New Marceline business offers to-go breakfast options and drinks.
New friendly faces will serve coffee, drinks donuts and other breakfast treats at the now-open Yummy’s Donut Palace, located in the former Goodcents building on Highway 5 North in Marceline.
The new business will be open, from 5 a.m., to 1 p.m, Tuesday through Sunday each week. A few tables and chairs inside are available for those who want to sit down, and a drive-through window with a complete menu is available for those on the go.
If you want donuts or a quick breakfast on the go, manager Chamroeun Saphon—just call her “Cham” for short—is ready for customers to stop in for breakfast, with many menu options ready to go in the display cases. Yummy’s Donut Palace is also accepting applications for more staff, as the franchise owner and manager also oversee shops in Pleasant Hill and Lee’s Summit in Missouri, as well as the flagship Kansas City, KS, location. However, they will relocate their home in Marceline.
A Dream Turned Into A Sweet Reality
Cham, as she likes to be called—and her husband, franchise owner Seng Hieng, emigrated to the United States from their native Cambodia to seek better opportunities for themselves and their family, with Cham arriving first due to visa and immigration regulations. “I arrived first and I’ve been here for 14 years,” she reflected. “Seng came later, and he’s been here for six years.” During that time and before his arrival, Seng researched on opportunities to start his own business and provide opportunities for family members to join them. Since buying a franchise is one of the quicker ways to start a business, he began looking for available turnkey franchises and found the contact information for a franchise owner who was selling his donut business. Thus, Yummy’s Donut Palace began in the Kansas City, KS, location, complete with the brand name which Cham and Seng kept, and business boomed quickly, as Kansas Citians looked for a variety of quick on-the-go breakfast options and a variety of flavor options for their new favorite fast-food fad—boba or “bubble tea” drinks.
“We saw an available building as we were looking for new franchise locations,” said Seng Hieng, owner of the Yummy’s Donut Palace franchise. “Marceline is a nice, friendly town in a good location.” Cham added that the former Goodcents building is an ideal location for attracting visitors from other towns, as it is located next to other businesses as they drive into town.
Cham also enjoys telling stories to customers about how their family got started in the donut business and points to the picture taken of her and some family members at the premiere franchise location. “The hand symbol we make is called a “little heart” in Cambodia, but it is also a good-luck symbol [in other countries besides Cambodia] for prosperity and money,” she explained.
New Breakfast Options and A Variety of Teas and Drinks
Those who have had the sneak-peek opportunity to check out the drive-through window menu have found that Yummy’s Donut Palace will offer a variety of breakfast sandwiches, including breakfast croissants and biscuit sandwiches and kolaches—also known as Texas kolaches or sausage rolls.
A little background information on the kolaches, which Cham claims will soon be a favorite for Linn County customers—the kolach (singular form for “kolaches”) is a pastry that found its way to rural Texas by Czech settlers during the 1800s and started out in its traditional form as a sweet fruit pastry. Texans learned how to make their new favorite pastry and gave new nods to the traditional pastry by adding sausage, other cheeses and jalapeno peppers. The new recipe adjustments caught on quickly in Texas and then to other states, with many local restaurants serving the meat version of the pastry. Those who have made kolaches for food stands in Missouri have discovered that these sell out quickly, especially on the weekends.
Those wanting tea-based drinks known as boba teas—or “bubble teas” as they are sometimes called—may feel like they’re vacationing on the West Coast, as they will have a wide selection of flavor options to choose from and try. Bubble teas originated in Taiwan in the early 1980s, and Taiwanese immigrants brought it to the United States in the 1990s first in California. For those who haven’t tried bubble tea, it is served cold with chewy tapioca pearls, known as “boba” or “pearls”. Some cafes in Southeast Asia and California specialize in bubble tea production and often serve the drink in a plastic cup, using a specialized machine to seal the top of the cup with heated cellophane. This allows the tea to be shaken in the spill-free serving cup until ready to drink. The cellophane is then pierced with an oversized straw; today, the bubble teas continue to be served with larger straws.
Jelly bubbles—that is, bubbles that contain fruit juices inside them—are also available in a variety of flavors to add to the teas, as well as whipped topping. Flavors include mango, strawberry, and coconut, and include other flavors popular in the Los Angeles area, such as lychee, a Taiwanese fruit. “We can mix flavors, too, to make however you want your bubble tea,” added Cham.
Donuts remain the star of the show, as they are offered in a variety of flavors and icing toppings, including strawberry. Boston crème/Bavarian crème-filled donuts and other crème filled donuts are available with raspberry, lemon and vanilla crème. Other pastries are available, along with the breakfast sandwiches that are fresh-prepared and wrapped ready to go.
Yummy’s Donut Palace is located across the street from Casey’s in Marceline and next door to Hotel Marceline.
