Fall colors make people want to get out of the house. If you live between Chicago and Detroit, I have a suggestion for a delicious road trip. It involves doughnuts.
Sweetwater’s, The Doughnut Between Cheap And Chic
My friends who grew up in Kalamazoo, Mich., knew all about Sweetwater’s Donut Mill. They rhapsodized about the six free doughnuts you got on your birthday, if you purchased six.
Best of all, the stores were open 24 hours, making them ideal for a late-night stop. (Okay, for some people, they were drunk food.)
But coming from the other side of the state, I didn’t know about Sweetwater’s until it was featured in Saveur Magazine in 2009. The magazine effused over its “colorful, gooey pastries” and 55 rotating varieties.
So, I detoured on a trip from Ann Arbor to Chicago to find it. I hunted down one of the two Kalamazoo shops, and thought the doughnuts were tasty, but the store’s location a few miles from I-94 wasn’t convenient enough to make Sweetwater’s a regular habit.
Then, a Kazoo native told me about the Sweetwater’s at the Capital Avenue exit in Battle Creek, closer to Ann Arbor, in a strip mall next to the freeway. That’s when I became began exploring its lineup.
Sweetwater’s Sells A LOT Of Doughnuts
Sweetwater’s doughnuts straddle the line between cheap and chic. They’re far higher quality than Dunkin Donuts or something you’d find in a grocery store. But, with most flavors costing $1.09 each, or six for $5.99, you can fill up a box for what you’d pay for two big city hipster doughnuts.
Most people buy in multiples, explains Tricia Garner, Sweetwater’s general manager and a member of the family that founded the shops in 1983. Making donuts in big quantities “helps us cut down on costs, and we are able to pass the savings on to our customers,” she says.
Sweetwater’s typically sells about 4,000 doughnuts per day per store, which means 12,000 doughnuts daily, or something close to 84,000 a week. The company doesn’t give out its revenue or profit numbers. But by doing a back of the envelope calculation, I’m betting that’s a healthy top line.
And, that’s even with the doughnuts they give away free — like those little birthday presents.
Quality Matters, Even With Icing
Yes, on my birthday in August, I drove to Battle Creek. It was one of my first longer outings during the pandemic. When I got off I-94, and went inside, I took my time looking over the multiple cases. I felt like Holly Golightly visiting Tiffany’s.
There were classic doughnuts, like cinnamon sugar and plain, and plump filled donuts, such as Boston Cream Pie, peanut butter and jelly, and s’mores, and fancies, which cost a little more.
One case held Sweetwater’s version of a cinnamon roll, as big as your face, and another something called a twist, easily as long as your forearm. There also were trays of doughnut holes, about the size of hush puppies in a decent Southern kitchen.
“We try to appeal to the widest fan base,” says Tricia.
As I was deciding, I watched a clerk casually remove a partial tray of New York Cheesecake – cream cheese filling with strawberry icing – and toss the remaining donuts in the trash. She didn’t like how the icing looked, she explained, and didn’t want customers to get flawed donuts. She replaced them with new ones that did seem prettier.
Back in my car, I picked up my favorite doughnut, chocolate glazed, and bit into it. The cake part was as chocolatey as actual chocolate cake, while the glaze was light and sweet. It was tender, and didn’t leave behind that slick shortening feeling that you can get on the roof of your mouth. (You can hear me talk about it on the latest episode of our podcast.)
The Kalamazoo stores remain open 24 hours, while Battle Creek is now open 5 am to 10 pm (be sure to factor that in to your I-94 trip). They’ve just rolled out their fall doughnuts, including spicy pumpkin, and you can get a cup of locally made cider to go with them.
COVID-19 has meant some sanitary changes, like limiting dining room capacity and requiring customers to wear masks to enter. And there are no longer shelves holding customers’ personal coffee mugs.
But Sweetwater’s will sell you one of its mugs, or a t-shirt, and all the doughnuts you can fit into your car. You’ll get a warm welcome, Tricia says. “We couldn’t be more excited than when someone stops by to visit us from out of town.”
A Perfect Cookbook For Fall
Nancy Singleton Hachisu
Fermented foods are becoming a big, big food trend. And fall is naturally a time when people are canning and freezing for the winter.
Having lived in Japan, and as a lover of Japanese food, I’ve always been intrigued by Japanese methods of preserving. So, when I spotted this cookbook on the Coutelier website, I had to have it.
Author Nancy Singleton Hachisu does a beautiful job walking cooks through the different Japanese methods for preserving foods, whether fruits, vegetables or even fish.
You will find recipes for items you have eaten in Japanese restaurants, like ume (sour plums), pickles and daikon, to less-familiar dishes like zucchini and melon.
You can make these in small batches, so if you have a little trepidation about these new methods, you aren’t over committed to 20 jars of turnips you’ll never eat.
The link with the book goes to Kitchen Arts & Letters, the beloved culinary bookstore in New York City. I’ve stayed in its Carnegie Hill neighborhood many times, and often popped in to browse and find ideas.
They, like many indie book stores, need your support.
So, collect your ingredients, try Japanese preserving, and omedeto gozaimasu for being willing to experiment.
CulinaryWoman Of The Week
When I joined the staff of NPR’s Here and Now in 2016, one of the first people I wanted to meet was Kathy Gunst. She is the show’s resident chef, and she does a terrific job of talking about food on the radio.
You’d think that would be easy, but it’s much harder than it sounds. The listener has to visualize and also gauge whether a recipe is something they want to track down and try.
Well, we had it easy in another way at the show, because Kathy brought in her dishes for the hosts to taste. That means we staff members got the leftovers.
Of course, Kathy and I became instant friends, and I picked up lots of tips from her, especially when it came to roasting.
I just made a batch of one of her latest recipes for roasted tomato sauce, and if you plan to put up tomatoes this fall, I recommend trying it. When strawberries return in spring, look up her recipes for roasting those, too. (Yes, roasted strawberries.)
Kathy is a James Beard Award winner for Home Cooking and a two time broadcast nominee. Her latest cookbook, Rage Baking, written with Katherine Alford, came out earlier this year, just before the pandemic.
The book caused controversy over who actually owned the title, or whether it could be owned at all. It sparked an uncomfortable but illuminating conversation. You can hear Kathy talking about the book on this episode of 5 Things With Lisa Birnbach.
In all her work, Kathy makes recipes approachable, and convinces readers and listeners to try them, which is really what authors hope for most.
When I read and hear her, I also feel she’s a talented ambassador for her native Maine. In fact, her Twitter handle is @mainecook.
For her expertise and good humor in convincing us to embrace new ideas, Kathy Gunst is our CulinaryWoman of the Week.
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