LaMar's Donuts

LaMar’s Donuts is a Kansas City original. Ray Lamar opened the first shop in a converted Linwood Boulevard gas station in 1960, and the oversized, hand-cut cake and raised donuts he made there became one of the city’s signature foods — the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question and, per Jay Leno, the work of “the undisputed doughnut king of the Midwest.” Seven LaMar’s shops still open before dawn across the KC metro. The company itself is now a Denver-headquartered franchisor.

What to expect

LaMar’s runs on a morning schedule and means it: most metro shops open between 4:00 and 6:00 a.m. and close by early afternoon, and the best selection is early.¹² The donuts are made by hand each day — the house line is that they are never sold day-old — and the signature item is still Ray’s Original Glazed, a large raised donut with a thin, crackly glaze.³⁴ The one-sheet menu advertises more than 75 varieties, and 9NEWS reported roughly 30 out on a given day; freshly roasted coffee is part of the standing offer at every store.⁴⁵

Shops are small, counter-service, and built around the case: you point, they box. Several metro locations take call-ahead, fax, or online pickup orders, which is how most large-dozen office orders get placed.¹²

Kansas City metro locations

All seven operating metro shops are listed on LaMar’s own locations pages.¹²

Location	Address	Phone	Hours (first-party listing)
Kansas City, MO	9926 Holmes Rd., Kansas City, MO 64131	(816) 548-1941	5:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. Mon–Fri; 5:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. Sat–Sun
Blue Springs, MO	722 N. 7 Hwy., Blue Springs, MO 64014	(816) 220-8900	5:30 a.m.–2:00 p.m. Mon–Sat; 6:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. Sun
Lee’s Summit, MO	705 SE Melody Lane, Suite G, Lee’s Summit, MO 64063	(816) 524-5515	5:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m. daily
Lee’s Summit, MO	3801 SW M 291 Hwy., Lee’s Summit, MO 64082	(816) 537-9851	5:00–11:00 a.m. Mon–Fri; 6:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Sat–Sun
Liberty, MO	1183 W. Kansas St., Liberty, MO 64068	(816) 792-8630	5:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. Mon–Tue; 5:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Wed–Sun
Overland Park, KS	8615 College Blvd., Overland Park, KS 66210	(913) 469-0699	4:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. daily
Mission, KS	5901 Johnson Dr., Mission, KS 66202	(913) 362-7700	6:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. daily

Also listed, not operating: 12520 Quivira Road, Overland Park, KS 66213 — still carried on LaMar’s Kansas locations page, but its hours field reads CLOSED.² Whether that is a temporary or permanent closure is not stated first-party. “

The original Linwood Boulevard shop is gone. The Kansas City Public Library’s KC History collection records the 240 Linwood Blvd. building — a former garage and filling station that became LaMar’s first home in 1960 — as closed in 2003.⁶ The metro’s Kansas City, Missouri store today is on Holmes Road in south Kansas City.¹

Menu

Last verified: 2026-07-31 · Source: LaMar’s own menu page and its downloadable one-sheet menu PDF⁷⁴ · menu_status: partial · Confidence: High for item names, none for prices.

Prices are not published first-party. LaMar’s does not list prices on lamars.com or on its sample menu sheet, and its per-store ordering links hand off to third-party ordering platforms whose prices are not reliable as the in-store price. No prices are recorded here. Item names below come from LaMar’s own one-sheet menu.⁴

Ray’s originals

• Ray’s Original Glazed · Ray’s Chocolate Iced Original · Ray’s Double Chocolate · Ray’s Cinnamon Sugar Raised · Ray’s Granulated Sugar Raised⁴

Cake donuts

• Apple Spice · Banana · Blueberry · Cherry Flavored · Lemon · Orange · Pineapple · Plain · Red Velvet · Strawberry⁴
• Cinnamon Sugar · Glazed · Granulated Sugar · Powdered Sugar · Old Fashioned Sour Cream · Devil’s Food Glazed · Devil’s Food Chocolate Iced⁴
• Iced: Cherry Iced (plain, with coconut, with sprinkles) · Chocolate Iced (plain, with coconut, with peanuts, with sprinkles, with M&M’s) · Maple Iced (plain, with coconut, with peanuts, with sprinkles) · White Iced (plain, with coconut, with peanuts, with sprinkles)⁴

