Ruckus Donuts

One of the most rewarding & admittedly humbling aspects of what we do & make is when you make the jump from being a moment to becoming a tradition. That annually you are welcome into other’s lives, anniversaries or rituals. Many times it’s celebratory. Another trip round’ the sun, that week spent in Rockland once every summer, it’s all very surreal to actual become someone’s tradition.

One of the coolest & arguably most unique traditions we have become intertwined with is the annual tern nest survey conducted on Metinic Island by the (Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge). Each year this group counts tern nests to determine population, each year that count has been fueled by not just a passion for aviary but also our donuts!!

You can check out the results, as well as learn more about the MCINWR at their Rockland visitor center located at 9 Water Street.

“Is that a brick?”

Yup…

If you recall my last introspective post you know about the brick walls that I’ve scaled just to be able to have the opportunity to type this, let alone the huge one I was preparing to climb two weekends ago as we prepared for the 2nd annual Rockport Donut Festival.

You may have wondered “Why hasn’t he said anything.” Quite a few of you inquired this past week at the shop.

I’ll cut to the highlights:

We set shop records for donuts produced, donuts sold, total individual sales & total revenue for one day.

And not by a lil. A lot.

Destroyed previous records. Perceived limits & ceilings were smashed.

We sold almost 100 dozen donuts (That’s about 1200 for those not grasping what I just typed) For perspective at last year’s Festival we sold almost 800.

I’m still a wee bit numb typing that, but not as numb as I was that Saturday evening when, after finally getting to bed around 7:30 I realized I’d had a whopping 40 minutes of sleep over the previous 64 hours (not a typo, sadly)

And truth be told we’ve been so busy since that between running the shop and trying to recuperate that I didn’t take the time to step back and appreciate the magnitude of what we’d accomplished. I didn’t “bake the cake” as it were or enjoy the view from the top of that huge brick wall because there were many, many more needing scaled thru this past Sunday aka Father’s Day aka traditionally our busiest counter day of the year at the shop (cliffs - its was)

I have to say that Team Ruckus brought it for the Festival. Hard. Couldn’t have been prouder of the effort. I am so so blessed to have , , (and guest appearances by & ) on my side.

It’s taken me until today to, in effect, completely recover physically & mentally (SO exhausted between the ears) from all of this, which is why y’all are just now finding out and I’m finally popping the cork on these bubbles I’ve been chilling for over a week.

So yeah, the best day ever in Ruckus Donuts history by a landslide. And now I know what we’re truly capable of.

Next wall, please…

What’s that?!? It’s the afternoon?!? And there are still donuts?!?

Yup!!! And see that open door? We’re participating in the this BEAUTIFUL Father’s Day Sunday!!!

Main Street in Rockland is closed to car traffic from 12-3 and there are people everywhere strolling right done Main St checking out the shops, makers market vendors, or just enjoying the weather.

We basically maxed out what is realistically producible as far as donuts in one morning for both Father’s Day and Sunday Stroll. Coffee is on, donuts until they’re gone then so am I. It’s been a week (more on that later) C’mon down to Rockland and stroll!

The legend that is Maple Bacon hanging out drinking donut tea (trust me you donut wanna know what the donuts share among each other 😉) with Emoji.

The inspiration for Maple Bacon came from a visit to in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. It combines three classic flavor profiles - the buttermilk brioche donut (aka a pancake), the maple “syrup” atop said pancake in the guise of our maple glaze from organic maple syrup and the side of bacon via crumbled Curtis Meats bacon.

A heads up - tomorrow is shaping up to be very busy, so if you have not preordered I would suggest getting here early…just sayin’.

It wouldn’t be Father’s Day weekend without my annual trip out to in Newcastle for a bottle of their bourbon whiskey that will be the base for the bourbon curd filling in the leaded version of The Dude donut for Sunday.

This will be the 4th year that we’ve offered The Dude as our one day a year Father’s Day special donut. We also have an unleaded version featuring brown butter buttercream.

