For foodies near and far, Somerset has long been synonymous with Amon’s Sugar Shack.

Founded originally as Dixie Lee Donut in 1950 by Abraham Lee before being sold and renamed Amon’s Bakery a year later, the confectionery and restaurant has long been known for its more than 70 varieties of donuts made by hand daily.

Also highly regarded are its cream cheese danishes (a personal favorite of current owner Doug Stephens), hamburgers, omelets and Thanksgiving dinners on Wednesdays. Amon’s has even drawn praise from “Southern Living” magazine, which in October 2005 listed the bakery as No. 1 in its “204 Food Finds Across the Region.”

And Kentucky-based journalist/author Gary P. West included it in his 2006 book “Eating Your Way Across Kentucky: 101 Must Places to Eat.”

“You’ve got to love what you do and do it well,” said Stephens, 69, who inherited the business from his parents Amon and Rosemary in the late 1990s. “We’re blessed to have bakers and cooks that take a lot of pride in what they do. You don’t make it 70 years without good people working for you.”

The sustained success has come despite the bakery moving several times in its seven decades of operation. First tucked back amongst the pool halls of Zachary Way, a once-notable alleyway that’s since yielded to the city’s judicial center plaza, Amon’s lasted at the location until a fire in the mid 1950s.

In 1958 the bakery bought Pulaski Bakery and moved to East Mount Vernon Street where they began baking hamburger buns and other homemade breads.

“My parents inherited some great bakers at that location who helped with teaching new recipes and expanding the bakery’s menu,” said Stephens. “Mom and dad already knew a lot about the doughnut business, but their knowledge grew exponentially when they got to East Mount Vernon Street.”

In 1999 the bakery bought out a business called “The Sugar Shack,” absorbing its name in the process. Eventually the newly minted Amon’s Sugar Shack landed at its current location, inside a building it shares with a gas station and Domino’s Pizza along US 27, in 2007.

“We’ve been in a lot of different locations over the years, but most of those were just satellites to the main business,” said Stephens. “We’ve consolidated back to just the one location now and it’s doing really well for us.”

Despite the various locations, menu changes and other twists and turns along the way, Stephens says he’s grateful to be a small part of his family’s 70-year legacy with Amon’s and the city of Somerset. With plans to eventually pass the business down to his nephews Brian, 47, and Daniel Stephens, 37. he looks forward to the Amon’s legacy continuing for years, if not generations, to come.

“To me the bakery has always been home,” said Stephens. “Even when I went to Lexington for college, the first place I’d go when I came home on the weekends wasn’t the house, but the bakery. To this day I get the same secure and comfortable feeling walking through the front doors there as I did way back then.”

Where: 1900 US Highway 27 #13, Somerset

Hours: Monday-Thursday 5 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Friday 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 5 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 7 a.m. to noon

Online: AmonsBakery.com