A line forms outside Ridge Donut Cafe each morning well before the sun makes its daily appearance. The demand for donuts remains strong, and the longstanding donut shop is only one of two (the other being Donuts Delite on Culver Road) in the area still making them by hand “the old fashioned way,” without automated equipment. But a commitment to tradition, a workforce spread thin and a public fanbase that made the third-generation family run business a local household name has led to a current state almost as complex and complicated as the baking process itself.
In September 2018, the global coffee and baked goods chain Dunkin’ dropped “Donuts” from its name, pivoting to an on-the-go, beverage-forward brand. The writing was on the wall back in the late ’90s and early ’00s, when the rapid growth of the company led to a shift away from donuts being made in-house. That change in the industry had ripple effects on local donut shops like Ridge Donut Cafe, not only through undercutting costs, but also diminishing a specialized workforce.
“Twenty or 30 years ago, it would be a rotating cycle of bakers,” said Joseph Olles, general manager and bakery manager at Ridge Donut Cafe. “You don’t have that anymore.”
Olles compares making donuts to learning welding…