A New Partnership Brings Doughnuts and Special Events Together by F. Andrew Taylor
Partners Melanie Bash and Molly Hoisington have been in the events industry for 20 years and they’re finally getting their just desserts… and they happen to be doughnuts. The new partnership between their company, Last Minute Venues, and The Dapper Doughnut is allowing them to provide desserts made fresh before their client’s eyes.
“It’s an interactive dessert station,” Bash says, “The Dapper Doughnut makes bite sized doughnuts in a cooker right at the venue. You pick from a wide variety of toppings, including peanut butter and jelly, s’mores and fluffernutter.”
Bash and Hoisington created Last Minute Venues more than three years ago to provide unusual venues for events in Las Vegas. Clients contact them when they want to hold an event that isn’t necessarily at just a section of a casino ballroom or convention center. They now have a library of about 150 venues both on and off The Strip for hosting events.
“I knew there was a niche for specializing in all kind of venues,” Bash says. “There are hidden jewels that a lot of people don’t have access to. People are always looking for a new experience. Las Vegas is the city for events and new experiences.”
As the name implies, Last Minute Venues can pull together an event in a very short time. Bash says that while many clients book their service months or years in advance, it’s not uncommon for her to get a call in the morning asking if she can set up an event by that evening. Most of the time the answer is “Yes.”
“We try not to turn anyone away,” Bash says. “We have venues available for nearly any group size and price range. We set up events for 10 people and we set up events for thousands of people.”
They have exclusive arrangements with out of the box venues including lofts, mansions and airplane hangars.
For The Dapper Doughnut founder, Jeff Pappas, the inspiration for the business came from his teen years visiting Schultz’s farm in Armonk, N.Y. He used to go most weekends to get fresh, hot doughnuts there. When he decided to explore that memory as a new business in 2015, he met Jimmy Nuccio and Gabriel Wiesen of Chicago’s Beavers Coffee & Donuts. The three joined together to create The Dapper Doughnut.
The company has 30 franchises including one (and a second soon to open) in Las Vegas, the city where Bash operates her business. At the stores, they not only make fresh doughnuts to order with the topping of your choice, they also serve doughnut shakes–milkshakes with crushed doughnuts and doughnut toppings added.
Last Minute Venues has worked on several events with Pappas and it didn’t take them long to realize that their two ventures went together like peanut butter and jelly on a doughnut.
Explains Bash, “We’ve used Interactive food stations like a station where they roll the sushi for each guest or carving or tapas stations and interactive entertainment areas like a woman hanging from the ceiling and pouring champagne into glasses for the guests or a live statue who’s part of the food station, to make the event exciting and give the guests an opportunity to mingle and give them something to talk about,” adding that “partnering with Dapper Doughnuts has been a unique new concept to present to clients –we’ve done several events and parties that guests have really loved with them – guests really love picking all their own toppings. We’ve done Fifties parties and made doughnut shakes – they can pick the doughnut toppings for their shakes.”
“This is the perfect fit,” Bash proclaims. “I’m always creating experiences with food and beverage and working with Dapper Doughnuts is a real treat.”
Last Minute Venues has partnerships with event party vendors from caterers, to decor, staging, lighting, DJs, entertainers and all other services, who are able to give their clients VIP special pricing to meet their needs. For more info, call (702) 497-9169, email Melanie@lastminutevenueslv.com, or visit www.lastminutevenueslv.com.
The Dapper Doughnut is located in The Underground at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino (across from Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club), 3799 S. Las Vegas Blvd. Las Vegas, NV 89109. Telephone: (702) 755-5274. For more info, visit www.thedapperdoughnut.com/las-vegas-mgm/
This story originally appeared in the July/August issue of Exhibit City News, p. 70. For more pictures and original layout, visit http://issuu.com/exhibitcitynews/docs/ecnflipbook_julyaugust2018_web?e=16962537/62860459
