By 8:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings in a charming village 30 miles south of Glens Falls, no matter the weather, the line is already halfway down the block. One patron is so determined to be first in line that he’s often waiting before dawn. Some customers are so besotted that they haven’t missed a Sunday since 2002.
The King Donut Cart
What inspires this devotion? A mobile bakery the locals call the King Donut cart.
The cart part is right—it’s an antique bread delivery wagon bought from Friehofer’s, so old it still has the shafts for when horses pulled it through the streets of Troy. And while the donuts are sublime, the cart offers a lot more than Bismarcks filled with homemade jam, although that remains a customer favorite. There’s a full menu of just-baked date-filled cookies, elephant ears, scones, croissants and more, all made by hand, using carefully sourced ingredients chosen not just for quality but from small-scale purveyors, local whenever possible. Blackberries come from a Main Street neighbor; rhubarb from their own gardens, strawberries and blueberries from nearby fields, eggs, all 20 dozen per week, from the outskirts of the village, dairy from Battenkill Valley Creamery, and bacon (for the sinful maple-bacon donut) from a farm 9 miles away.
A favorite Sunday selection: Traditional Glazed and Maple Covered Donuts
It’s a four generation effort. Sally, the multi-talented mother of the current owners, ran a brick and mortar bakery in Cambridge until it closed in 1997, and still works in the kitchen. Her son Skip, a pilot for UPS, bought and restored the cart and, after the last flight for the week, pulls a 15-hour shift from Saturday evening to Sunday lunch. He also tends the beehives, runs the sugaring operation, and oversees all the gardening. Skip’s wife Jana handles the logistics of the complicated household and business, supervising orders and customer service. Their daughter Holly is the baking master. She works from early on Saturday until early Sunday—every Saturday night is an all-nighter for her too—and her 6-year-old daughter Ella, who’s already announced her desire to become a professional baker, helps out too.
Donut cart fans are as noted for their passion as for their patience (the wait can be 45 minutes or more) and grace (no grumbling when something is sold out). Christine Hoffer, proprietor of the now-closed Rice Mansion Inn, always served the donuts to hotel guests for Sunday breakfast and continues that tradition whenever her sons come home from college. In winter, Christine would bring several dozen donuts to Willard Mountain on Sundays to sell to fellow ski instructors and students. (“This made me very popular,” she said with a laugh.) Tim Burch, who at age 15 had a summer job frying donuts all day every day at the bakery, used to eat 6 at a sitting and now, several decades later, will drive 32 miles roundtrip for a meltaway, a rich but delicate pastry that literally melts in your mouth.
The King Donut Cart in warmer days
It’s not just the novelty of a horse-drawn cart or the small-town bonhomie of customers chatting as they wait. It’s the freshness, quality and lusciousness of the goods. Holly, an honors student in geology and environmental studies, worked at restaurants beginning at age 14 and found her calling as pastry chef in her early twenties, experimenting with flavors, textures, techniques and aesthetics. She also studied the logistics and management side of the business, a necessity for a small operation with tight margins. Marketing has never been an issue, since word of mouth has been so fierce that demand, especially on Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, outstrips supply.
Covid has changed the way the Kings do business, not just by mandating the 6-ft. space between customers in line but encouraging online orders through their Facebook page. Order early, and don’t be late for pickup. Your sugar coma awaits.
Editors Note: As mentioned, demand frequently outpaces supply at the King Donut Cart, which is why the address is withheld in this story. Just a little digging on your part will uncover it, and the donuts will taste that much sweeter knowing you found them yourselves!
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