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.
“You’re not going to walk out on day one knowing how to make donuts,” he said. “It’s such a complex thing. Out of all baked goods, donuts are probably the hardest thing to make.”
Part of that complexity stems from Ridge Donut Cafe’s commitment to tradition for the sake of consistency and quality. Behind the scenes, everything is still made by hand; a stark contrast to what Olles calls the “thaw and serve” approach at places like Dunkin’ and Tim Hortons. Of the two donut types — frycakes and yeast — the latter is the most complex and most in-demand. These donuts are time critical, with a dough that must be mixed, set, cut, set again, cut again, proofed and finally fried, all before any specific varietal finishings can begin. Frycakes, on the other hand, cut the process down to a dough that is put into a cake donut depositor and hopper to be fried and flipped by hand.
Ridge Donut Cafe was started by Thomas and Josephine Marcello on East Ridge Road in 1977, and moved to the current location on Portland Avenue in 1996. Thomas first learned how to make donuts at Dunkin’ Donut University, a program created to teach franchisees how to run the business and make donuts. The Marcellos ran a Dunkin’ Donuts until they decided to open their own shop using a family recipe that remains unchanged to this day.
In 2015, their granddaughter Jacquelyn Marcello, now general manager of Ridge Donut Cafe, joined the family business for a change of pace from traditional college and what she thought were flexible hours. That quickly changed after the death of her grandfather and Ridge co-founder, Thomas, and a series of other health concerns within the family that have led Jacquelyn to take the helm.
“My dad said, it has to be you — you and I are gonna run the show,” she said.
The challenges of running a business have been ever-present but hit a new high in September, when a social media post about staffing difficulties went viral. The post was an attempt to pull back the curtain and set expectations “because we’re really struggling right now.”
Criticism of the shop’s inability to keep staff and pay a living wage were among some of the more common responses to the post.
“I take accountability for that post,” said Jacquelyn. “It’s not that people don’t want to work, I should never have worded it that way.”
As for employee retention, much of Ridge Donut staff has been with the company at least five years — and some as long as 18 years — with the exception of a few new members within the last year. The scramble to fill positions came on suddenly when one of the shop’s longest tenured bakers, William Johnson, had to step away due to health complications that ended in a lost battle with cancer. Johnson was a baker for 30 years, and worked the night shift fulfilling the role of baking and frying.
“That’s why we started looking for a baker in the first place,” said Jacquelyn. “It’s more that few people are interested in this field or have no idea how labor intensive it really is.”
Although the shop is open to the public during set hours, Ridge Donut Cafe is a 24-hour operation in order to meet demand. The shop also lacks any automated equipment, outside of the ovens and fryers.
“When you go semi-auto you start to lose quality,” said Olles. “(Making donuts by hand) is what sets us apart. We are still making donuts like they did 30 or 40 years ago. Nobody is doing that anymore and that’s why we have such a great product.”
For Jacquelyn, the commitment to continue her grandparents’ legacy and remain a part of community traditions is at the forefront of her mind. Whether it’s stories of guests who associate their donuts with a loved one who passed, the post-partum mothers from the nearby hospital requesting a Boston cream or donating leftover inventory to the Open Door Mission at the end of each business day, the memories made are a reminder for Jacquelyn.
It’s those little moments that, in the bigger picture of things, make it worth it,” she said. “We’re gonna do whatever we can. We’re gonna fight. Right now, it’s legitimately day by day.” ridgedonuts.com