The brown butter toffee pretzel cookie dough is firming overnite in the reach in, right next to a comical amount of Curtis Meats bacon crumbles. Both will adorn each dark chocolate glazed Dude.

And I owe y’all a lil “ooops”….

In the delirium that’s been my past week as Owner & CFO (Chief Frying Officer) well I lost a day. I SWEAR I thought yesterday was Friday when I made the Dude preorder cutoff post (in my defense I’m likely at 120+ hours & counting since last Thursday 🤪)

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that you have until midnight tonight (Friday, I double checked LOL) to place a a Sunday preorder for The Dude. My apologies for any panic ordering.

To Dude up:

www.ruckusdonuts.com

We are psyched, proud, you name it to announce that once again you can get your Ruckus on every Thursday in Port Clyde at the (temporary) located in the Monhegan Boat Line Terminal at 880 Port Clyde Road.

Every Thursday, in tandem with their sister store , we will be bringing a selection of fresh, made from scratch that same morning donuts for y’all to enjoy.

So if you’re in Port Clyde and like the idea of having fresh, not even a few hours old Ruckus Donuts delivered to your neck of the peninsula then please patronize the Port Clyde General Store popup every Thursday!

We’ve missed y’all!!

EEK! Tomorrow is the last day to vote for your favorites in the 2024 Best of Maine Awards!

We would LOVE, if you haven’t already, a vote for us for Best Donuts, please.

Just go to vote.downeast.com and vote! There’s also a direct link in our Highlighted stories.

Thanks!

FATHER’S DAY REMINDER:

You only have about 33 hours (midnight Friday) to place your Father’s Day preorder for The Dude, the annual one day a year donut we do every Father’s Day.

The Dude is a chocolate brioche donut bathed in dark chocolate glaze, then covered in a mix of chocolate chunk toffee pretzel cookie crumble & Curtis Meats bacon, then filled with bourbon curd.

Don’t like bourbon? We also offer The Dude with a brown butter buttercream filling as a variation (note - this is the version pictured above)

To reserve your Dude (or Dudes) just head to our website and select which Dude (bourbon curd or brown butter buttercream filled) you’d like for dad (or yourself)

RE Father’s Day: this is annually one of our busiest days of the year. Dads n’ donuts are a great combo & the shop will be rockin’ that Sunday. To that end we will be making more donuts than typically for walk-in purchase but we STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you to preorder as few or as many as you’d like for Sunday. Every year we see sad, meaning well, let’s get dad donuts faces reading the SOLD OUT sign on our closed door. Don’t be dad sad! Preorder & insure he gets donuts!

To get your dad donuts go here:

www.ruckusdonuts.com

Only took me 8 1/2 years to get to this moment in time . Thinking of some things George said:

“And there’s a road, a winding road that never ends
Full of curves, lessons learned at every bend
Goin’s rough unlike the straight and narrow

It’s for those, those who go against the grain
Have no fear, dare to dream of a change
Live to march to the beat of a different drummer

And it all might come together
And it all might come unraveled
On the road less traveled

For the road less traveled ain’t for the faint of heart
For those who choose to play it safe and never stray too far
Me, I wanna live my life and one day leave my mark
And it all might come together
And it all might come unraveled
On the road less traveled”

See ya at 7:30 Rockland

It’s Father’s Day in one week, and that means two things at Ruckus Donuts:

- we are a week away from one of our busiest days of the year at the shop

- it is time for the return of one of our most anticipated, available only one day year donuts…The Dude!!

What? You’ve never met The Dude? Allow me:

The Dude is our annual Father’s Day donut. A chocolate brioche donut bathed in dark chocolate glaze, then covered in a mix of chocolate chunk toffee pretzel cookie crumble & Curtis Meats bacon, then filled with bourbon curd!

Don’t like bourbon? We also offer The Dude with a brown butter buttercream filling as a variation.

