Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

ONTWA TOWNSHIP — From fresh coffee to sweet treats, the new occupants of an Ontwa Township building are preparing to excite the taste buds of local residents. 

Edwardsburg residents Chad Jankoviak and Ryan Geans are gearing up to open their donut and coffee shop Divine Dough Co., located at 25990 US-12, just outside of Edwardsburg in Ontwa Township. 

DDC will produce a variety of doughnuts in-house made using family recipes and partnered with Embassy Coffee Co. in South Bend, which will be providing the business with locally roasted coffee blends. Jankoviak said DDC will also be making its own coffee syrups and that it will have a drive thru window for ordering on the go. The duo hopes their business will provide the greater Edwardsburg community with an inviting atmosphere to bring their families to enjoy sweet treats and drinks.

Geans said the business owes its name to his wife, Theresa, who was inspired by a church sermon from Geans’ father, Robert Geans, pastor of First Pentecostal Church in Edwardsburg.

“He was preaching alignment and divine alignment,” he said. “We were tossing out names and my wife Theresa said ‘what about Divine Dough Co.?’ We were like, this is it.”

According to Jankoviak and Geans, whose families attend church together, their business partnership was born last year following the conclusion of a fast. Jankoviak – whose brother, Dustin, recently opened his own coffeehouse in downtown Niles – was looking to start his own business. Geans’ sister-in-law, a professional baker, happened to provide Geans with doughnut recipes.

“We were finishing up our fast and he said ‘hey, I got some recipes from my sister for a doughnut shop and then I’ve been thinking about that’ and then just left it at that. I was like, What was that all about? So we got together again, talked it out and here we are. It just grew from something simple.”

After putting together their business plan, the duo discovered the vacant 25990 US-12 building, formerly home to La Place for Latte, and deemed it the perfect place to set up shop.

“We saw this building and we built our dreams around this building,” Geans said. “This is the perfect location, it’s got the perfect size and it has a drive thru window, which is awesome.”

According to Geans, another prospective business had also put in an offer on the building. The duo decided to stand firm on their offer and see what comes of it. 

“The realtor got back to Chad and was like ‘they pulled their offer, it’s yours for this cost,” he said. “This was an answer to prayer. We knew then that everything aligned.”

After closing on the building last fall, Jankoviak and Gears have been hard at work preparing for the shop’s grand opening. The duo expects Divine Dough Co. to open in a few weeks and said the response from the community has been positive.

“We already have people that have come from different organizations saying ‘hey we’re good for an order of seven dozen a week,” Jankoviak said. “It’s kind of cool how that gets going.”

“The community has been incredible,” Geans said. “We have three to four people pull in everyday checking on us saying ‘are you guys open yet?’ It’s been really encouraging from the community.”