March 2022 • Volume 18 • Issue 3
COVER STORY
HOW DOUGH BROKE INTO THE INDUSTRY TO BECOME THE GO-TO DOUGHNUT OF THE STARS
By Daniel Offner
Dough Doughnuts began as a small business in Bed-Stuy and in less than 10 years’ time, they grew into a city-wide favorite among celebrities, businesses, and international tourists. Their oversized brioche-style dough gives them a unique look and texture to any other breakfast pastry and many have taken notice, including people like Chrissy Teigen, Kevin Durant, Conor McGregor, Christie Brinkley, and Stephen Colbert just to name a few. They can even be seen in the hit HBO original series Billions. Steve Klein, co-owner of Dough Doughnuts, spoke with Queensborough Magazine in front of his store on 31 St. in Astoria. He said that growing up he went to school in Canarsie with worldrenowned businessman and author, Howard Schultz, who is best known as the former CEO of Starbucks. It was during Schultz’s reign as the coffee shop king that Klein first had the idea to get into the doughnut business. “What goes with coffee? Doughnuts!” Klein said. “It’s like a match made in heaven.” At the time, there had not been a national doughnut chain since 1968 when Dunkin Donuts officially went public. Klein started by seeking out a talented chef and his French partner, who he said had a top-notch product but didn’t have the vision needed to expand. The two quickly
Dough Doughnuts are not your average everyday pastry became partners and began to figure out a business plan that would help spread their unique doughnut recipe all across the city. The Dough brand began by testing their oversized doughnuts at Smorgasburg events in Brooklyn. Based on the overall reception they soon began to expand by providing their superior product in stores and local coffee shops throughout the city. Having built the business from scratch, they began to put a business plan into action, but things
The line outside Dough Doughnuts location in Manhattan
didn’t go so easy at the start. They found that they needed to balance the cost of goods and it took them time in order to learn from their mistakes before they were finally able to synergize the plan with the product. In October of 2014, they officially opened their Flatiron location at 14 W 19th Street in Manhattan. Today, this location serves as their central kitchen, where all of the doughnuts are hand-made and prepared fresh for customers to enjoy. Following the success at their other locations, they soon opened up their first Queens location in Astoria. Less than a block from Ditmars Avenue, their shop at 21-70 31st Street is located right in the heart of the Astoria community. Today they are open in five different locations spread out across the five boroughs. Klein said that when it came to the Astoria location, understanding real estate was essential. He picked his location carefully, hoping to
provide people with easy “Grab-nGo” access which made the storefront’s parking and subway access pivotal to the plan. “We’re going to be a destination,” Klein said in regards to his plans for the company. “We can’t just be a fad.” Since the company began they have grown to be the largest artisanal donut company in the city. They are open 7 days a week, 365 days out of the year, and were one of the few companies to continue to produce through the pandemic. In fact, during the pandemic Dough Doughnuts began its own donating platform, providing entire hospitals with their tasty oversized pastries for free. While we were chatting, a woman named Phyllis (@phyllissharp72) stopped by. She stops by the story nearly everyday at closing to take some unsold doughnuts to either a homeless shelter, caregiver facility, school or senior home. So, what could possibly be next for this delectable doughnut company? Currently, they are working in partnership with Nintendo to create CONTINUED ON PAGE 19
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