The Dude is available via preorder only for Father’a Day (Sunday, June 16th). To reserve yours, head to our website and select which Dude (bourbon curd or brown butter buttercream filled) you’d like for dad (or yourself, we don’t judge).

Regarding Father’s Day: this is annually one of our busiest (possibly THE busiest) days of the year. Dads n’ donuts are a great combo and the shop will be very busy that Sunday. To that end yes, we will be making more donuts than typically for walk-in purchase but we STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you to preorder as few or as many as you’d like for that morning. Every year we see sad, meaning well, let’s get dad donuts faces reading the SOLD OUT sign on our closed door. Don’t be sad! Preorder & insure dad gets donuts!

To get your dad donuts go here:

www.ruckusdonuts.com

Happy Day After Donut Fest!!! Woot! We survived!!! That last comment wasn’t a joke!! LOL

WOW!!! I’ll have more on the 2nd annual Rockport Donut Festival later but for now come celebrate a lil known tradition at Ruckus Donuts - Whimsunday!!

What the heck is Whimsunday?!? Whimsunday is the day after Donut Fest in which, to be blunt, our cupboards are a wee bit barren after the sheer volume of donuts required to do Donut Fest properly.

Plus we’re all sore, tired and a lil punchy 🤪

Soooo we honor all our preorders, fill the counter with what we can of our usual offerings, then look at all these remaining donuts to be finished and think “Well, how about if…..”

Which is what happened with Chocolate Strawberry! We had some strawberries (first of the year from !) remaining after making like ten fiddy gallons of Homer glaze so some aforementioned Homer glaze, some of the lil dark chocolate glaze we had, some on the fly dark chocolate buttercream (it pays to have a base you morph into any flavor you want ASAP) and, to top it off, a Beth’s Farm Stand strawberry!

Now the thing with Wimsunday is that we may have a lot of donuts but we may not have a lot of any particular ones. Sooooooo feeling adventurous? C’mon in before our joints seize up! LOL

June 7th….a very special day in Ruckus history. It was 5 years ago today that “ruckus” was first used to describe the donuts I was responsible for making at Boynton-McKay.

*fade to swirly flashback scene*

Boynton McKay Chef/Owner Brian Beggarly had, days prior, taken a header over the handlebars of his mountain bike and fractured his left humerus.

His doctor told him he was to do nothing for 6 weeks or risk injury that would require surgery & cost him 6 months. Nothing. As in, well, nothing. Especially run a breakfast/lunch cafe at the start of season.

So he assembled Team Boynton & shared he was out of action from life in general until mid July. Confident in that knew we could handle it, but still not a conversation any Chef/Owner ever wants to have.

The very last thing he said was - “Guys, I want you to bring the ruckus”.

Very well….game on 😉

That Friday (June 7th) was the first time I made a concerted effort to make a variety of donut flavors. Pictured clockwise - a tower of Classic, the first incarnation of Blueberry Lemonade, a Chocolate Ganache glazed, my first attempt at a Samoa Girl Scout cookie donut, and finally a Dutch Apple Crumb.

A whopping 4 dozen donuts. I was so proud (and so exhausted LOL)

Reaction? Everyone lost their minds. Sold out really f-a-s-t!! Hmmmmm….. 🤔

So every Friday I would do donuts like these, to the point we started to refer to Friday’s donuts as “the ruckus”. Quantities increased steadily. Sell outs continued like clockwork. More & more varieties emerged. Eventually one morning I made 100 donuts. About killed me. (Irony- in a few hours we’re gonna make 1300+)

I started doing “the ruckus” daily. Donut sales skyrocketed. More & more donuts, varieties. I got better & better at my craft.

