After temporarily closing at the end of July when owner Steve Hubbard suffered a heart attack, Beatbox Donuts in downtown Centralia has reopened and resumed normal business hours.
In fact, Hubbard’s already been back at work throughout most of the week, although he is still taking it easy, per the doctor’s orders, and letting his staff handle most of the work — including his wife, Lisa Hubbard.
“I got my sons in here helping out, and then my wife's running the show,” Steve said when The Chronicle visited Beatbox Donuts on Thursday, Aug. 6. “She’s done it a couple of days by herself.”
Now taking medication and resting, Steve added while he did have a blockage in his heart, he luckily escaped the need for surgery and is recovering.
Since the last time The Chronicle visited, he has expanded both Beatbox Donuts’ menu to include both mini and full-sized donuts, along with a variety of new drinks. The “Back in Time Retro Toy Museum” lounge and game room also features a DJ booth along with pool and shuffleboard tables.
There are now karaoke nights hosted there every Friday and Saturday night from 8 to 11 p.m., open to all ages as Beatbox Donuts does not serve alcohol.
Additionally, with the Southwest Washington (SWW) Fair set to start next Thursday, Aug. 11, Steve is getting ready to set up his business in a booth at the fair, serving up hot and fresh donuts along with lemonade.
And on the SWW Fair’s final day, Sunday, Aug. 16, Steve will be hosting a mini-donut eating contest starting at noon.
“There’s going to be two classes, I don’t have the age groups right in front of me, but we’ll do younger ages and older ages,” Steve said. “And then we’re gonna give away a case of Fallout soda and free donuts to the winner of each class.”
The Fallout soda is a Jones Soda Co. collectible collaboration product featuring special videogame-themed flavors inspired by Bethesda Game Studios’ famous post-apocalyptic survival videogame franchise — Fallout.
First opened about a year and a half ago as a mobile business in a trailer serving mini-donuts outside of the Pearl Street Market, Beatbox Donuts has since grown into a downtown Hub City establishment, located at 209 S. Tower Ave. in Centralia.
Initially, he was considering opening a buffalo wing food truck, but he eventually settled on making donuts instead, despite not actually liking donuts himself. The main reasons were donuts are simpler to produce, and he didn’t have to deal with the stringent health code requirements that come with storing and serving poultry products.
Steve also chose to make donuts because during his research before opening Beatbox Donuts, he discovered local donut lovers were forced to travel to either Seattle or Portland in order to get the pastries hot and fresh.
For more information, follow or message the business on its Facebook page at https://tinyurl.com/ca6u2n49.
