With flavours like apple spice churro, London fog, fuzzy peaches, and caramel macchiato, Hobo Donuts is definitely not your average doughnut shop.

“We don’t just sell donuts; we sell an experience,” said Jimmy Schimmel, owner of Hobo Donuts doughnut shop.

What really makes this local Regina business unique is that it doesn’t have a storefront – Hobo Donuts is a pop-up doughnut shop.

By not having a traditional brick and mortar store front, Schimmel sells his gourmet doughnuts by popping up in other local businesses such as Fix Coffee, Rocahouse, and Takeaway Gourmet, throughout the week.

“It’s a new concept, people don’t understand that you can’t just get these doughnuts whenever you want,” said Schimmel.

He makes 200-300 doughnuts fresh each morning, shows up to these businesses in his van filled with trays and sells doughnuts right out of the kitchens of these shops. But if you want some of these donuts you have to show up early because once he is sold out, he’s done for the day. And Schimmel often sells out by noon.

Ruvim Kerimov, a regular Hobo Donuts customer, says that this unusual business model is part of why he likes buying from this shop.

“I’m not a big fan of Tim Hortons or Robins and like how unique and creative these doughnuts are,” said Kerimov. He appreciates that Hobo Donuts prioritizes local businesses.

“[Hobo Donuts] supports small local businesses that have low traffic and people can then check out stores that they didn’t know existed,” said Kerimov.
By not having a fixed building the public has to seek out this doughnut shop and they are then introduced to other stores or restaurants.

The Regina food scene is continually growing and changing from local ramen flavours, to meat pie bakeries and now local stores without their own buildings.

Pop-up shops have become more popular since Hobo Donuts started three years ago. Small businesses that don’t have the funds to pay rent on a building are collaborating with other businesses to sell their products. And many different types are jumping on the bandwagon.

Clothing boutiques like Hard Pressed in Saskatoon, homemade soaps, coffee shops and even perogy businesses are all taking advantage of this new idea.

Because it is spreading Hobo Donuts doesn’t plan on ever moving to a storefront.

“I can use it to promote other small businesses that are just starting out [which is] way more valuable than just opening a shop and selling doughnuts,” said Schimmel.

Schimmel never anticipated that he would be owning this shop today, he just wanted a doughnut.

“It was an accidental business,” said Schimmel.

He had no prior experience making doughnuts; he wasn’t even a baker. But after a trip to a gourmet doughnut shop in Winnipeg he thought he could make them too.

“I can make this, I can make a doughnut that could be just as good,” said Schimmel as he recounts his first time trying to replicate these gourmet treats three years ago.

Even though both his parents had owned a bakery in Swift Current, Schimmel confessed that he knew very little about baking.

And the first batch wasn’t his best.

“They were disgusting but I did it, I made a doughnut,” said Schimmel.

After that first time he continued to try recipes and perfect his doughnuts. He naturally began posting pictures of his creations to social media – and people were really interested.

The name was inspired by a 24-hour doughnut shop called Donut Express in California that had a local nickname of Hobo Donuts. Suppose that name seemed quite fitting for a shop that had no home.

“Who in their right mind would call a business Hobo Donuts?” laughed Schimmel.