Cinnamon roll empire in Pismo Beach started with a simple bread mix and a little girl’s request

Head down Dolliver Street toward the Pismo Beach Pier, take a deep breath and enjoy the sentimental scents of old town: Surf, sand and the enticing aromas of cinnamon and caramel from the busy Old West Cinnamon Rolls shop.

Since 1981, the sweet treats have been flowing out of the busy bakery at 861 Dolliver.

For decades, people have lined up around the block at the shop, enticed by the aromas and the brand’s reputation, built fresh-baked roll by roll over the years.

It’s worth the wait, the customers say, to get their chance to choose between the classic, softball-sized sticky buns as is or with optional extras on top.

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Many repeat customers already know about the taste, from visits to the store or at one of many fairs across the country where Old West has set up booths for a half century plus.

What isn’t as immediately evident is the evolution of the tasty treats and the unlikely history of the corporation and its beloved rolls.

It all started in the 1970s with Betty Parkhurst’s add-water-only mix for making yeast-raised bread.

Cinnamon rolls can be topped with icing or other add-ons

At about 8 ounces each, Old West’s made-from-scratch cinnamon rolls can be a hefty meal plus, so the shop doesn’t mess around with a menu of eggs, burritos or other items.

“All our cinnamon rolls are handmade and can vary in size and shape a bit,” said Joseph “Joe” Parkhurst, now Old West’s co-owner and CEO of parent company Payo Labs. “I think an original roll without frosting is in the 800-calorie range, but frosting adds to that,” he said of the basic $3.50 sweets, without add-ons.

“In the past 12 years, we’ve raised prices twice, each time by 25 cents. Owning our own factory to produce the mix helps keep our costs down,” he said of the family’s 5,000-square-foot facility.

For a buck or so more extra, people can chose from lots of options they can add to the rolls’ baked-on caramel coating. Some rolls already have nuts baked into the sweet stuff on top.

Toppings include satiny cream cheese, vanilla, caramel and maple-flavored frostings, or a seasonal strawberries-and-cream icing. Customers also can order their rolls topped with cherries, Hershey’s syrup, caramel syrup or crispy maple bacon.

Their most popular product among all the choices? “The original cinnamon roll with cream cheese icing,” Joe said.

Making the rolls takes lots of good stuff

It takes 27 pounds of dough, 3 pounds of trans-fat-free margarine, 12 pounds of sugar and a third of a pound of cinnamon to make a full batch of his mom’s rolls, he said, adding there are no eggs or milk in the blend.

“The log of cinnamon rolls is about 16 feet long, so we have to double it back on itself before we cut” the pastries, Joe said, because the shop’s wooden baker’s table is only 14 feet long.

The rolls are so big, they’re baked in pans of only nine so they cook through without burning the caramel on the bottom.

Old West’s bakers sprinkle about 2 tons of Indonesian cinnamon a year over the doughs, Joe said, and the factory goes through “about a ton of yeast each month or two, depending on the season.”

There’s history in every Old West bite

How did a Seattle teacher create a Central Coast breakfast-roll powerhouse and business legend?

After the Washington economy tanked when Boeing and Lockheed Martin went into a slump in 1972, Betty Parkhurst moved back home to the Central Coast with husband Edgar Parkhurst and youngest son Joe Parkhurst, who was still in school.

Their twins, John and Jim, and daughter Linda didn’t move south with the family, as they were young adults already establishing their own lives. For instance, Jim was in Vietnam in the U.S. Army.

Soon after the move, Edgar developed a wasting disease, and times were tough for the young family. Eventually, he went into a convalescent home and died in 1985.

Betty’s yeast bread, made with unbleached flour, soy flour and wheat bran, was so popular in their neighborhood, the 44-year-old teacher and artist decided to go public with it to make some money.

She converted her recipe to create a bread mix she could sell at county fairs and special events.

It apparently was the first bread mix on the market to include dry, instant activated yeast, Joe said, which made it easier for home bakers. All they had to do to make two loaves of bread was add water, shape, let them rise and bake.

“It’s so easy to give your family good bread when you serve Homebaked,” the mix’s label said.

After test-marketing Old West Grain Blended Homebaked Bread Mix baked goods by baking and giving out free samples at the Laurel Lane Williams Brothers in San Luis Obispo, Betty debuted it at the short 1973 Cinco de Mayo celebration in Grover Beach.

Sales of the mix lagged.

