers for St. Pete's Finest, which also sells specialty coffees, cappuccino, tea and bagels.
"Hey, everyone loves doughnuts," Taber adds. "Doug and Rick and lots of police officers love doughnuts. Why hide it? Bring it out in the open!"
Taber also bought a rundown, onetime crack house behind the shop, and offered it to the police for SWAT unit training - ensuring a large group of police customers on training days. Eventually, he'll knock it down for a parking lot.
St. Pete's Finest doesn't make its own doughnuts. Taber gets them from St. Pete Donut House, which has a cop connection of its own: Owner Matthew Martini has two brothers, Mark and John Martini, on the St. Petersburg police force.
"I think the whole doughnut thing really started because police officers like coffee," Taber says. "Most doughnut houses used to be open 24 hours, but it was the coffee that they wanted on their breaks. The doughnuts just went along with it."
But with fitter, more health-conscious police nowadays, aren't doughnuts a tougher sell to cops?
"Actually," says Taber-Lang, "a lot of them order coffee and bagels."
