If there is such a thing, you could say that Ramzi and Halla Rabah have doughnuts in their blood.

Halla, who was born and raised in Mechanicsville by Lebanese parents, grew up in the industry, as her parents co-owned the now defunct Golden Donuts in Richmond, then purchased the old-school Varina doughnut shop Country Style Donuts in 1984. Her family still owns the original Country Style Donuts, where Ramzi worked as an employee before opening another West End location with his in-laws in 2014.

While jointly owning Country Style in the West End with Halla’s parents ultimately didn’t work out, it led the Rabahs to strike out on their own; in September, the Rabahs opened Donuts Company on Midlothian Turnpike just east of North Courthouse Road.

“We’ve just been overwhelmed with the customers of Chesterfield welcoming us,” says Halla, sitting at a table with Ramzi in their North Chesterfield storefront.

Initially connected through a dating website while Halla was living in the United States and Ramzi was working in the United Arab Emirates, the two eventually met in Lebanon in December 2006; they married the following August.

“We hit it off right away,” says Halla, comparing their nuptials to the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” given the large size of their families.

After Ramzi moved to the United States, he began working for Halla’s parents at Country Style. There, he says, customers would inquire if they had any plans to open a location in Chesterfield. Now the Rabahs are looking to make everyone happy with a similar recipe and output.

“No competition with the in-laws,” Ramzi says. “New market, new place, and we found a good location at the same time.”

Every day, Ramzi and another employee work from midnight into the early morning to create all of the eatery’s roughly three dozen varieties of cake and yeast doughnuts by hand.

“Everything is hand-cut, everything is fresh daily,” says Ramzi. “It takes a lot of time to do it. You’re going to have to mix it, cut it, let it rise for a certain amount of time, fry it, fill it.”

In the realm of doughnuts, there are two schools of thought: cake and yeast. The former are firmer with a cakey interior that’s made with sweet dough leavened with baking powder. The latter – also known as raised – are light, airy and made with yeast dough, which is then cut into shape and fried. Because creating cake doughnuts just entails mixing the batter and frying it, Ramzi says it only takes 15 minutes to create a batch from start to finish; yeast donuts, on the other hand, take six to eight hours.

“Cake, it doesn’t take much time. You mix it and you fry it,” Ramzi says. “With the yeast, it’s a different process, and it takes a lot of time. It takes training.” Presently, Ramzi makes 80 to 90 pounds of doughnuts most days, and says he’d like to increase his output.

“It should be more than that,” says Ramzi, who personally favors sugar crullers. “You gotta sell a lot of doughnuts to make a profit.”

In addition to a wall’s worth of doughnuts, the Rabahs also sell massive apple fritters and cinnamon rolls that are the size of dinner plates.

“That’s how it should be, actually. It’s big, it’s fit for more than one. You can feed a family,” says Ramzi of the giant rolls and fritters. “People love it, and it’s cheap, too.”

To complement their fried delicacies, Donuts Company also offers coffee, iced coffee, hot chocolate, ice cream and milkshakes.

Halla, who often handles front-of-house duties and the register, says that with the store’s design – which includes a faux-brick wall and kids area – they “wanted to see how much love and positive energy we could put into this place.”

“It’s good for everyone; one place that everyone can come to,” she says.

Overall, Ramzi wants people to know that he cares about customer satisfaction and quality control, working 17-hour days and personally overseeing the production of every single doughnut.

“I’m here every day,” Ramzi says. “I don’t like for any doughnut to come out of the kitchen if I don’t approve it. I don’t want to have a manager.” ¦

Donuts Company is located at 11001 Midlothian Turnpike, 23235. Phone: 464-2912.