Taking a ‘Big Bite Out’ of the Broad Street Dough Company

BY DEBRA WALLACE

Every new business venture begins with a great idea that is pursued to foster our journey in finding our little corner of the world. Desdemona Dalia’s idea began with an initial vision for Broad Street Dough Company, which has expanded to three family-owned and operated doughnut bakeries.

These doughnut shops will make your mouth water even before you take that first bite. Each delectable creation will tantalize all of your senses.

The hard-working single mom of three had the idea percolating in her mind for a few years, but she says she was “petrified to move forward.” That is until she let go of her fear with the encouragement of her ex-husband, Fred Dalia, who is in the food business. He told her that she had a great idea that she should pursue.

Dalia began planning for her doughnut business at her kitchen table. She started with a menu of 16 doughnuts and named some of them after local streets and roads.

Today, among the three stores there are 40 different doughnuts on the everyday menu, in addition to chocolate, red velvet, blueberry, apple cider, and pumpkin doughnuts for the fall season.

But what keeps customers coming back is the combination of typical flavors found at other doughnut shops combined with unusual specialty offerings, including megafavorite Churro Bites.

Other specialties include Mulberry Street, Cannoli cream, Wayside Walnut -- maple please see BITES, page 9 please see BITES, page 9 glaze with wet walnuts, Creamsicle (vegan and glutenfree), with orange and vanilla drizzle, All-American (vegan and glutenfree) with peanut butter and jelly, Fruity Pebbles, vanilla with fruity pebbles cereal, Broadhurst, with chocolate pretzel, peanuts and caramel, The Monmouth, Vanilla Oreo, and Chai Town, (vegan and gluten-free) vanilla with Chai Tea spice.

The bakery also offers mini doughnuts and a variety of other specialty doughnuts for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, bar/bat mitzvahs, communions, and other events.

Dalia opened her first shop in a strip mall in Oakhurst (2005 N.J.-35) in 2014. With help from family - especially her then 14-year-old daughter, Ariana, who built up the social media presence - the business was an immediate hit.

“From the start, we had a line around the building,” she said. “I wanted to include everyone in the community. Everyone knows they are super welcome, and they feel that vibe. What I envisioned has come true and then some.”

So, what makes her shops unique?

An aesthetically-pleasing environment, helpful staff, and open kitchen where customers can watch the doughnuts being made through a glass partition. Dalia is one of the first local businesses to offer this behind-thescenes glimpse into the bakery business.

In addition to traditional doughnuts, Dalia wanted her shop to be all-inclusive. Most of the everyday menu items can be adapted to vegan, gluten-free, nut-free, and kosher varieties, she said.

“I love that a family can come in and make a feel-good purchase and no one has to be left behind,” she said. “We wanted to be responsive to children and adults with allergies, so my product became easily adaptable for them.”

Dalia opened the Freehold location (177 Elton Adelphia Road) in June 2019, with the same family support as her first location and had a stellar first six months … and then the pandemic hit, and she was forced to close both locations during lockdown. She opened her third location (967 South Coast Highway), shortly after the pandemic, in October 2020 in Encinitas, Calif. (near San Diego). Her brother Joseph Ramaglia, who has a strong food service management background, is at the helm. He was joined by their brother, Andrew, and sisterin-law, Marinna LaCerva, who took the concept and quickly expanded the family business.

Dalia said her daughter, Ariana, is going to graduate school in California to study business management and “is going to be a great asset to the San Diego location where time-permitting she will be pinch-hitting.”

To what does Dalia attribute her success in building three successful businesses with a daily stream of happy customers?

“We provide an extremely welcoming environment. For me, it was always about the vibe and how you made someone feel from the moment that they walked in the door,” she explained. “We are all so busy these days, and this is a way to take a pause and make a feel-good purchase.”

As a single mom who knows how to hustle and focus on creating a fresh, quality product, she said having a brick-and-mortar store was important to her.

“Even during the growth process, it was about how to maintain that friendly, community energy and vibe, without having a corporate feel,” she said.

Dalia has taught her three children, who range in age from 16 to 22, a myriad of life lessons.

“While failure is always a variable when it comes to business and to life,” she said, “quitting is never an option for me.”

“I love what I do, and I also learned how to constantly pivot. I tell my children that I please see BITES, page 10