“That lasted a day,” her son said with a smile. “Then we began selling fresh-baked dinner rolls for 25 cents and small loaves of bread for 75 cents. Response was tremendous,” and the aroma of baking bread drew in customers by the dozens.

To spur lagging sales, Betty began baking bread and dinner rolls right there in the booth, using them as samples.

After the Grover Beach success, Old West baked and sold at the Santa Barbara County Fair in Santa Maria and the Mid-State Fair.

“After that, Betty was booking every fair she could, trying to take advantage of her ‘lucky’ yet somehow brilliant idea of baking fresh bread at the fair and selling it,” Joe said. “I was still in high school so I worked any event that did not conflict with my school schedule.”

Then came the pivotal Old West moment

In 1975, the young daughter of another fair vendor asked Betty for “something sweet or a cinnamon roll,” Joseph said, “We’re not sure which it was, because Mom told the story both ways for years.”

The resulting sticky cinnamon rolls quickly became the sell-out cornerstone of the company’s success, but Old West continued selling the bread mix.

The unchanged mix is still available today for $5.50 per 2-pound bag at the bakery, online and at the fairs.

In 1981, eight years after the Cinco de Mayo launch, the family opened their 2,250-square-foot Pismo Beach shop but kept selling at the fairs.

A few years later, Betty married family friend and helper Ernie Clemens, who died about a decade ago.

Eventually, the Old West legend expanded into a booming baking empire to include fairs all across the country.

Today, they also sell the Old West mix wholesale to a few other businesses, such as Crill’s Salt Water Taffy and Old West Cinnamon Rolls in Morro Bay and Lillie Mae’s Cinnamon Rolls on Cannery Row in Monterey.

To make cinnamon rolls out of the bread mix, home and pro bakers spread their own butter or margarine on the rolled-out dough, then top with cinnamon and some sort of sweetener (sugar, honey, etc.), Joe said. They also can add eggs to the dough mix if they want a lighter roll.

The fair booths helped shape the business

“Selling rolls at California fairs for over 50 years has greatly contributed to the success of our Pismo location,” Joe said. It’s been a “mega advertising campaign” for the shop.

They’ve sold at fairs in Minnesota, Texas, Oklahoma, Idaho, Oregon, Arizona, Washington state and, of course, California.

“Today, we sell mainly in California and have one show in Yuma, Arizona,” he said.

Current fair gigs include the Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles (going on now), the Bakersfield Home and Garden show, the Kern Sportsmen show and the Yuma County Fair, plus other county fairs in King City, San Diego, Orange County, Santa Maria, Monterey, Ventura, Madera and Tulare.

Depending on the fair, “we can make thousands of rolls in a day,” Joe said. “Our biggest fair, surprisingly, is in Yuma, followed closely by Bakersfield.”

Old West used to set up at more shows, but brother Jim, who’d left his high-tech Silicon Valley job to join the family business in about 1981, died in 2019 from throat cancer.

While the family mourned, Betty and Joe had to divvy up Jim’s duties between them. They had to cut back.

It’s a family corporation, and they like it that way

“At least once a year someone tries to buy the business from us,” Joe said. “But I have no interest in selling. This is a family business.”

Betty “lives in her own house in Pismo Heights with her dog and a fulltime caregiver,” Joe said. Until the Covid 19 pandemic, “she was still going to the bakery every day … and (at 95), she keeps telling me she can come anytime to help if I need it.”

Joe is Old West’s majority stakeholder now.

“My mom still retains a big chunk but is long retired,” her 67-year-old youngest son said.

His wife, Cindy, 70, is corporation secretary, and “has a huge say in day-to-day operations at the bakery,” Joe said. “She is an awesome people manager, and after working with me so many years at fairs, knows the cinnamon roll business backwards and forward.”

Their son Jeffrey Parkhurst, 39, is the CFO, running the fair circuit and keeping things running at the bakery. Daughter Alexis Parkhurst, 42, works with Jeff managing concessions at fairs.

They all live in San Luis Obispo County, continuing the Old West tradition started by a go-getter teacher born at the end of the Great Depression.

With the help of two of her kids and now two grandkids, Betty Clemens Parkhurst created a 50-year cinnamon-roll empire and legend, based on a bread mix and a fateful request from a little girl who just wanted something sweet to eat at the fair.

After serving a half century of dedicated or curious customers, Old West just keeps rolling along.