Doughnuts, pies & more: Penns Valley shop drawing crowds from across Centre County
In the summer of 2017, the Beiler family was looking for some extra income — and, out of necessity, a successful business was born that now draws crowds of hungry diners from all around the county to Rebersburg.
“My wife, Anna, started doing a little baking and we just had a small table out along the road, underneath the shade tree,” said owner Gideon Beiler. “We started out that way. We did that for a couple of weeks and then we saw an ad for Nan’s Donuts over in Loganton. ... We contacted her and she helped us get started with the doughnuts. Nan gets a lot of the credit for where we’re at and what we’re doing. From there, it just moved on. We moved inside the building and it just took off from there.”
In August 2017, the business — now christened Mammy’s Donut Shop — moved into a converted barn, where visitors can now find an array of baked goods, plus specialty breakfast and dinner items on certain days of the week and month. The location’s rural setting and rustic appeal are part of what Beiler says brings people back to the shop, though the doughnuts are hardly wanting. Facebook reviewers call the doughnuts “absolutely amazing” and “the absolute best donuts in (Penns) Valley.” The menu includes more than 30 varieties of doughnuts and more than 30 varieties of doughnut holes, from traditional glazed to more decadent options, such as s’mores and Snickers donuts.
However, beyond the staple and most popular doughnuts, Beiler also says, “We do whoopie pies and we do fruit pies, cream pies, cookies. We do a lot of cookies and bread. We’re into the bread quite a bit — and then we do bars. The whoopie pies and the cookies, we try to keep those there all the time. The other stuff is more or less seasonal.”
The Beilers eventually expanded the reach of their business over the last five years to include doughnuts and baked goods offered at area stores and farmers markets. The doughnuts are now available at Burkholders Country Market in Spring Mills, as well as at McLanahan’s Downtown Market in State College and Clever Crow’s Milk & More in Selinsgrove. Doughnuts and baked goods are also sold at the Lewisburg Farmers Market on Wednesdays and at Mountain View Farm in Julian on Fridays and Saturdays.
While many small businesses felt the crunch of the pandemic over the last two years, Beiler said it wasn’t an issue for Mammy’s Donut Shop. “It actually really boosted our business,” he said. “It worked the opposite of what we expected when it first started. It sort of seemed to me that people came out (to the shop), because we were out in the country, sort of away from people. Our business really picked up.”
However, while the last few years have been kind to Mammy’s Donut Shop, Beiler said he and Anna are more focused on perfecting their current offerings than expanding further. They do, though, now offer an expanded menu on select days, with savory breakfast options available on Saturdays, and chicken dinners available on the first and third Saturdays of the month throughout the summer; the Saturday chicken dinners are now available as of March 19.
Mammy’s Donut Shop is open Monday-Saturday, 6 a.m.–5 p.m., at 163 Smullton Road in Rebersburg. (As an insider tip, Beiler recommends stopping by on Friday or Saturday for a greater variety of baked goods). Learn more about Mammy’s Donut Shop on its Facebook page.