French cruellers

• Glazed · Cherry Iced · Chocolate Iced · Maple Iced · White Iced⁴

Bizmarks (filled)

• Apple · Banana Cream · Bavarian Cream · Blueberry · Cherry · Lemon · Pineapple · Raspberry · Strawberry, plus Chocolate Iced · Glazed · Powdered Sugar · White Iced⁴
• Apricot Filled — advance notice required⁴

LaMar’s Bars

• Bavarian Cream Filled · Chocolate Fluff Filled · Chocolate Iced · Maple Iced · Snicker John · White Fluff Iced · Unfilled⁴

Knots, twists, bars and rolls

• Knots: Glazed · German Chocolate · Two-tone⁴
• Buttermilk Bars: Glazed · Powdered Sugar⁴
• Cinnamon Twists⁴
• Cinnamon Rolls: Plain · with Raisins and Pecans⁴

Fritters

• Apple · Banana · Cherry · Chocolate Cherry · Pineapple⁴

Donut holes

• Cake · Glazed⁴

Coffee and beverages

• Freshly roasted coffee is part of every store’s offering; the chain roasts its own beans.⁴³ The specific espresso and blended-drink lineup is not itemized first-party and varies by store. “

Allergen note (first-party): LaMar’s states that cross-contamination with soy, peanuts, eggs, wheat and dairy can and will occur in its baking facilities.⁷

The story

Ray Lamar started making donuts in Kansas City in 1933, at seventeen, as a fryer at the Jack Frost Do-nut Shop.³ Twenty-seven years later — after World War II service and a partnership in that first shop — he opened his own store in a converted garage and filling station at 240 Linwood Boulevard, and the line began forming before 6 a.m.³⁶⁵ At its peak the single store moved more than 11,000 donuts in a day.³

What made LaMar’s a Kansas City institution was not marketing. It was size, freshness, and a refusal to sell yesterday’s product: big, hand-finished donuts, sold until they ran out. The city returned the affection in unusually specific ways — Hallmark, a Kansas City company, made a greeting card in Ray’s honor; a Kansas edition of Trivial Pursuit asked “Where do you stand in line for donuts in Kansas City?”; and Jay Leno, hosting Ray on The Tonight Show, called him “the undisputed doughnut king of the Midwest.”³⁵ LaMar’s has also drawn notice from The New Yorker, Gourmet, and the Zagat Survey.³

In 1990, Ray and his wife Shannon decided to franchise.³ In 1997 a majority interest in the chain was bought by Franchise Consortium International, an Englewood, Colorado company that set out to expand LaMar’s nationally.⁵ Ray retired in 2003 — the same year the Linwood store closed — and died in 2005 at 89.⁵⁶ The brand he built is today operated and franchised by Donut Holdings, Inc. (DHI) of Denver.⁸⁹

Two facts sit side by side here, and both are true: LaMar’s is Kansas City’s donut, and LaMar’s the company is now run from Denver.

Tier classification

Tier 3 — Kansas City–founded, ownership and corporate control now seated in Denver, Colorado.

The tier turns on one question: where does the ownership of this business live? For LaMar’s, the first-party answer is unambiguous. The brand, the trademarks, and the franchise system are owned by Donut Holdings, Inc., d/b/a LaMar’s Donuts, headquartered at 3600 S. Yosemite Street, Suite 750, Denver, Colorado; the company’s own terms of use name that address, name Matt Joslin as its president, and place governing law and jurisdiction in Colorado.⁸ Denver-based DHI is identified as the franchisor in outside reporting as recently as 2025.⁹ The founding family’s majority interest passed to an out-of-state buyer in 1997.⁵

That is the same pattern the Registry documented for Boulevard Brewing — a KC-founded brand whose ownership locus moved out of Kansas City — and it lands in the same place. Tier 2 is for businesses where KC principals retain ownership while operations shift; here the ownership itself sits in Colorado, and has for nearly thirty years.

