Two of Carlisle's most popular businessmen are seeing their latest concept sell like hot cakes.

Hundreds of the freshly-produced sweet treats at the new Bruce and Luke Coffee and Donuts cafe were snapped up within three hours on the opening day.

Chef Alex Slee was back in the open-plan kitchen by 5am yesterday to increase production, making more than 350 soft doughnuts by hand for hungry customers popping into the Abbey Street operation.

The new venture has taken over the ground floor of The Guild and is the latest business interest for Bruce Brown and Luke Jackson, who also own the popular Foxes Coffee Lounge on the opposite side of the cobbled street.

The Guild, previously a former student union building and warehouse, is now a co-working centre which allows people to hire out hotdesks, office space and conference facilities. It is owned by Luke's parents Jacqui and Keith.

Bruce and Luke have relocated their successful coffee roasting operation to the concept cafe.

Luke, 28, said: "The idea started in January when I was in York and I saw a doughnut stand and thought it was a great way to sell coffee to customers.

"We put the idea out on Facebook and we got some high-energy excitement back about it so we decided to look into it more.

"Alex, our head chef at Foxes, has taken up a role of executive chef and developed his recipe for the doughnuts. We honestly thought this would be an add-on to what we already do but the first few days have been mind-boggling."

He added: "Our coffee roasting is here. We've put it behind a glazed wall because people want to know more about what we do and want to see how we roast the coffee.

"They get the chance to stop, take a seat and have a look while enjoying a coffee and doughnut now."

Bruce and Luke, who took over Foxes in 2011, started their coffee roasting business in 2014.

Chloe Chapman, of Botcherby, has been popping in on her way to work at the People First Conference Centre.

She said: "I work at Milbourne Street and so I literally walk past here four days a week. I usually pop into Foxes for my morning coffee.

"We bought a selection of nine doughtnuts on the first day. They went down a treat."

Chloe added: "It is good to see these guys doing it, rather than a big chain."

Colleagues Beth Wilson, Codie Slessor and Amy Rose, from Wragg Mark-Bell Solicitors on Castle Street, made their first visit on Wednesday.

Beth, from Whitehaven, said: "Someone from work mentioned this place had opened so we decided to come and give it a try."

Luke said: "On our opening day, our first customers were two police officers at 5am. We couldn't do them a doughnut because we were just opening up, but they went away with some coffee."