Doughnuts and coffee, vegan version
DID YOU hear that Dunkin' Donuts has almond milk as a dairy-free coffee alternative at three-quarters of their locations? If you didn't, that's OK, because none of those locations are near Philly.
DID YOU hear that Dunkin' Donuts has almond milk as a dairy-free coffee alternative at three-quarters of their locations? If you didn't, that's OK, because none of those locations are near Philly.
"Greater Philadelphia region is not currently one of the markets" with almond milk, a representative told me, though the company does "anticipate this market will offer almond milk in the future."
When in the future? Could be, I was told, as early as "some point in 2015."
Next year? Dude, by that time Philly may have its own homegrown spot for coffee with animal-free creamers and vegan doughnuts!
Yeah, you heard me. I'm talking about Dottie's Donuts, an all-vegan start-up whose wares have been showing up in more locations around Philly lately. I tried them a few months back at Grindcore House, in South Philly, but they're also at seven other joints around town: Milk & Honey, Mariposa Food Co-Op and Satellite, in West Philly; two of three Green Line Cafes; Elixr, in Center City; and Keystone Mini-Golf and Arcade, in Fishtown.
Founded by Matt Quinn and Jeff Poleon, two guys working at Blackbird Pizzeria, the company delivers to these places each weekend and has already won a following for its mix of doughnut basics - vegan style - with outrageous, and outrageously good, flavor combinations.
And the number of devotees is growing.
"Every weekend," Poleon said in a phone interview, "we've been taking samples to new cafes. But now people are starting to come to us . . . which is great."
Poleon and Quinn are looking toward a five-day-a-week schedule within the next couple months.
So why "Dottie's"? Quinn explained that Dottie was his grandmother. Ah. Big doughnut maker, of course?
"No, not particularly," he said, "it just sounded right, naming it after her."
Poleon chimed in, "Better than Theresa's Donuts - my grandmother's name."
The two met at Blackbird and cooked up their hole scheme with the help of their boss, Mark Mebus. "He's been a huge help," said Poleon. "When we were first talking about this last winter, he made a batch of his own vegan doughnuts for us to try - in fact, our car ended up getting stuck in the snow just so that we could taste his recipe."
The two are not doughnut obsessives, by any means.
"Of a few options we considered, doughnuts seemed like the most feasible, practical thing to do," Poleon said.
They've already put a distinctive stamp on this territory. This is partially because there is "pretty much an open market" for a vegan doughnut company, although there are other vegan bakeries in the area. It's also because of their creative flavor combos.
"That's the fun part, once we'd worked out the basic dough recipe: Looking at websites, finding [inspiration in] something that's completely nondoughnut, maybe a coffee drink," said Poleon. "We tend to kind of nerd out about flavor pairings in general."
They wound up with doughnuts that aren't just "good enough" as a credibly veganized junk food. They also hold their own against any bakery's creations.
From blueberry-coconut to chocolate-coffee-cardamom, strawberry-basil to cherry-cola, and an Elvis-themed treat with peanut butter, banana, vegan bacon and chocolate - their most successful flavors add a taste-based zing to the basic pleasure of a doughnut with your coffee.
A key concern with a vegan product, Poleon noted, is monitoring store-bought add-ins. As for a recent blowup over an area company's "vegan" confections with apparently nonvegan sprinkles, he offered that "doing something at a high volume, buying and combining things . . . it's tricky. People can change ingredients on you, so you really gotta keep on top of 'em. When we started, we were Googling the hell out of everything we were going to have to source."
As they grow, "we'll eventually be doing filled doughnuts, cake doughnuts," Poleon promised. And looking to early 2015 to establish a storefront "ideally around West Philly," their home neighborhood, but also a different part of the city than Grindcore, which created and still owns the Philly vegan coffeehouse concept.
When they have a brick-and-mortar location "without trying to be another Grindcore," Poleon said, they do expect to offer basic coffees to go with the doughnuts and, of course, "a bunch of milk-free creamers."
Fair warning, Dunkin': One of those may well be almond. Better get the lead out!
writer, musician and 12-year vegan.
"V for Veg" chronicles plant-based
eating in and around Philadelphia.
@V4Veg on Twitter.