NOBLESVILLE — There’s a rebellion rising in Noblesville.  

Well, technically it’s the donuts doing the rising at Rebellion Donuts located at 17677 Cumberland Road in Noblesville. 

The shop opened just over two years ago by a duo of lawyers in need of a sweet escape. Since then, Rebellion has been the town’s favorite destination for donuts that are anything but ordinary.  

We’re headed to Noblesville on this trip In Your Neighborhood.      

“In our day jobs, if somebody calls me and [my business partner] John Manley, they’re trying to solve a problem,” said Rebellion Donuts co-owner, David Pumphrey. “They’re not looking for happy…This is cooler.” 

Four Things You Need to Know About Rebellion Donuts:

• Rebellion Donuts opened on Labor Day in 2018 by David Pumphrey and John Manley— two criminal defense lawyers who wanted to bring something special to Noblesville. “Everybody comes here to do something that makes them happy. How beautiful is that?” said Pumphrey.
• They offer an array of donuts from more traditional flavors like vanilla, chocolate, glazed yeast and the popular Old Fashioned but they are well-known for their highly unique offerings like the PB & J, Key Lime, Cherry Cobbler, Bubble Gum, M&M, Dreamcicle, Lemon Tart and Pumpkin Pie.
• An order of donuts is not complete without coffee and Rebellion Donuts offers their own locally-ground custom blend.
• Speaking of coffee and donuts, no trip to Rebellion Donuts is complete without trying the “Espresso Nutella Shot.” It consists of pouring a shot of espresso into their Nutella donut, then “Let it soak for a minute and then take the espresso like a shot and then eat the donut… It’s absurdly good,” explained Pumphrey.

During the day, Pumphrey and John Manley, work as criminal defense attorneys… which is a stark contrast from their other job: co-owners of Rebellion Donuts. 

But being unexpected is what they’re all about.  

“The idea of rebellion is it can be peaceful, it can be soft, it can be easy. But you can change the world by doing a small thing really well,” Pumphrey said. 

This rebellion is all about donuts. But these are not your run-of-the-mill donuts.  

These are extra large and made from natural, artisan-style flavors. 

“We’re priced aggressively for what we do. We use a lot of natural ingredients… a lot of real fruit,” he said. “We try to make sure we’re doing our job better than everyone else around here and we think we are.”

The backstory behind the donuts:

“I was riding a motorcycle across the Himalayas a couple years ago with some Navy buddies… We went through a town in the Cashmere Valley. The kids were getting out of school and I thought it’d be pretty cool to buy them all the ice cream that was in the cooler in the ice cream truck outside. So me and my buddies bought it all, gave it out to all these kids who were getting out of school. It was a pretty powerful cross-cultural thing and what a cool act of trust—to hand a stranger from a completely other life food and have them take it. That was an incredible act of trust and I wanted to recreate that in our business life and me and my partner [John Manley} talked about it and came up with the concept for the shop and John said ‘There’s no other name but Rebellion for the way we do things.’ .Well… here we are— Rebellion Donuts.”  David Pumphrey, Co-Owner of Rebellion Donuts

And since they opened their doors on Labor Day in 2018, the city of Noblesville have embraced them as the areas new favorite donut shop.

“We really loved the community,” Pumphrey said. “We’ve been welcomed into it and we wanted to give that favor back by starting our first location of Rebellion right here.”

However, one visit to Rebellion Donuts— and one bite of their product— makes it clear that the community found plenty to love.

“Sometimes I’ll come in and sit there just to watch the interactions… It’s pretty cool to watch a kid look like he’s looking at Christmas morning every day,” he said.

At Rebellion Donuts, you’ll find traditional flavors like glazed yeast, the popular Old Fashioned and a decadently iced Boston cream.  

Then, they kick it out of the park with unique options like Key Lime, bubble gum and a sweet and savory maple bacon— slathered with icing and dipped in real, crispy bacon pieces. 

They even have a PB & J donut.

“We do something really crazy with the frosting on that,” Pumphrey said. “It’s 100% peanut butter filled with real jelly so we try to do it as true to what the thing is supposed to be but make something cool into a donut.”

For a bit of nostalgia, their Dreamsicle donut will take you right back to childhood at ice cream truck. 

“It’s real fruit in the icing with real fruit bits and whipped buttercream filing,” explained Susan Gober, Rebellion’s General Manager. 

Gober also suggests the cherry cobbler donut.

“The cobbler is actually made with real donuts,” she noted. “We take Old Fashioned [donuts] and vanilla cake donuts and we dry them out, bake them with cinnamon sugar and that’s our crumble.”

But being from Massachusetts, she also has a soft spot for the Boston cream donut.

“A little Boston Tea Party here in the Hoosier state,” she said with a smile. 

But for the ultimate Rebellion Donuts experience, you’ve gotta do a shot…. as in, the espresso Nutella shot.  

“We take a yeast donut, cover it in our own cinnamon and sugar blend, then fill it with Nutella but instead of filling we make a bowl out of it,” Pumphrey explained. “You fill it with espresso, let it soak for a minute.. then take the espresso like a shot and then eat the donut… And it’s absurdly good.”

For more information about Rebellion Donuts, check out their website by clicking here. To see more photos and reviews by local Yelpers, check out their Yelp profile. You can also connect with them on social media via Facebook,

While in Noblesville, check out these other popular local businesses: 

• Urban Air Adventure Park
• Rosie’s Place
• Spencer Farm and Winery 
• A Corner Cottage 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•