Get a sweet taste of nostalgia at Poppa J's Donuts/Sweet and Eats Fun Zone in Bunkie

BUNKIE – If you crave the nostalgic taste of an old-time root beer float or a banana split and want to play an old arcade game of Pac-Man or Donkey Kong, then Poppa J’s Donuts/Sweet and Eats Fun Zone in Bunkie is the place for you.

“We’ll get the old people who come and get banana splits and say ‘Oh, I haven’t had one of those in years’,” said Phyllis Villemarette.

Poppa J’s Donuts/Sweet and Eats Fun Zone isn’t one business but two separate businesses

Phyllis owns Poppa J’s Donuts with her husband Jessie and co-owns Sweet and Eats Fun Zone with her sister-in-law Tavia Ducote.

“We put both of our ideas into one and came with this,” said Ducote.

“It’s kind of unique. It’s different,” said Villemarette.

Want a donut made by hand?

Jessie gets to the shop at 3 a.m. every morning, said Villemarette.

“Everything is made fresh daily. And they're just about the only ones left that do everything by hand,” she said. Most other places now use machines to make donuts but since Poppa J’s makes them by hand, the donuts come out light and fluffy.

A lot of people notice the difference.

They are open from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. They are closed on Monday.

Ducote started Sweets and Eats Fun around the same time they moved into the building at 931NW Main Street over a year ago, but the donut shop has been a staple in Bunkie for more than 60 years, said Villemarette.

Her father-in-law Clarence Villemarette operated Bunkie Shipley’s Donuts and was known as the “Shipley’s Donut Man.” But the donut shop hasn’t been a Shipley’s for the last 10-15 years, Villemarette said. After Clarence passed away in 2016, the Villemarettes took over the donut shop business and operated it out of its old location for about 5 or 6 years.

The name Poppa J’s refers to both Clarence and her husband Jessie, said Villemarette. Everyone called Clarence “Poppa” but he also called everyone else “Poppa.”

“And my husband's name is Jessie so we just put it together as Papa J’s. That's how the name came about,” she explained.

In addition to donuts Poppa J’s serves kolaches, coffee drinks, apple fritters, and apple and peach pies just to name a few items on the menu.

Sweets and Eats has 30 flavors of snowballs, said Ducote. Those are the most popular treats right now because of the hot weather.

"We are known for the snowballs around Avoyelles Parish for sure,” she said.

And they even have people from Alexandria and the outlying areas around Bunkie who come just for the snowballs, said Villemarette.

"There are some that have snowball stands in their towns that they come here,” said Ducote.

Villemarette added that customers tell them their snowballs are better.

They have both soft serve and Blue Bell ice cream, said Villemarette.

“With the soft serve we do everything. We make milkshakes. We do cones, the ice cream dip cones,” she said.

Villemarette said they “invent a lot of stuff “ with ice cream.

“People come in and say, ‘Hey! Can you do this, this and this?’,” she said. And she tells them, “’We never did but we’re going to sure try.’”

They have a bunch of pictures of their creations on the glass wall near the counter so people can see the different things they do.

They can make waffle cone sundaes, and strawberry and caramel cheesecake sundaes.

“Those are very popular,” Villemarette said of the cheesecake sundaes.

They also have a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup sundae, said Ducote.

“Oh, that’s a good one,” said Villemarette.

They also serve regular food like chicken salad sandwiches, pulled pork barbeque sandwiches, hot dogs, nachos and Frito pie, said Ducote.

“It’s kind of like concession stand food. They’re all big sellers,” said Villemarette.

In the corner is a section where they sell party supplies. They have baked goods like cookie cakes that they bake in-house.

And they also sell jewelry.

“It’s little gift ideas” said Villemarette.

There are coin-operated rides, like the kind that used to be in front of stores, around the inside of the shop. The rides have characters both children and adults will recognize. There’s the Pink Panther, Mickey Mouse, Dumbo and Donald Duck. There’s a Batmobile. Outside near the entrance is a coin-operated horse. There's also a small merry-go-round on their patio.

In the corner are old-style arcade games. The table tops are also painted with game boards so customers can play games like checkers or dominoes.

She walks over to a game projected on the floor.

“This right here is awesome. Our projector floor game. The kids can play,” said Villemarette.

“That catches everybody's attention,” said Ducote. “We'll look around and adults are over there playing it.”

Every few minutes it changes to a different game, she added. “You play it with your feet.”

Villemarette said it’s nice because parents or the grandparents can bring little kids and they’ll have something to do.

“And everything is reasonably priced,” she said. “The little rides or games are like 50 cents.”

They also do little things for the community. During baseball season, they’ll have T-ball and little league players drop. The winning team gets free snowballs, said Villemarette.

Ducote said they decorated for Halloween and gave away free snowballs to the children.

“We try to do it for the town and kids. It keeps it fun,” said Ducote.

“We just wanted something for the small children,” said Villemarette.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Poppa J's Donuts/Sweet and Eats Fun Zone in Bunkie taste of nostalgia