KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Four family members are breaking what some people say is a cardinal rule: they’re mixing business and family.
The Sugar Queen is a whole-family affair. The business is co-owned by a mother and her three daughters — and while their father doesn’t run the business with them, he helped build it from the ground up, and bought the food truck that gave them their start.
Sisters — and co-owners — Lauri Gingerich and Staci Meyer said the Sugar Queen first started as that food truck that slowly became the brick-and-mortar Sugar Cream Creamery in 2022. They opened the Sugar Queen Doughnutry in September of this year, and they’re already working on their third location: another creamery set to open in March 2026…