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Amy Scherzer's diary

Heart Beat: Krispy Kreme bosses find hole lotta love

John Lucas and Trisha Pickard loved their work with tasty pastries. Soon, it led to a love for each other.

By AMY SCHERZER
Published June 23, 2006

	[Photo by Emanuele]
	Jay Lucas sang Edwin McCain's I'll Be to his new bride, Trisha, on their wedding day April 22 at the Rusty Pelican restaurant. Jay and Trisha Lucas met on the job while working for Krispy Kreme.

TAMPA - John Lucas looks at his bride, Trisha Pickard, and a neon Krispy Kreme "HOT" sign goes off in his head.

Sweeter than an Original Glazed, he's thinking. Hotter than a chocolate latte.

The two Krispy Kreme managers turned a business relationship into a walk down the aisle April 22 at the Rusty Pelican. Friends, family, co-workers and Krispy Kreme executives celebrated the delicious match.

Pickard, 37, gets as squishy as a jelly-filled doughnut when she talks about a partnership that goes beyond 50-hour work weeks.

"He's so thoughtful and always so helpful,'' said Pickard, nicknamed Doughnut Barbie because she loves anything pink. Including her wedding gown, a strapless rose taffeta confection.

Who else would understand coming home to their Wesley Chapel townhouse smelling like doughnuts or never wanting to see another cruller again?

It's not all work for the doughnut duo. The two take off Tuesdays to bowl, scrapbook, go to the pool or see a movie.

"We try to limit the shop talk," said Lucas, 32, who goes by Jay. He shyly admits he had never heard of Krispy Kreme until he moved to Tampa.

After graduating from high school in Fort Myers, he moved here to be near his mother, Eileen Tyner. He worked a variety of jobs, from carwash attendant to lube shop manager. He married, had a daughter, Sarah, now 11, and divorced.

A Krispy Kreme ad caught his eye in March 2003. You're overqualified, company officials said. Instead, they made him an assistant manager. His first assignment was to open a new store on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in New Tampa.

Soon after, management moved Lucas to Krispy Kreme's flagship store on Kennedy Boulevard, the first in Tampa and a South Tampa landmark. After a stint as assistant manager at the Providence Road store in Brandon, he became general manager of the New Tampa store, and most recently, production manager at the N Florida Avenue store. He recently gave notice he was leaving the company to work for Texaco.

Pickard grew up in Bloomsburg, Pa., and moved to Tampa for her ex-husband's job. They separated a year later. The single mother of two daughters, Madison Brooke, 9, and Macie Lynne, 4, interviewed for a crew leader position at Krispy Kreme in June 2003. She, too, qualified as assistant manager and went to work in New Tampa.

The inevitable occurred when Lucas came to Pickard's store to borrow receipt tape for the cash register. She was in the office when he knocked and introduced himself.

She looked up, surprised to see "such a nice looking guy," she said.

"Back at ya,'' a mind reader would have said of Lucas' thoughts.

Lucas thanked her and left, glancing back as he walked out.

"I was sooo caught," Pickard said, giggling. "I had rolled my chair back a few feet and was checking him out just when he turned around to check me out again."

The next time they saw each other, at a management meeting, Lucas sat behind her by accident.

Not at the next meeting. Lucas grabbed the seat next to her on what happened to be his 30th birthday. The moderator extended best wishes, and Pickard asked how he was going to celebrate.

"I told her I'd probably go to Ybor City, and she said she'd never been there," he recalled. He offered to be the first to show her the scene. Their first date: the Green Iguana Bar & Grill.

"I felt like I was with my best friend," Pickard said. She quickly checked the company's dating policies and found they wouldn't be allowed to work in the same store.

That was no deterrent. Pickard was promoted to general manager of a store within months, then to a corporate fundraising position and then project manager. These days, she's the general manager of the Brandon store, where employees make more than 12,000 doughnuts daily.

Lucas captured Pickard's heart on their first Valentine's Day together. He told her to pack a bag and get a babysitter. When they arrived at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay, she found 14 beautifully wrapped presents.

"He took a gift wrapping class at the Brandon Mall," she said. Overwhelmed, she found a dress to wear to dinner that night, earrings, necklace, belly button ring and more.

He proposed in November 2004 at CK's Revolving Restaurant. He got down on one knee and said, "I brought you here because the sky's the limit," he said. They both cried when he slipped on the heart-shaped ring she had admired at the mall many months prior.

"He remembers everything," she said.

Like their favorite song. Lucas, a karaoke junkie, surprised her with his rendition of I'll Be by Edwin McCain before the first dance at their wedding reception.

Mr. and Mrs. Lucas honeymooned on Sanibel Island before returning home to doughnut duty.

Have an interesting wedding story to share? Let Amy Scherzer know at ascherzer@sptimes.com or 226-3332.

[Last modified June 22, 2006, 12:12:19]