Recently my besties and I hosted a baby shower for our sweet friend Mary. Since Mary is a country girl at heart our theme was a Western Baby Shower. When we were planning the shower we knew we had to plan an early shower since it can be super hot in June in Fresno. Since the shower was early we did breakfast style. To fit with our theme we wanted to do donut favors from our favorite donut shop in town, Donut Fantasy. Donut Fantasy is new to our area and they serve the best donuts and make amazing custom donuts. You can find your traditional maple bar but they are known for their wild flavors like When Pigs Fly (Bacon bits on a maple bar) and The Flaming Cheeto (hot cheetos on a vanilla iced donut). Donut Fantasy made horseshoe donuts for us and we individually wrapped them in cellophane bags to place at each person's place setting so they could take a sweet treat home.
Connect:
You've got to Follow Donut Fantasy on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to see all their latest flavors and happy hour sales.
You can also check out their website HERE.
For all my Fresnans you've got to stop by immediately.
1731 W Bullard Ave. #111 Fresno, CA 93711
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| Me, @jewelryandjeans, @stelladot_by_marykrugh, and @christina.patricio enjoying our DELICIOUS donuts! |
Meet:
Please tell us a little bit about yourself:
I was born and raised in Fresno, CA. I always liked eating dessert, so I decided that I wanted to be a baker. I worked as a Baker at Von's grocery store for a couple of years and decided I wanted to learn more, so I went to culinary school in Las Vegas. I got a job right out of culinary school at a brand new place, Aria Resort and Casino. I worked there for almost 6 years and a local place, Freed's Bakery for 1 1/2 years. After living in Las Vegas for 6 1/2 years, I learned a lot from all 3 bakeries and brought that experience back to Fresno to open up Donut Fantasy.
Please tell us a little bit about your company and how you got started:
Donut Fantasy is Fresno's first all gourmet donut shop. We specialize in non traditional, or as some people say, weird donut combinations. We are known for our Flamin' Cheeto donut which is a yeast raised donut with vanilla icing topped with Flamin Hot Cheetos. While living in Las Vegas, a couple of my coworkers and I decided we wanted to open a bakery. We did a lot of research and discovered we didn't all see the same vision, so nothing happened, but I still wanted to do something of my own. I somehow came across Voodoo Doughnuts, and thought they had an awesome business concept. So I started researching gourmet donut shops and found none in Fresno. My wife and I had been wanting to move back home to Fresno, where both are families live, but I told her I only wanted to come back if I could open up my own shop.
What has been your greatest lesson in running your own business?
I researched for 2-3 years while saving money to pursue this business venture and wrote a 50 page business plan. I visited at least 40 different gourmet donut shops and some traditional shops as well. I sat in the stores and documented who was coming in, what they bought, how much they bought, etc. I did all these different things and much more to discover that all that stuff meant nothing. I was mentally prepared to follow the business plan, but things were way different when we opened. I pretty much threw the business plan away. I feel like our business plan was like going to school. You go to school to specialize in a subject, you graduate, and then get a job in that field. You then find out immediately that school was way different than the real world experience. I'm glad I wrote the business plan because it helped me look into certain sides of the business I may have not done, but at the same time our business is nothing what I expected. There's so much more to do than I thought. Every day is so different and very unpredictable. One Monday we'll sell out early and the next Monday I'll make the same amount of donuts and barely sell anything.
I was born and raised in Fresno, CA. I always liked eating dessert, so I decided that I wanted to be a baker. I worked as a Baker at Von's grocery store for a couple of years and decided I wanted to learn more, so I went to culinary school in Las Vegas. I got a job right out of culinary school at a brand new place, Aria Resort and Casino. I worked there for almost 6 years and a local place, Freed's Bakery for 1 1/2 years. After living in Las Vegas for 6 1/2 years, I learned a lot from all 3 bakeries and brought that experience back to Fresno to open up Donut Fantasy.
Please tell us a little bit about your company and how you got started:
Donut Fantasy is Fresno's first all gourmet donut shop. We specialize in non traditional, or as some people say, weird donut combinations. We are known for our Flamin' Cheeto donut which is a yeast raised donut with vanilla icing topped with Flamin Hot Cheetos. While living in Las Vegas, a couple of my coworkers and I decided we wanted to open a bakery. We did a lot of research and discovered we didn't all see the same vision, so nothing happened, but I still wanted to do something of my own. I somehow came across Voodoo Doughnuts, and thought they had an awesome business concept. So I started researching gourmet donut shops and found none in Fresno. My wife and I had been wanting to move back home to Fresno, where both are families live, but I told her I only wanted to come back if I could open up my own shop.
What has been your greatest lesson in running your own business?
I researched for 2-3 years while saving money to pursue this business venture and wrote a 50 page business plan. I visited at least 40 different gourmet donut shops and some traditional shops as well. I sat in the stores and documented who was coming in, what they bought, how much they bought, etc. I did all these different things and much more to discover that all that stuff meant nothing. I was mentally prepared to follow the business plan, but things were way different when we opened. I pretty much threw the business plan away. I feel like our business plan was like going to school. You go to school to specialize in a subject, you graduate, and then get a job in that field. You then find out immediately that school was way different than the real world experience. I'm glad I wrote the business plan because it helped me look into certain sides of the business I may have not done, but at the same time our business is nothing what I expected. There's so much more to do than I thought. Every day is so different and very unpredictable. One Monday we'll sell out early and the next Monday I'll make the same amount of donuts and barely sell anything.
What does your normal day look like?I get to the shop at 2 am with my crew. They start making the dough while I do some computer work. Then we roll and cut the dough into the different shapes. They go in the proof box where they rise. Then we start frying and decorating the donuts. Right before we open at 6am, I put our donut yard signs out. I come back in to help finish decorating the donuts and putting them in the display case. I help finish decorating the donuts and start preparing for the next day. We clean up the kitchen and I help the front counter as needed. I check to make sure we have enough supplies and ingredients. I sometimes run errands to make our donut box labels or go to the store to get specialty ingredients. I even sometimes take donuts to some local businesses to help promote our business. I update our website, facebook page, and upload pictures to the computer. I leave the shop about 3 pm and usually run some more errands before I finally go home to eat my hot pocket for dinner, and go to bed.
Who inspires you?
People in general inspire me. One example would be, I see the pictures of vacations people go on and that makes me want to visit those places. In order to do that I have to work hard to earn enough money to go on the expensive vacations. Another example would be, there were many people that didn't think this business concept would work and know body cares about gourmet donuts, but I'm the kind of person that likes to prove people wrong. So this actually inspired me to make this business as successful as possible to show to them that this was a great idea and not a stereotypical food business that doesn't last.
Who inspires you?
People in general inspire me. One example would be, I see the pictures of vacations people go on and that makes me want to visit those places. In order to do that I have to work hard to earn enough money to go on the expensive vacations. Another example would be, there were many people that didn't think this business concept would work and know body cares about gourmet donuts, but I'm the kind of person that likes to prove people wrong. So this actually inspired me to make this business as successful as possible to show to them that this was a great idea and not a stereotypical food business that doesn't last.
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