What Tier 3 does not mean. It is not a verdict on the donuts, the shops, or the people who staff them at 4 a.m. LaMar’s is a genuine Kansas City creation — one of the very few local food brands this city sent out to other states under its own name — and the metro’s seven remaining shops are a living piece of that history, not a footnote to it. Ray Lamar was born here, learned the trade here, and built something here that people still drive across town for. The tier records where corporate ownership sits today. It does not rank the business, its founder, or its place in Kansas City.

Open question — local franchisee ownership. Individual LaMar’s stores operate under franchise agreements, and some franchisees are independent owner-operators rather than DHI-run. Whether any of the seven KC-metro shops is owned by a Kansas City–resident franchisee is not established by any source located for this page. If one or more are, that is a materially different local-ownership picture at store level and should be resolved before the tier is treated as settled for those specific addresses. “

Ownership and history

Year	Event
1933	Ray Lamar, 17, begins making donuts in Kansas City as a fryer at the Jack Frost Do-nut Shop3
1960	Opens the first LaMar’s Donuts at 240 Linwood Blvd., Kansas City, MO, in a converted garage and gas station65
1990	Ray and Shannon Lamar decide to franchise the brand3
1997	Majority interest in the chain bought by Franchise Consortium International of Englewood, Colorado5
2003	Ray Lamar retires; the original Linwood Boulevard store closes56
2005	Ray Lamar dies, age 895
2025–present	Brand operated and franchised by Denver-based Donut Holdings, Inc. (DHI), Matt Joslin president; ~24 locations in five states893

The corporate line between Franchise Consortium International (1997 buyer) and Donut Holdings, Inc. (present franchisor) — whether by renaming, merger, or later sale — is not established by any source located for this page. “

Links

• Official site: https://www.lamars.com
• About / company history: https://www.lamars.com/about
• Locations: https://www.lamars.com/locations-2

Sources

Verification

• High confidence: 1960 Kansas City founding at 240 Linwood Blvd.; 1933 start of Ray Lamar’s trade; 1990 franchising decision; 1997 sale of majority interest to a Colorado buyer; 2003 retirement and Linwood closure; current Denver HQ and Donut Holdings, Inc. corporate identity; the seven operating KC-metro addresses and their posted hours; menu item names.
• Outstanding: menu prices (not published first-party); the corporate chain of title between Franchise Consortium International and Donut Holdings, Inc.; whether the Quivira Road, Overland Park closure is permanent; franchisee ownership of individual KC-metro stores.

See also

• ray-lamar — founder
• boulevard-brewing — the Registry’s Tier 3 KC-founded / out-of-state-parent precedent
• doughboys-donuts-raytown · holts-donuts-grandview · slow-rise-doughnuts — locally owned KC-metro donut shops

Footnotes

1. LaMar’s Donuts — official Missouri location pages. https://www.lamars.com/locations/missouri · https://www.lamars.com/locations/missouri/kansas-city · https://www.lamars.com/locations/missouri/blue-springs · https://www.lamars.com/locations/missouri/lees-summit · https://www.lamars.com/locations/missouri/liberty — Confirms: Missouri shops serving Blue Springs, Kansas City, Lee’s Summit (two addresses) and Liberty; street addresses, phone numbers and posted hours as tabulated above. (Accessed 2026-07-31.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. LaMar’s Donuts — official Kansas location pages. https://www.lamars.com/locations/kansas · https://www.lamars.com/locations/kansas/overland-park · https://www.lamars.com/locations/kansas/mission — Confirms: Kansas shops in Mission, Overland Park and Wichita (Wichita is outside the KC metro and outside scope); Overland Park page lists two addresses, 8615 College Blvd. (4:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. daily) and 12520 Quivira Road with hours shown as CLOSED; Mission at 5901 Johnson Dr. (Accessed 2026-07-31.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. LaMar’s Donuts — “About LaMar’s Donuts” (official). https://www.lamars.com/about — Confirms: Ray Lamar began making donuts in 1933 at age 17; first LaMar’s opened in a converted gas station on Linwood Blvd., Kansas City, Missouri; more than 11,000 donuts sold in a day at the single store; Ray and Shannon Lamar decided in 1990 to franchise; ~24 locations in five states (Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska); Zagat / The New Yorker / Gourmet notice; Hallmark card; Kansas Trivial Pursuit question; Jay Leno “undisputed doughnut king of the Midwest”; production figure of 344,700 donuts per week. (Accessed 2026-07-31.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