So when it became obvious that “this” could become its own thing what to name the fledgling business? 🤔

And that’s how Ruckus Donuts was born 😊

And for those who believe in fate/etc today is my dad’s birthday. Donut think that coincidence is not lost on me. I think about him all the time & how much he would have LOVED what’s transpired. I miss my hero so much 💔

Tomorrow, the first Friday of June, is National Donut Day! We will, aside from finishing our prep for the insanity that will be the Rockport Donut Festival on Saturday (it actually begins Friday late afternoon but the majority of donut vendors won’t be there until Saturday) be making about 50% more donuts for the counter than any other Friday thus far in 2024. Based on the volume of preorders we anticipate a brisk morning as people celebrate their favorite circular pastry 🍩

And a reminder - the Rockland shop will be closed on Saturday so that we can concentrate all our energy on the Donut Festival.

Not sure who the patron Saint of bodily joints & connective tissues is (St Ibuprofen?) but please say a few prayers for mine LOL

Donut Fest Weekend begins!

What’s this?!? Ruckus Donuts at Andes Variety in Warren…on Wednesday?!?

Yup!!!

Starting today you can get your Ruckus on 2x a week at Andes Variety - Wednesdays AND Fridays!!

So many of y’all have mentioned to me how much you look forward to Fridays at Andes. Well now you can get excited about Wednesdays too!!

We aim to be there by 7am each Wednesday & Friday with made fresh from scratch, only a few hours old donuts in both unfilled & filled varieties so you can start your morning right 😊

It’s our first Wednesday counter of 2024! As of today we will now be open weekly Wednesday thru Sunday 7:30 until we sell out….

…except for this Saturday when we will be at the 2nd annual Rockport Donut Festival! Come see us & many other Maine donut vendors there!

It’s Grad Box time! Celebrate your member of the Class of 24’ with a school themed, personalized dozen! Each Grad box contains a dozen vanilla flavored Ruckus Donuts with 8 unfilled, 4 filled, as well as a personalized donut just for the graduate!

Featured are the Grad Boxes for Oceanside, Medomak Valley and Camden Hills. Donut see your school? No problem! We can color coordinate a dozen just for you!

To get your Grad Box head over to our website, select your school & (important) make sure to add the graduate’s name in the Notes section of the order.

www.ruckusdonuts.com

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.”

Some of you long time Ruckateers may recognize this quote. It’s from The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

This was my MacBook wallpaper for over two years while Ruckus Donuts transitioned from being the rogue donut wing of the Boynton McKay Food Co to a brick n’ mortar donut shop of its own, my own.

I climbed that brick wall. Non stop. Day after week after year. Possessed. Focused. Driven.

Sometimes I’d make good ground. Sometimes I’d claw to gain an inch.

It became my mantra.

Sometimes the effort would get to be so much there’d be tears. But I never stopped.

Finally, on August 17th, 2021 I got to the top of that brick wall when we soft opened the shop.

Exhaustion. Exhilaration. Relief. Pride.

And, you may ask, what was the view like from atop that brick wall?

A thousand more walls just like it going off into the horizon. So many I couldn’t count them.

Now not all of them are the same height as that first one. Some are shorter, others…..not. The view behind me the same.

This Friday is a big wall. A terrifyingly huge wall. A wall that will take literal days to climb. The 2nd Rockport Donut Festival looms on Saturday and with it the knowledge of not only what we plan to do but the honest realization to pull it off, to make as many donuts as the event requires is going to push me beyond perceived limits. What I know as my capabilities won’t be anywhere near enough.

I’m stressed, worried, anxious, you name it. But in order to have something you’ve never had you must be willing to do something you’ve never done, in this case brick by brick.

It’s time…

We are, as of this Wednesday, going to our summer hours of being open Wednesday thru Sunday 7:30 until we sell out. You’ll now have an extra day midweek to get your Ruckus on!

And since we’re taking weekly schedule a heads up - our Rockland storefront will be closed this Saturday (June 8th) so that we can participate in the insanity that is the Rockport Donut Festival. We will be open (but not necessary coherent) on Sunday.

Busy, busy week at Ruckus Donuts!

It’s happening this weekend! *eek* Pretty certain I won’t be sleeping for a few days to pull off what we have planned.

