New business featuring funnel cakes ‘exploding with flavor’ to fill former Subway space in Rockford
By Mary Sisk
Rock River Current
Get our mobile app
ROCKFORD — Ashley and Tony Washington never planned to run a brick-and-mortar location when they started their business selling sweet-tasting funnel cakes made from scratch two years ago.
Then they saw a storefront they couldn’t pass up.
The married business duo grew up in Rockford, and as kids they often visited the downtown Subway at the corner of West State and Wyman streets. When the business closed this spring, the pair walked through the door and knew the space was the right fit for them.
“When I walked in the door I just told him, ‘This is it,'” Ashley Washington said. “This has to be the spot for us; it brought so much nostalgia.”
They plan to open TNT Funnel Cakes in the space at 201 W. State St. in September, giving a year-round home to the treats they’ve popularized through sales from their driveway, at pop-up shops and at Rockford City Market.
“We did not look for any other spot. We hadn’t even thought about opening up a storefront until that became available,” Ashley Washington said. “It was like, ‘This is speaking to me, we have to at least try.'”
More yummy things: You Gotta Try This: Rockford Roasting Company’s summer menu
The Subway closed on May 10 after the longtime owner Pam Blume decided to retire, according to the Rockford Register Star. The Washingtons purchased the space on Aug. 1, and they hope to be open by Labor Day.
They’ll use the space to experiment with new menu choices to add to the plethora of funnel cake flavors they already offer.
The business now has nearly 20 different flavors of funnel cakes, which are made from scratch with flavored batter. Some of the options include Oreo, banana pudding, apple, lemonade, blueberry and cinnamon with a variety of toppings and syrups.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Washington said. “I literally started dreaming about these things. I was waking up like ‘OK how about this flavor with this flavor.'”
(Story continues below photo)
The couple both have their roots in Rockford. Ashley graduated from Auburn High School, but Tony, 34, attended high school in Milwaukee after spending his early years here.
After college, the two lived in Greensboro, North Carolina, where Ashley learned to make funnel cakes by working at a pop-up stand, vending at flea markets and other public events.
Tony coached football and thought funnel cakes could offer a different approach to fundraising for the team.
“They needed a fundraiser, so I was like ‘well let’s try to do funnel cakes,'” Ashley Washington, 37, said. “It was really, really well-received.”
More news: Rockford Casino working to add sports book, live table games to North Bell School Road site
The couple moved back to Illinois in 2018 and often considered opening their own business.
Then in 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic spurred stay-at-home orders and gave the couple the chance to revisit selling funnel cakes.
“When COVID came around it was a bittersweet moment because everything shut down, but it also gave us the opportunity to hone in on what we felt like our niche,” Ashley Washington said. “We wanted to make sure it something that was marketable to everyone, something that everybody loved.”
They set up a booth in their driveway to sell funnel cakes in line with health regulations and found it to be a success.
The Washingtons established TNT Funnel Cakes in 2020 and began fundraising for teams who played at Swanson Park in Roscoe. They gave 20% of the proceeds to the teams.
TNT Funnel Cakes is a play on the Washington children’s names Taleya, 9, Tony Jr., who is nearly 7, and Teyona, 2.
“We were coming up with names and I was like ‘TNT.’ Then my husband was like, ‘Yeah because they’re the bomb,'” Washington said. “We just kind-of started playing on words and it was like ‘Oh exploding with flavor.'”
Also in Rockford: ‘Enjoy every moment’: Ukrainian teens get reprieve from Russian invasion in visit to Rockford
The business joined the Rockford City Market vendor list in 2021, and they’re back for a second year at the weekly event.
TNT is family-run, with their nephews and nieces working at the City Market stand and their children often found helping out or taste-testing the cakes.
“My son is gung-ho on making sure he is going to be running this business when he gets older, and my oldest daughter, she comes and she helps with the powdered sugar,” Ashley Washington said. “My youngest daughter, she’s 2-years-old, she has to try all of the funnel cakes.”
(Story continues below photo)
When the two aren’t busy at work, they’re both coaching. Ashley is the head coach for the girl’s freshmen basketball team at Freeport High School and Tony is the head football coach at Rockford Environmental Science Academy.
More: New fan trail guides you to key local places for the Rockford Peaches
Their new storefront, they said, is the result of the encouragement they got from their success selling from their driveway, at Rockford City Market and other places.
“We feel beyond blessed to have the response that we have,” Ashley Washington said. “It makes us feel like we are doing what we’re supposed to be doing.”
This article is by Mary Sisk. Email her at msisk@rockrivercurrent.com or follow her on Instagram at @maryrrcurrent
