By: Nate Thomas and Michael “Boots” Osborn

With a caramel mocha coffee on the table in front of me, the joyful sound of The Ellen Show in the background, and the smell of fresh doughnuts surrounding me, I sat, hungry, waiting for my photographer/co-writer.
 At Doughnutty’s things aren’t what you would expect from a usual doughnut shop in New England.  The first hint, is the fact that in their name, the word “Doughnut” is spelled correctly.  When you walk in, you are greeted with the wonderful smell of fresh doughnuts and coffee, and a genuinely happy hello from the owners for visiting their shop.
At the young age of 25, the owners of Doughnutty’s,  Joe McKernan and Stacia Tenore, are the perfect example of hard work paying off, and not giving up when others don’t believe in you.  When asked about the hardest part of going through the process of opening their business, Stacia said it was getting their loan approved.  “Most banks would see our age and not even listen to the rest of what we had to say”.After a year or so of planning, and working towards their dream of owning their own doughnut shop,they have accomplished that dream.  They have a thriving business, that a lot of people are hoping remains successful for a very long time.    
Stacia’s favorite moments in the shop, are when people tell her to surprise them with a doughnut. ”I thoroughly enjoy when people ask me to surprise them. I get to whip together whatever I want and see their reactions when I show it to them. That is the best feeling, knowing that you’ve surprised and satisfied someone by simply throwing some toppings on a doughnut.”  When they aren’t surprising their customers, they get a lot of ideas from their Facebook page.  Surprisingly, no doughnut has been too crazy for them, including a double chocolate maple bacon doughnut.  “All of our doughnut ideas have come to fruition. We don’t want anyone to be scared to think outside the box, that is why we take suggestions from everyone. We want our customers to tell us what to put in our rack because it is all for them. We want nothing out of the realm of possibility, but we want to be able to test everything before we sell it in order to avoid putting out a bad product.”

This week marks the 3rd week of business for Doughnutty’s, and things don’t seem like they could be going better.  The shop constantly has a full parking lot out front, and is constantly running out of doughnuts.  Usually, running out of the product you are named after, would be a bad thing, but not at Doughnutty’s.  At Doughnutty’s, when they run out of doughnuts, they make whatever doughnut you want, fresh just for you.  So any amount of wait, which is less than 10 minutes, is worth it.
Once my photographer, and co-writer, Boots finally showed up, I was ecstatic.  Waiting and smelling the doughnuts just made me want them even more.  We walked up to the counter, and ordered a dozen doughnuts for under 10 dollars.  We ordered 2 of each: Kit-Kat, Oreo Chocolate Pudding,Chocolate Raspberry, Jelly, and Boston Creme.  We hauled the doughnuts back to school, and decided to eat them one at a time, with video game breaks in between so we didn’t hate ourselves, for each eating 6 doughnuts.
Each doughnut was long, and dense, with absolutely no air inside of the doughnut itself.  The doughnuts were about double the size of a normal doughnut from Dunkin’, and twice as filling.
The first doughnut we took out of the bag, was the Kit-Kat doughnut.  It was covered in chocolate, filled with vanilla pudding, and covered in chunks of Kit-Kat bars.

Nate:  After the very first bite I realized that I was in for a treat with every doughnut we bought.  The pudding was rich, full of flavor, but didn’t drown out the rest of the doughnut.  The chocolate from the Kit-Kat melted into the chocolate from the doughnut and combined perfectly.  7/10
Boots: As someone that doesn’t really like Kit-Kat when it comes to candy, I was surprised to find that the Doughnutty’s doughnut was outstanding.  the flavor was a lot more full than I thought it would have been.
The next few pounds we gained, was the Oreo Doughnut.  Another chocolate covered doughnut with vanilla pudding filling it.  This time, as the name suggests, Oreo was crumbled on top of it.  Unlike other Oreo doughnuts I’ve had though, instead of just the cookie part of the Oreo being put on top, entire Oreo cookies were broken up and sprinkled on top.
Nate: Just like before, the pudding was perfect.  On top of that, this doughnut beat out every other Oreo doughnut I have ever had.  Having the entire cookie crumbled on top added a great crunch.  It tasted exactly like fried Oreos. 7/10
Boots: Having the whole Oreos adds a crunchiness that just, completes the perfect recipe for an Oreo doughnut.
By now, we were stuffed, but why would we stop when the doughnuts we have had were fantastic?  We didn’t.  We soldiered on.  The next victim to our newfound Doughnutty’s addiction was their Chocolate Pudding doughnut.  Nothing too crazy looking, just another huge doughnut covered in chocolate, sprinkles, and filled with chocolate pudding that was just as rich as the vanilla pudding that filled the other doughnuts.
Nate: Since this doughnut wasn’t as unusual as the others, I didn’t think this one would compare to the others, but I was very wrong.  It was just as good even without the addition of candy or cookies.  7.5/10
Boots: With the first bite, shivers ran down my spine, thats how good it was.
3 doughnuts down, 3 to go.  Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.  Chocolate Raspberry was next. More chocolate covered doughnuts, but I wasn’t complaining.  This time, it was not filled with anything, and it was covered in chocolate raspberry candies.

Nate: Chocolate and raspberry is my flavor combination, and Doughnutty’s once again, nailed it.  No flavor was too overwhelming, or underwhelming.  Somehow, they continually balance every flavor perfectly.
Boots: I was confused after the first bite, not really capturing the taste of raspberry, only to be struck by the amazing raspberry taste.  After digging my teeth into the chocolate raspberry cups on top, I was pleasantly surprised at how delicious the doughnut became.
After the fourth doughnut, I figured I would go and weigh myself on Boots’ scale.  The scale said I was 0.0lbs, so I figured it would be fine to have 3 more doughnuts.  I later found out that the scale was broken.  But I digress.  The next doughnut was a Jelly doughnut.  We purposefully didn’t look at any of the doughnuts before going to eat them, so we weren’t expecting anything unusual for a doughnut that is the staple of many doughnut shops.  We were very surprised to see, that the Jelly was, on top of the doughnut, not inside of it.
 Nate: Naturally, I took it as a personal offense that they would break the rules like this.  How dare they put the jelly on the outside.  THE OUTSIDE?  WHAT?  Boy did I feel like a fool.  This was hands down the best jelly doughnut I have ever had.  Having the jelly on the outside was genius, because it made it so that there was not a single bite that didn’t have jelly.
Boots: I can totally imagine this as a dessert at a fancy restaurant. It was really high class jam.

Last one, we got this, we aren’t going to explode.  If we do, we will die happy, but we won’t.  We aren’t going to explode.  If I say it enough times it becomes true right?  I think that’s how it works.  Boston Creme.  Another staple of doughnut shops everywhere.  And yet again, Doughnutty’s couldn’t have done better.
Nate: Boston Creme is my favorite generic doughnut.  As a little kid, anytime I would go to a doughnut shop, that is what I would get everytime without fail.  I can no longer do that.  This was the best Boston Creme doughnut I have ever had, and maybe the best doughnut I have ever had period.  I don’t think I can go back to any other Boston Creme doughnuts, because after every bite I will just be thinking: “not as good as Doughnutty’s”.
Boots: Ditto
Doughnutty’s has opened my eyes to what doughnuts should taste like.  No longer am I going to be led astray by the deceit of corporate chains.  No longer am I going to have a closed mind about what a doughnut really us.  From now on, I am a Doughnutty’s fan, as should everyone else.  I hope that this article gets you to go down there and support a small business that is fantastic and would appreciate your business like no one else does.
Check out Doughnutty’s at 139 John Fitch Highway!