Stan's Donuts & Coffee To Open Saturday In Orland Park

ORLAND PARK, IL — Stan's Donuts & Coffee is officially opening in Orland Park on Saturday, Dec. 5. The newest location will be the second in the franchise to have a drive-thru, and the first to open in the southwest suburbs, according to founder Rich Labriola.

On Thursday morning, the business owner was joined by staff, the mayor of Orland Park, Keith Pekau, and village trustees to cut the ribbon and officially welcome the business to town. See the ribbon cutting and take a look at the inside of the new location, below.

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In October, Labriola told the Village Board of Trustees they planed to open the newest location by the end of the year. As anticipated, Stan's is now located at the former PDQ building at 15646 S. La Grange Road.

"Orland was always a wish of ours to open in. Then we found the old PDQ restaurant with a drive-thru and ... this is a really great location for us to be in," Labriola said. "For us, the first south suburban spot was always going to be Orland Park. We started this process before COVID and then had to stop and start again. We're excited to finally be here."

Stan's initially planned to remodel the 3,309-square-foot location, with the possibility of pushing the opening date to the spring if necessary. Labriola told Patch that each new location's design is more creative than the last.

"I design stores for the market that they're in. Chicago and Rush is a very sleek and European style store, Damien Avenue is our first store, and the design has changed dramatically from that," Labriola said. "The Orland Park location is called Stan's Donuts & Coffee, instead of 'Stan's Donuts,' like our other locations. We're really more than just donuts, and we want to evoke that with our designs."

Opening during a pandemic is challenging for most businesses, but Labriola said he anticipates Stan's will do well in Orland Park, since the Oak Brook Terrace location has done very well with its drive-thru. He also said the Chicago locations are not doing as well as they normally would due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Business in the city is challenging right now. Our Oak Brook Terrace store has had a really good year but the rest of our stores have not," Labriola said. "We have two stores in malls and the rest in cities ... it's challenging. Very challenging."

"You have to kind of guess when things will go back to normal. Which is what are doing here. We don't want to open something when everything goes back to normal. We want to open when we are starting to go back to normal so when we get there, whether it is a year from now or more, we are already established," Labriola said.

"People are still living their lives and I read a statistic that only 30 percent of people are affected by the pandemic ... but if you're in the food business it's 100 percent of people affected. We're fortunate because we have multiple locations ... but for single owners in the city, they've got some huge problems that they may not overcome."

The business offers a variety of donuts, from old-fashioned to lemon pistachio. They also offer different kinds of coffee, such as cold brew, iced and hot. As an opening promotion, Stan's is offering their "free donut for life" to one of the first 100 customers on opening day, according to Labriola.

"Somewhere along the line this Saturday, someone will pick 'the golden donut' and they'll win free donuts for life, which is one of our highest price donuts, once a month," Labriola said. "The excitement behind it is that it is for life."

Labriola said he and staff are excited to get the new location open and think customers will be pleased with the look of the newest location and what it has to offer.

"If you don't know Stan's Donuts, I think you will be surprised when you walk in," Labriola said. "We keep making stores that are more beautiful than the last one, and this is the same. There are elements here that you won't see in any other location. You will open your eyes and see, it truly is more than just a donut shop."