I found an extra doughnut.
That video series created by culinary social media influencer Alexandra Lourdes went viral in recent months as the Las Vegas restaurateur saw her social media followers skyrocket to almost 10 million, including 4.1 million on TikTok.
“Which I grew literally a million in the last two months just from this new series that I’ve been doing with ‘I found a doughnut,’” Lourdes said in August. “Isn’t that crazy? I think people just want to see fun things. They want to be entertained and I think it’s also about the community that you build on there.”
Lourdes also has amassed 2.5 million subscribers on her YouTube channel, 1.6 million followers on Instagram, and 300,000 followers on Snapchat, along with more than 1 million followers for her Cafe Lola, Saint Honore Doughnuts & Beignets, and 3 Little Chicks restaurant pages.
The massive social media following has helped fuel the success of the small-business owner, who has done big business the last eight years while expanding to eight Southern Nevada locations — four Cafe Lolas, three Saint Honores (which include Pizza Anonymous) and one 3 Little Chicks.
“That just shows how powerful social media is, and it’s so important for small businesses, especially, because it’s free,” Lourdes said. “It’s literally free advertising and you get to share the story the way you want to share it. It’s like making little commercials of yourself.
“I didn’t realize that me sharing my story as the owner of the restaurants could then end up benefiting the restaurant so much that we would have lines out the door. It was really cool to see.”
In her new series, she starts with a plain doughnut at the beginning of every video and asks her followers what to do with it.
“I get thousands of comments from people recommending things that I turn them into. Some are really silly,” she said. “I turned them into Spider Man doughnuts, for example. And they get millions of views because people really like to see the process.
“I take them along the whole journey and you’re literally in the doughnut shop with me. So it’s kind of fun. And then I follow it up with, ‘Let’s see if this crazy doughnut will sell.’ And we’ll put it out on the line with all of our other beautiful doughnuts.”
Higher education to haute couture doughnuts
Lourdes, who earned her master’s degree in health promotion and doctorate in higher education at UNLV, was teaching health classes at the school when she met her husband, Michael Santos, former COO of Raising Canes, and Lin Jerome, co-founder of the restaurants.
In 2015, Lourdes and Jerome, a UNLV law school graduate, left their jobs at the university to start an interactive marketing company called The Refined Agency. In 2018, they partnered with their restaurateur husbands — Santos and Steve Jerome, former restaurant general manager for Wolfgang Puck and Wynn Resorts — to launch Cafe Lola and, later, the Refined Restaurant Group.
“The original plan was just to open a coffee shop and work out of there and do our social media and provide a really cool space for people to come work out of and have a lot of options,” Lourdes said. “But it just became so popular that people were like, ‘We need this in Henderson.’ And then the doughnut shop opened, and then that kind of took off on its own as well.”
Cafe Lola was named Nevada’s most Instagrammable restaurant by the Food Network a year after the European-inspired, pink-accented, feminine-focused cafe opened and became known for its photogenic floral walls, neon signs and other fun photo op spots.
“When we first opened, people were coming in and taking a lot of photos. That’s when Instagram was the platform,” Lourdes said. “Now I feel like TikTok has kind of taken over. But we paved the way a little bit for restaurants on social media.”
‘Lady from the doughnut shop’
Lourdes had two social media accounts at UNLV, highlighting students and local restaurants, and Santos encouraged her to lean into it.
“She’s done a really good job of storytelling and kind of getting people worked up about what she’s doing, which is really cool,” said Santos, also CEO of Tailored Food and Beverage, a restaurant consulting company. “She gets recognized on planes. She gets recognized in Italy, Japan. People stop and go, ‘Oh my God, are you the lady from the doughnut shop?’ And they’re very excited to see her.”
Eden Roitburg, 15, an Israeli tourist who follows Lourdes on TikTok, was certainly excited to see her at the Saint Honore location on Blue Diamond Road, where they make 1,800 doughnuts daily.
“I love her so much,” Roitburg said. “The doughnuts that she makes are very special and look very tasty. She’s very happy. She’s adorable and she’s pretty and she’s a nice person to everyone.”
