Skip to main content

For Find Out Friday - What State Was the First To Make the Donuts?


Since my Boston series only just ended yesterday I am still in that frame of mind. I found a picture that I had forgot about and it inspired today’s Find Out Friday.

Don’t get it twisted I am a Starbucks girl through and through but for this post I am going in a different direction. 

I am talking about the history behind the opening of Dunkin’ Donuts. 

As I made my way all around Boston I literally stumbled onto the answer to this question. 

I was in the car, with my uncle driving his huge SUV, and we were trying to turn around. While doing that we practically ended up behind the counter of a Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant. 

The man who had the bad luck to be working there that night might have needed a change of clothes but I found it amusing. 

I also saw a sign that intrigued me: “Original Dunkin’ Location”. 

Dunkin’ Donuts is sixty-nine years old. When I think of its age rather than the year it was first opened, it is mind boggling. To have such a successful business, filling a need in the service industry is something to be admired. As someone who is always interested in how people got their start and took their idea all the way to the bank, I always want to know the specifics. So here they are.

A man named William Rosenberg opened a small shop called “Open Kettle” in 1948 in the Quincy neighborhood of Massachusetts. This cafe served only coffee and donuts to go. It wasn’t until 1950 that it was renamed “Dunkin’Donuts”.

As a child growing up in the 1980s this was a signature commercial of the times. 


It is something every person my age will remember and a saying I still use to this day…obviously.

As per Dunkin’ Donuts themselves here are some interesting facts:

  • In 1963 the one hundredth location opens;
  • In 1970 the first store outside the U.S. opens in Japan;
  • The Munchkin is invented in 1972;
  • My friend Fred the Baker’s commercial begins in 1982;
  • Allied Domecq PLC purchases Dunkin’ Donuts in 1990;
  • 2008 marks the opening of the five hundredth store in Korea;
  • As of 2016 Dunkin’ Donuts opens its 12,000th location in Riverside, California.
In an article in the Boston Globe in 2011, this historic location had reason to celebrate. Instead of demolishing it, the brand decided to embrace the significance of this location by giving it a more retro look, similar to what it was like in 1950. It continues to have limited parking as it did back then as well as no drive-thru. 

I remained curious about the name change, while it makes sense to us now, I wanted to know who came up with it. 

William Rosenberg’s son, Bill had this to say:

“The family thought the Open Kettle name did not say much about its products, and asked the store’s architect for advice.

What do you do with a doughnut? You pluck a chicken. You dunk a doughnut.”


You certainly do. 

Despite being able to have your Dunkin’ anywhere in the world, there’s really no place like Quincy. 

Or Boston.


For More Information:




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

For Find Out Friday - Why Do Emery Boards Make My Skin Crawl?

You know that sound a fingernail makes when it scratches against a chalkboard?  You know that feeling the sound of that action gives you? I, like most people, hate that sound.  I instantly feel like scrunching my shoulders up to my neck and closing my eyes.  I feel the exact same way when I am using an emery board to file my nails. This annoying sensation has a name: “grima” which is Spanish for disgust or uneasiness. This term basically describes any feeling of being displeased, annoyed, or dissatisfied someone or something.  It is a feeling that psychologists are starting to pay more attention to as it relates to our other emotions.  Emery boards are traditionally made with cardboard that has small grains of sand adhered to them. It is the sandpaper that I believe makes me filled with grima.  According to studies that are being done around the world, it is not just the feeling that we associate with certain things like nails on a chalkboard or by using emery boards

For Find Out Friday - How Do You Milk An Almond?

Despite my affinity for cheese and other dairy products, occasionally (actually a few times a week) I like to go dairy-free.  During those times I rely heavily on my favorite brand of almond milk, as seen in the picture above.  Though I know there is no dairy in this product, I constantly wonder: “how does one milk an almond”? Logically I am aware that no actually “milking” is taking place.  I also know that almond milk can be made at home, although I have zero interest in attempting to make it despite my love of spending time in my kitchen. So, what is the actual process?  How long does it take?  When / where / who was the first to successful develop this product? When talking about this kind of “milk” what we are really talking about is plant juices that resemble and can be used in the same ways as dairy milk. Plant like juice has been described as milk since about 1200 A.D. The first mentions can be found in a Baghdadi cookbook in the thirteenth

For a Doughnut Worthy of Food Network Glory: “Dun-Well Doughnuts”

All because I wanted a Boston creme doughnut. That is how this blog truly began. It was Father’s Day weekend and although I was initially thinking of myself, I knew my father wouldn’t mind having a sweet treat for dessert. Brooklyn is synonymous with great pizza, bread, and of course bagels. But it also has many great bakeries producing some of the most delicious doughnuts you have ever tasted. Just to name a few, there is: Doughnut Plant , Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop and Dough .   On the day of my craving, I did what any of us do countless times a day - I opened Google. When I Googled “best Boston creme doughnuts in Brooklyn” Dun-Well Doughnuts appeared high on that list. Intrigued I researched it further and learned that it had won the Canadian  Food Network’s contest called “Donut Showdown” in 2013. That was enough information for me to decide to visit the very next day.  Dun-Well Doughnuts was opened by Dan Dunbar and Christopher Hollowell in December 2011. Despite