On that note, our Rockland shop will be closed Saturday, June 8th. Come see us & all the other donut vendors at the Rockport Donut Festival !

FEAST YOUR EYES ON THIS! The Rockport Donut Festival is this Friday & Saturday at Harbor Marine Park! See you there!
Ruckus Donuts
The Holy Donut
The Only Doughnut
Old Time Donuts

The Gluten Free Kitchen
Beth's Farm Market
Moody's Diner

Well, another was post, as in this was our counter at 7:30 when we opened. 27 varieties (the amazing chocolate Long John’s made couldn’t even get a seat, er, tray we had so many)

And we opened to a line at least a 1/3 of the way down the 300 block of Main Street and yada yada yada *p**f* hung the SOLD OUT around 9:30. Anything with rhubarb and pecans went P**F! and fast.

Feels like summer….

Now a deep breath as we begin to prep and plan for the busiest weekend of the year as the 2nd Rockport Donut Festival beckons us next Saturday *eek*

To be continued…

Some of you have been waiting over half a year for this morning….

Hint - a donut that rhymes with “frubarb ritters” makes its 2024 debut at 7:30am. First come first served…

Welcome back, after a way too long “What the heck were we thinking?” absence on the Ruckus Donuts stage - Pecan Rolls!!!

Our only on the weekend, slightly infamous Cinnamon Rolls kicked up a notch with our salted caramel glaze & a generous smather (I donut know if smather is an actual word but it’s accurate) of toasted pecans.

On the topic of nuts: we take nut allergies VERY seriously. Among the protocols we have are:

- any & all nut themed donuts are sequestered away from the other donuts on a dedicated finishing rack
- all nut donuts are always finished last after all other donuts are done
- any nut themed donuts are always displayed on the bottom tier of our display (so no nuts fall down onto other donuts) and in a corner to minimize proximity to other donuts
- we have dedicated utensils, cutting boards, trays/pedestals, even espresso drink tools (look for the blue taped ones) only used for nut based items

And while we cannot 100% guarantee that there isn’t some minute trace cross contamination rest assured we have done all we can to minimize it 😊

3:15am:

Punched donuts (we call them blanks) waiting to be sized, placed on a fry screen & then into the proofing cabinet for a warm, humid nap before their date with Tuck (our donut fryer).

I’ve been here for just over 2 hours. rolls in a lil before 3am, we have a short production meeting and then it’s on, as in rolling out dough & punching out donut rounds.

We’re also on as in on the clock. Yeast dough like our buttermilk brioche waits for no one. It proofs at a certain rate and when it’s ready to fry…it’s game time. Wait too long and it overproofs, fry too soon and the underproofed dough will let you know you were impatient.

Many mornings Emily & I are punching (we punch ever donut individually by hand) donuts feverishly as we race the clock. Tick tock tick tock never stops….

If everything goes right (and this is where 8 years of experience comes in handy) the donuts are punched & proofing in a staggered time line so that every screen is at its optimal moment to transform from raw dough to a perfectly proofed & fried Ruckus Donut.

A rite of passage of the seasons at Ruckus Donuts - the first Rhubarb Crisp donuts of the year. Toasted oats are mixed with The Crumble for the crisp portion, which is adorned over our vanilla glaze (think melted ice cream) and a generous portion of rhubarb compote.

While not a fruit, it is the first harvestable local item of the season that gets incorporated into donuts. This batch is courtesy of a beautiful harvest of stalks from a devoted Ruckateers’s garden ❤️

When Rhubarb Crisp arrives it means summer is almost here & with it all the wonderful fruit bounty we look forward to making all kinds of donuts with every year.

All that said, rhubarb does have a season so please enjoy these now before they disappear until next late spring.



