Customers lined the tall windows facing High Street, talking over donuts and coffee. Spring sunlight sparkled in Jimmy Barouxis’ brown eyes and off his dark beard. He seemed comfortable in his worn Buckeye Donuts T-shirt. He wears one almost every day.

Buckeye Donuts has been in his family for more than 40 years.

Barouxis, 34, inherited the donut shop from his father, who took over for his father. Barouxis’ grandparents emigrated from Greece and opened up shop in 1969.

“This is kind of like the immigrants’ dream … the physical embodiment of their dream,” Barouxis said, admiring the restaurant, which seats about 24. “It’s very important to me that it has the history that it has.”

Pieces of history cover the walls. A Beatles poster hangs on the wall next to an advertisement for the original “Star Wars.” These share space with legends, such as Woody Hayes and James Dean, who look down on customers as various in background as the décor.

Barouxis’ personality comes through in the restaurant’s atmosphere.

“Everybody’s crazy about him,” said his mother, Toula Barouxis.
“Even when my husband was alive, I always wanted him to be in the store because everybody loved him.”

This has helped the shop get through some tough times, like the 1990s.

“Everyone was diet crazy,” Jimmy Barouxis said, rolling his eyes.
“And then they found that bagels make people just as fat because they’re loaded with carbs. My dad was saying that the whole time.”

Jimmy Barouxis remembered how frustrated his father was at the time.

“These kids, they don’t like our donuts no more,” Jimmy Barouxis said, imitating his father’s Greek accent. “They like the bagels, but the bagels make them look fatter. They look like a sack of potatoes.”

Even though carrying on the family legacy wasn’t his dream, he started getting more involved at the shop.

“I wanted this place to survive,” he said.

Others have been drawn to Buckeye Donuts, too.

“I was hanging out here for two or three months pretty consistently,” said Joshua Narem, a first-year in textiles and clothing and a recent hire at Buckeye Donuts. “He (Barouxis) saw that I really liked the place.”

Narem was hired three weeks ago when Jimmy Barouxis asked him to write down his information on the back of an order ticket.

“Most people who end up working here were regulars to begin with and then we just needed help,” said Nora Rice, 26, Jimmy Barouxis’ fiancée who also works at the shop.

Even with the help of his dedicated employees, the shop keeps Jimmy Barouxis busy.

“It keeps me on my toes,” he said. “I have a little fire under my behind.”

When he can get away from the business, there are two things he enjoys doing.

“I like to go to the bookstore,” he said. “I go by myself. It’s like my little peace time.” The quiet of the bookstore is a big change from the clang and clatter of the kitchen.

He enjoys mostly academic reading, history and business, but there’s still a kid inside him.

In a secret safety deposit box somewhere lie copies of Batman comics from the early 1940s.

“I’m a little bit of a dork,” he said, shrugging.

Considering he runs a donut shop, he also insists on exercise.
His goals always seem to guide his choices.

“I need to have good health in order to do what I want to do long term,” Jimmy Barouxis said. He plans on working well into his 70s, he said.

He also finds escape in his fiancé and their 1-year-old son, George.
“I love my family very much,” he said. “It’s the most important thing, really.”

Even his romantic life cannot be entirely separated from Buckeye Donuts, though.

“Guess where I met her,” he said, smiling.

Rice had been in Buckeye Donuts before, but one late Friday night was different, Jimmy Barouxis said.

“I’d never seen her dressed up,” he said, laughing as she eyed him from behind the counter.

“So she walks in and first thing I say is, ‘Wow, you look hot,'” he said quietly, watching in case she was still listening.

Six-and-a-half years later, they have a son and are getting married on June 12.

“I guess that’s how life is, you never know what’s going to happen,” Jimmy Barouxis said.

Plans for Buckeye Donuts, like his family, continue to grow.

“Sometimes I look too far in the future,” he said, “to the point where it drives me crazy.”

His family is aware of his passion.

“He can be kind of intense,” Rice said.

Where his passion will take him in the future, he’s not sure. But it will
involve Buckeye Donuts.

“I like to work a lot,” he said. “It’s a compulsion almost.”