Coming in hot: A second American Doughnut Kitchen is coming to Prahran
Melbourne’s mania for hot jam-filled doughnuts shows no sign of abating with news that American Doughnut Kitchen is opening its first bricks-and-mortar venue.
There’s cause for commotion in Melbourne as beloved institution American Doughnut Kitchen announces plans for its first bricks-and-mortar venue to open in the city’s inner suburb of South Yarra at Prahran Market in autumn. To say the small family-run business built around the concept of a hot, jam-filled doughnut has done its market research is an understatement: it’s been operating in Queen Victoria Market since 1950.
“It goes back to that ‘keep it simple stupid’ model whereby the simple things are often the most successful,” says managing director Belinda Donaghey whose grandfather Arnold Bridges co-founded the business with friend David Christie.
“It was Prahran Market that contacted us to see if we would consider opening a venue and it felt like the right time to bring joy to more people in a second location. We’re excited about the prospect of piquing the interest of even more Melburnians,” says Belinda, who like her mum, worked her first shift in the van at the age of 12.
A hole in one
Belinda who runs the business with her husband, Justin, says efficiency and customer service will remain a top priority at the Prahran Market venue. She says although the doughnut shop will be modelled on the original 1950s’ vintage van, it will serve coffee alongside its grab-and-go jam-filled options.
“Melburnians are foodies. And they’ve been buying our product since the 1950s so we believe this generational support will stand us in good stead in the new location,” she says. “We have customers all around Australia who love our doughnuts and visit us when they are in Melbourne. We have people travelling interstate to buy them and others who have requested our doughnuts on their deathbed. We’re very humbled by the fact we are as popular as we are and that so many people consider them to be a comforting treat,” says Belinda, whose teenage children also work in the business as needed.
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A knead-to-know basis
Although there won’t be seating inside the venue, the eatery is located on the edge of Market Square, which has tables and chairs for visitors to the Prahran Market to make a pit stop. Belinda says the recipe for the old-fashioned doughnuts is based on the Berliner pfannkuchen – think yeast, sugar, flour and margarine – and has remained the same since her Pa bought the business from a German confectioner after World War 2.
In Australia, Belinda believes serving the jam-filled treat hot is a concept that is unique to Melbourne and says even its nearest competitor Dandee Donuts is a spin-off opened by a former employee who decided to branch out on his own. “The popularity of our doughnuts could be as simple as the cooler weather we get down south. In winter, the doughnuts double as hand-warmers. Melburnians embrace them as a nice, sweet treat but they also appreciate the nostalgia and of course the fact they are so incomparably delicious when served hot,” says Belinda, who works behind the scenes in the business.
“Our customers are also drawn to the theatre to it. I remember I would try and catch the doughnuts after my grandfather cut them and that is something our staff still do. You’ll see it on our stories on Instagram. They’re following in Pa’s footsteps,” she says.
Something to prove
Belinda says having a bricks-and-mortar venue will offer the business more flexibility and she is experimenting with offering different flavoured doughnuts for a limited time only.
“The doughnut van doesn’t offer much scope to move outside of what we currently do – which is a simple doughnut served hot and filled with jam. And while the Prahran Market venue will be very much a production line, we do have extra space available to us, so we are toying with the idea of exploring some collaborations with other traders which will be in addition to our hero product,” she says.
As the third generation to manage the business, Belinda says her greatest thrill is when she gets to witness moments of joy for multi-generational visitors to the market. Belinda says weekends are the busiest, when the team transforms about 800 kilograms of dough across two days “into many little balls of joy for our loyal customers”. “I have very fond childhood memories of being in the van with my Pa. At home he would sometimes cover the doughnuts in cream and ice-cream for dessert,” she says.
“My parents are retired now, but they support the expansion of American Doughnut Kitchen and the fact we are continuing Pa’s legacy,” she says.
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