PS - I was today years old when I learned there’s a rhubarb song 😂

To paraphrase a famous Daniel Day Lewis character “There will be rhubarb compote”

Rhubarb Crisp returns to the Ruckus Donuts menu starting tomorrow 😉

Going the extra mile has taken on a whole new meaning for me…

If I had told Past Todd (defined as c. 2021 Todd) that he’d be spending approximately 24 hours either delivering and/or actually selling donuts somewhere other than the Rockland shop this past week I’m fairly certain he would have given you some manner of O.o eyes.

Really? An entire day’s worth of time either behind a driver’s wheel or in a popup tent?

Truth…

And it’s not even summer yet!

I had 3 personal goals for Ruckus Donuts for 2024:

1. Get better at my craft
2. Find a few more wholesale partners aka “cool people doing cool things”
3. Increase the number of popup events we do

I’m incredibly hard on myself as far as my craft. That said, I’ve never been more confidant than I am right now. The past 6-9 months have had me both disgusted (furious?) as my abilities as well as daring to believe this 10,000 hours to master something may have some truth to it. Am I a master at my craft? Hell no!!! But I’ve spent every early morning picking apart minutiae of it. Subtle things. Obvious ones. Tweeks. Observations. Hell, even a massive screw up which turned out to be a godsend!

More and more I feel I can help The Dough be the best it’s ever been.

As for the business part of the business, that too has taken up more time, more effort. There is working in the business & there is working on it. The reward for being successful at the later is that you get to spend more time doing the first. Etc, etc, etc…

You’ll be seeing us popup (literally) in more and more places this year. Which means more time for me behind a steering wheel going to & fro.

Going that extra mile. More like miles.

The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. Past Todd couldn’t comprehend how many marathons he’d be, and will be, running to get to where he wants Ruckus Donuts to be.

I donut get out of the shop very often people LOL

Come see me (yup, flying solo) at the Thomaston Spring Block Party going on now thru 3pm! A maker’s market, lotsa kid activities, live music and yes donuts. Hanging out with and in the “Food Court” that is the corner of the American Legion parking lot 😬

I brought 8 varieties of donuts plus a bunch of Cini Minis. It’s a beautiful late May Saturday to kick off Memorial Day weekend, come see me!

Happy Memorial Day weekend, and with it the unofficial official kick off of summer! We’ve got a lot going on today. Aside from one of the best, if not the best, counter of donuts we’ve offered this year AND our popup later today as part of the Thomaston Block Party we have a new donut. Meet Chocolate Crunch!

Chocolate Crunch came to be out of 1) wanting a chocolate donut that didn’t have sprinkles 2) having a chocolate donut that when in an individual portion bag for like, oh say, a donut festival all the glaze doesn’t stick to the bag due to the double chocolate brownie crumbles and 3) we thought it sounded pretty good!

One of these and an iced Ruckus Roast coffee and this gorgeous Saturday morning is even better!

While heading out the door this beautiful Friday morning to deliver donuts to both Andes Variety in Warren and in Union the early morning sun was just starting to come thru one of the Tillson Avenue windows, casting our display case in this really cool lighting. So thought I’d share with y’all 😊

And a heads up - we will be on the road tomorrow (Saturday 5/25) as a vendor at the Thomaston Spring Block Party in Thomaston! Event runs from 10-3, and we’ll be setting up along side and with fresh donuts (and a few surprises too) Multi vendor maker’s market, lotsa kid centric activities. So c’mon out, stop by, say “o hai” and get a donut (or two)!

And yes, the shop will still be open!

So here’s the deal:

We had a very nice special order to fulfill today. Yes, it’s Tuesday. We’re closed on Tuesdays. But we did such a good job fulfilling the order we didn’t need to utilize our budgeted extras (aka the “oops n’ whoops”) And since everything turned out soooo good it would be a shame to not make a few holiday themed W***y Vanilly & some raspberry Drops, brew a pot of Ruckus Roast and turn the OPEN sign on! LOL

I literally have 14 donuts as I type. If you need a fresh donut & cup of coffee stop by before they go *p**f*

Now off to prep for tomorrow….