When Damian Boyle, co-founder of Dee’s Donuts, first saw the donut-making machine at the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver, he just knew he had to have one. He was with his wife Christine, who is also his business partner.
“Mini-donuts were never on my radar until Christine took me down to the PNE,” he says. “But it wasn’t the donuts I fell in love with, it was the machine.” He says the fact that it made donuts was a bonus.
He’d never eaten mini-donuts growing up in Ireland, and when he announced that he was going to track down a machine of his own and start making them, Christine didn’t believe him.
“When he told me at first that he wanted to do this, I thought he was joking,” she says. “The next thing I know, he calls me in January… and says, ‘I’ve found a machine. We can do it.’”
With the machine secured, next came perfecting the donut batter.
“My baking experience was somewhere between slim and none at all,” laughs Damian. But they were surrounded by friends who were only too happy to try his samples until they were just right. And although his own personal favourite topping is Nutella with Skor pieces, they keep it simple at the Squamish Farmers’ Market booth by selling donuts with a classic sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.
Despite the rigorous testing of friends and family, Damian felt nervous at his first market stand when customers started to arrive. But they needn’t have worried, he says – his very first customer is now on to her third loyalty card and continues to buy three bags of donuts every week.
Some people, he says, drift over from the other side of the market, attracted by the smell, while others just enjoy the experience of watching the machine in action, with its rhythmical cogs and conveyer belts, turning, flipping and dispensing the donuts like clockwork.
When not making donuts, Damian is in daredevil mode at the Whistler Sliding Centre, driving the Rolling Thunder bobsleigh in summer or a traditional bobsleigh in winter. Christine works full-time at the Fairmont in Whistler. Between their day jobs, two farmers’ market stands (Squamish on Saturdays, Ambleside on Sundays) and the private events they’re asked to do, they’re often working seven days a week.
“It’s quite challenging,” explains Damian, “but we weren’t going to take any risks and leave our full-time jobs, especially with a new business.”
On the one occasion when they did take a weekend off to get married, they were greeted with relief on their return from loyal customers who shared tales of toddler tantrums when little ones realized they weren’t going to get mini-donuts that weekend. It was nice to know they’d been missed, says Damian.
“Honestly,” he says, “having this stand is one of the best experiences we’ve had in a long time.”
Christine agrees and adds, “The market is such a neat community. It’s been really great meeting all the other vendors. Everyone’s been very friendly and welcoming to us and excited that we’re young and happy to be here, which has been really encouraging.”
Dee’s Donuts is at Squamish Farmers’ Market at the corner of Cleveland Avenue and Victoria Street every Saturday until Oct. 31, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
