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SHORT ORDERS
[ S T. L O U I S S TA N D A R D S ]
Hole Foods At north St. Louis County staple the Donut Cupboard, customers are treated like family Written by
CHERYL BAEHR
W
hen Robyn Dietrich talks about how much she cares for her customers, she’s not simply referring to what goes on within the four walls of her Florissant doughnut cafe, the Donut Cupboard. To her, it’s one thing to serve her guests good food while she’s on the clock, but it’s equally important that the relationship doesn’t end when they pay their check. “There is one woman who I called the other day just to check in on her,” Dietrich says. “I asked her, ‘Doris, do you need anything?’ She told me no, because a neighbor was helping her out, but I told her, ‘Listen, I’m going to Aldi — please let me bring you something.’ She said she would really love some chicken salad, but that she didn’t want to ask me to do that. I told her that I was going there anyway and that she was on the way home. She was so appreciative, and I was happy to do it. This is pretty much my life, but I love it because these are the people who, when my parents died, have been there for me.” Those personal touches, and the knowledge that Dietrich and her staff truly feel that their customers are family, is what makes the Donut Cupboard an essential — if under-the-radar — part of the north-county dining scene. Since 1975, the small cafe has been serving its patrons some of the est doughnuts in the area, first under the watch of the original owner, Tony Ozenkowski, and next, under Dietrich and her husband John, who bought the shop in 1983. As Dietrich explains, her husband, who had a background in the doughnut business, planned on opening a restaurant of his own — just not the Donut Cup-
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RIVERFRONT TIMES
Donut Cupboard hand cuts its doughnuts the old-fashioned way — one of the secrets to its staying power. | ANDY PAULISSEN board — when he bought the place 38 years ago. Instead of an independent shop, John was actively looking to run a Mr. Donut franchise in the Florissant area when he stumbled upon the Donut Cupboard opportunity. Back then, Ozenkowski was experiencing heart troubles and looking to get out of the business; though his nephew, who was a baker at the shop, seemed like the natural heir, he had no interest in taking it over, so Ozenkowski was in need of a buyer. For John, an established business with a regular clientele was just what he was looking for, so he switched course and became an independent doughnut shop owner. When John took over the Donut Cupboard, he expanded its footprint to include the adjacent storefront, where he set up an ice cream shop. “He tried different things to see what would work out,” Dietrich explains. However, when he realized the extra space wasn’t worth the effort and rent, he consolidated the operation into its current space. Still, he felt that the place should offer more than doughnuts and, over time, he expanded the menu to include
OCTOBER 6-12, 2021
riverfronttimes.com
Donut Cupboard has been serving Florissant for 46 years. | ANDY PAULISSEN breakfast, lunch and the restaurant’s current specialty: doughnut sandwiches. “When all the gas stations started having doughnuts, we had to figure out a way to make ourselves stand out,” Dietrich says. “We didn’t have a background in cooking — just a stove back then — but we wanted to give people a
wide variety of choices. Some people can come in and get doughnuts and the other people at the table can have breakfast. It was something that we could easily do to differentiate ourselves.” Still, doughnuts remain the Donut Cupboard’s bread and butter, even though the shop remains something of a hidden gem, albeit
