Doughnut craze takes over D.C.

When District Doughnut made its public debut at the Metro Cooking & Entertaining Show in November, the shop earned a dubious distinction.
“We were the most ransacked booth,” says co-owner Greg Menna, citing a superlative bestowed by the CityEats blog. Within the first 30 minutes, all 400 free “bites” (a bite being half of a mini doughnut) had been handed out. Within the next two hours, all 200 of District Doughnut’s full-size pastries sold, too.

The next day at the event, Menna, co-owner Juan Pablo Segura and pastry chef Christine Schaefer tried something different, planning a “timed release” of 20 bites at regular intervals.

“Every 30 minutes, a mob scene would be at the booth,” Menna says. “Some people wouldn’t get them, and then we would be yelled at.”

Stressful situation? Yes. Bad omen? No way. As the cooking-show crowd demonstrated, there’s an appetite here for boutique-style baked goods (waning cupcake craze notwithstanding). To District Doughnut and a couple of other shops opening locally within the coming weeks, that’s sweet news.

District Doughnut, which began taking catering orders about six months ago, plans to open a brick-and-mortar location by June. Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken, the brainchild of another local trio, began catering in late 2012 and will open in Metro Center by late February. The same doughnuts-and-fried chicken concept is the focus of GBD (“golden brown and delicious”), the latest project by Neighborhood Restaurant Group’s pastry chef Tiffany MacIsaac, slated to open next month in Dupont Circle. That neighborhood has already seen the soft opening of Zeke’s D.C. Donutz, owned by TangySweet’s Aaron Gordon, which officially opens Friday.

But wait, there’s more: Dunkin’ Donuts is in the process of expanding locally (the chain announced plans to open 86 new shops in the D.C. metro area by 2020). Even restaurants are increasingly featuring doughnuts.

So what makes the timing right for this hole new frontier?

“People are reinventing them,” says Astro Doughnuts co-owner Elliot Spaisman, “using good ingredients and putting interesting twists on flavors. It’s making them more exciting.”

District Doughnut’s Menna brings up the popularity of other inventive bakeries around the country, such as New York’s Doughnut Plant (which sells a legendary creme brulee doughnut) and the even quirkier Voodoo Doughnut in Portland, Ore. (where you can get a doughnut in the shape of a voodoo doll). “Every other city has its niche doughnut spot, and D.C. doesn’t,” Menna says.

Then there’s the nostalgia. A number of locals — including Carolyn Crow, the pastry chef at Jackie’s Restaurant in Silver Spring — have warm childhood memories associated with a baker’s dozen.

“It’s comfort food,” Crow says, “and it always makes me think of when I was little and my grandparents would bring over doughnuts on Saturdays.”

Many chefs and restaurateurs who have witnessed the cupcake boom of the past several years have already considered whether doughnuts will be another short-lived craze, or if they’ll stick around as part of the area’s food scene. The trailblazers of D.C.’s doughnut scene are betting on the long view.

“Doughnuts are an American staple,” Menna says.