Joe’s Bakery, a recently resuscitated Lawrence icon, is expanding into downtown Topeka next month with the same menu but a less ambitious schedule.

The new place – also to be called Joe’s Bakery – is moving into a 1,100-square-foot storefront at 10th and Quincy streets in the state’s capital city.

The plan is to open March 15 with all the hot glazed doughnuts, chocolate-covered long johns and plentiful lineup of sandwiches that remain a tradition in Lawrence, now that Ron and Rebecca Hall bought the Lawrence location in August and immediately established seven-days-a-week, 24-hours-a-day operations.

But Topekans and commuting Lawrencians shouldn’t make plans for late-night runs into downtown T-town. The new place will be open only from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays.

Ron Hall himself will be behind the counter, ready to tackle the expected rush of workday traffic for breakfast and lunch.

“It’s a small football game every day down here,” Hall said from the new place, the former home of Sunflower Bakery and across the street from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe building. “You’ve got 10,000 people in these buildings, every day. Once they get a parking space, they aren’t going anywhere.”

Ron Hall knows he’ll have customers, figuring that 100 from Topeka already make their way to Lawrence each week to pick up doughnuts.

The Topeka bakery is scheduled to open exactly seven months after the Halls and another couple, Kenny and Donna Tibbits, reopened Joe’s at 616 W. Ninth St. in Lawrence. The couples had bought the place with plans to restore the operation as a late-night mecca for both studious and not-so-studious Kansas University students and others.

The Halls bought out the Tibbitses’ interest in Joe’s in September.

Joe Smith opened the Lawrence bakery in 1952, and his son, Ralph Smith, kept it going through the 1990s. But a few years back Ralph Smith operated the bakery only during daytime hours and often closed it for months at a time.

Ron Hall – having quit his job driving a city recycling truck in October – is certain that expanding into Topeka, even with limited hours, is a recipe for success. He’s looking to hire three employees.

“It’s a good opportunity,” he said. “It’s right downtown. There’s nothing else down there. It’s a good deal for us.”