4. LaMar’s Donuts — “Donut One Sheet Menu 2022” (official PDF, linked from the brand menu page). https://www.lamars.com/wp-content/uploads/Donut-One-Sheet-Menu-2022.pdf — Confirms: item names for Ray’s originals, cake donuts, French cruellers, Bizmarks, LaMar’s Bars, Knots, Buttermilk Bars, Cinnamon Twists, Cinnamon Rolls, Fritters and donut holes; “donuts hand-made daily,” “over 75 varieties,” “freshly roasted coffee”; 1933 Ray LaMar origin statement. Carries no prices. (Accessed 2026-07-31.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹

5. 9NEWS (KUSA, Denver) — “Ray Lamar, the Midwest’s king of doughnuts, dead at 89.” https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/ray-lamar-the-midwests-king-of-doughnuts-dead-at-89/73-344657957 — Confirms: Lamar opened his namesake shop in 1960 in an old gas station on Linwood Boulevard; the store became a Kansas City institution offering 75 varieties, up to 30 on a given day, most popular “Ray’s Original Glazed”; chain sold by its founder in 1997, when a majority interest was bought by Franchise Consortium International of Englewood, Colorado; Lamar retired in 2003; died at 89 (2005); Jay Leno’s “undisputed doughnut king of the Midwest.” (Accessed 2026-07-31.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

6. Kansas City Public Library — KC History collection, “LaMar’s Donuts.” https://www.kchistory.org/Documents/Detail/lamars-donuts/16181 — Confirms: photograph record of LaMar’s Donuts at 240 Linwood Boulevard; the building initially served as a garage and gas station and in 1960 became the original location of the doughnut shop, which grew into a regional chain; LaMar’s closed the location in 2003. (Accessed 2026-07-31.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

7. LaMar’s Donuts — “Menu” (official). https://www.lamars.com/about/menu — Confirms: no prices published on the brand site; links the downloadable sample menu; allergen/cross-contamination statement covering soy, peanuts, eggs, wheat and dairy. (Accessed 2026-07-31.) ↩ ↩²

8. LaMar’s Donuts — “Privacy Policy, Terms of Use and Confidentiality Notice” (official). https://www.lamars.com/privacy-policy-terms — Confirms: site content and marks owned by Donut Holdings, Inc. d/b/a LaMar’s Donuts; FDD available from Matt Joslin, President, at Donut Holdings, Inc., 3600 South Yosemite Street, Suite #750, Denver, CO 80222; Colorado governing law and Denver jurisdiction. First-party corporate-HQ evidence. (Accessed 2026-07-31.) ↩ ↩² ↩³

9. Arizona’s Family (KTVK/KPHO, Phoenix) — “Why a popular north Phoenix donut shop is temporarily closed,” June 23, 2025. https://www.azfamily.com/2025/06/23/north-phoenix-donut-shop-temporarily-closed-rebranding/ — Confirms: Denver-based franchisor Donut Holdings, Inc. (DHI); DHI president Matt Joslin quoted; franchise-agreement termination and a Colorado district-court restraining order against a former franchisee; LaMar’s arrival in Phoenix in 2004. Used here as outside corroboration that DHI is the current Denver-seated franchisor. (Accessed 2026-07-31.) ↩ ↩² ↩³