You May Not Have Seen The Last Of The Budino Donut


On Friday, Marcie Turney, Valerie Safran and their crew sold 450 salted caramel budino donuts in 30 minutes (or actually, probably a little less) across the Marcie Blaine chocolates counter at Verde on 13th Street.

On the following day, they sold 590 donuts in an hour and twenty minutes–590 donuts being the absolute maximum number of donuts that the team had been able to make between the minute they sold out on Friday and the minute they went on sale again on Saturday. The line to get one stretched out the door, down the block and around the corner. It was crazy. And you’d think, with the obvious success of this two-day donut sale, that Turney and Safran would already be making plans to do it again, right?

Well, yes and no. What they’re actually planning on doing is more.

The reason why you haven’t already seen more budino donuts on the streets is simple. According to Safran, making the donuts “took over our pastry kitchen completely for about 4 days – so it is really something that we can’t do all of the time.”

But what they can do (and what, in actuality, she and Turney are already planning on doing) is to put a system in place at Bud & Marilyn’s–their upcoming retro diner opening soon at 13th and Locust–that will make future one-off events like this a little bit easier. “When you enter Bud & Marilyn’s there is a coat room to the right,” Safran explained, “and I have always wanted to use that for a to-go window – and this event has solidified that idea in my head.”

So now, with a place made for pop-ups, Turney and Safran’s team will be doing more of them. “The possibilities are endless,” she said. “It’s nice to come up with ideas that are temporary and not something you offer all of the time – it keeps it interesting for us as well.”

But lest you start thinking that this is all just daydreaming about some hazy, possible, donut-laden future, Safran also said that they have some more concrete plans in the works–namely a cannoli pop-up that will be coming to Little Nonna’s.

While there’s no date set for it yet, Safran does promise that Cannoli day “is in our head and coming soon.”

All Budino Donut Coverage [f8b8z]