‘Powerful platforms’
Dr. Marla Boyce Stafford, a UNLV marketing professor and expert in sales promotion and consumer behavior, said social media has become invaluable for small businesses.
In fact, small businesses on TikTok, a short-form video sharing platform, stood to lose more than $1 billion in monthly revenue if the planned 2025 U.S. ban of the platform had gone into effect.
“A lot of people were absolutely panicking because TikTok has the best algorithms for small businesses,” Stafford said. “These social media platforms are very often what makes small businesses and allows them to compete in a very competitive world.
“Social media is one of the most powerful platforms today to reach different groups and one of the best marketing tools for businesses to use, especially local businesses. It’s much more cost efficient and cost effective compared to traditional advertising. It doesn’t cost you anything.”
Lourdes, who is on virtually every platform, said the key to social media success starts with being authentic.
“I think the more authentic you are on social media, the more people will support you, so definitely my No. 1 thing is to be authentic,” she said. “The second thing is to build a relationship with your audience. Communicate with them and answer their questions using all the tools that are available on social media. We have stories, polls, question boxes. I like to use them all.
“To me, it’s really about community building and creating relationships with your audience.”
The first Cafe Lola in Summerlin was followed by the Henderson location in November 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Lourdes started sharing more about her personal life.
“I wasn’t marketing my business. I was actually just telling my story and showing what I do for a living and I think people identified with me,” she said. “A lot of restaurants share from the business page and they’ll market their business. What I did was on my personal page.
“I said, ‘This is who I am, this is my business, this is my family, these are my health struggles. This is what it’s like owning a doughnut shop. I need to get people in here because it’s COVID and I don’t know what to do.
“And I would really involve my community in my story, and then my social media started to really take off. It was really incredible to see the community come together and support me.”
Lourdes also has a She’s In Progress podcast with Dr. Josh Redd in which she talks about navigating Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune disorder.
Turning points
Lourdes and Santos have two young daughters, Sophie and Mila. Lourdes said one video in particular she posted as a new mother during the pandemic resonated on social media.
“It was a day in my life of owning a doughnut shop as a 34-year-old mom,” she said. “At that time, I was actively working in the doughnut shop, making and decorating the doughnuts. And then I would leave and go to my car and I would pump because I had a newborn. And I then I would go back to work.
“That post got millions of views, and I got so many followers from that post because people identified with me as a mom entrepreneur. Then I started posting more day-in-the-lifestyle content.”
She also started making doughnuts for celebrities, from singers JoJo Siwa and Jelly Roll to Raiders star Maxx Crosby.
Giving back
Lourdes said she prides herself on giving back to the community, from feeding first responders and schools to supporting her fellow female entrepreneurs.
“Supporting people is part of my role as an entrepreneur, especially as a female entrepreneur,” she said. “I take it very much to heart.”
Cafe Lola recently collaborated with Mama Llama Bakery owner Lindsay Skolnik to make and sell her viral “center-bite cinnamon rolls” after the bakery was ordered to cease operations by Clark County Code Enforcement because the “porch pickup” method was not permitted in unincorporated Clark County.
“(Lourdes) reached out to me before I ever had to close because she could see the challenges I was facing trying to keep up with the incredible demand and scale production,” Skolnik said.
Lourdes also recently gave $10,000, through a partnership with Zelle, to former employee Charlyne Bolante, a UNLV alum and founder of xo, mama bakehouse in Hawaii. Bolante, a Las Vegas native and new mom, is working on opening a coffee truck on Kauai with her husband.
“Opening a small business was something I always wanted to do,” Bolante said. “So that $10,000 grant from Zelle was super helpful and it came at such a blessed time.”
Bolante, who helped open the first Cafe Lola and first Saint Honore, where she was general manager, said she learned a lot from Lourdes.
“It definitely kind of molded and shaped the way that I view my business,” she said. “She taught me it really is about being creative and about being true to yourself.”
She recalled Lourdes doing her first TikTok videos in Saint Honore during the pandemic.
“It’s been amazing to see the growth of her TikTok and social media pages,” Bolante said. “It takes a lot of courage to get in front of the camera and talk to millions of people. It’s really inspiring to see that.”
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.
