Ship Bottom’s Shore Good Donuts, the area’s only made-to-order doughnut shop, celebrated its grand reopening following Superstorm Sandy on Saturday with free coffee and fresh doughnuts for everyone who stopped in. By the end of the day, more than 200 cups of coffee had been handed out, and the number of doughnuts served had been forgotten.
Mainstay doughnut flavors include lemon drop, French toast, cookies-n-cream, mape-n-bake, inside-out jelly and inside-out Boston cream. Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, maple and glaze icings are always offered, too.
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| Photo by Ryan Morrill Todd Hunt of Shore Good Donuts creates a special recipe to be used in the doughnut robot, during the store's grand reopening following Superstorm Sandy. |
Customers came in crowds to welcome the shop’s returning staff. John and Whitney Niles and their two sons Jake, 3, and Harry, 4, drove from Essex County to support their favorite LBI doughnut shop. The family has been vacationing in the area for many years.
“It’s kind of weird to drive an hour and a half for a doughnut, but we love it here, and we’re glad it’s back to normal,” said John.
The Nileses said they drove around the Island on Thanksgiving to check out the devastation and have been following Shore Good Donuts’ recovery via Facebook.
“The resilience of these people is remarkable, so when we heard they were opening we decided to come down and make a day of it,” said Whitney. “The doughnuts are great, the coffee is spectacular, and the people are above and beyond. And we never shy away from a day at the beach,” she added.
Brothers Jake and Harry, operating on an obvious sugar high, indulged in three of their favorite doughnuts while visiting.
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| Photo by Ryan Morrill Customers came from as far as Essex County to welcome Shore Good Donuts back to LBI and to indulge in free coffee and doughnuts. |
When a major disaster such as Superstorm Sandy devastates your town and doughnut business, the only sensible thing to do is to create a tasty treat in its memory. The “Sandy Donut,” topped with butternut crunch, and the “Hurricane Sandy,” a blend of your favorite doughnut and ice cream, are now on the menu for good, as well. “Debris,” such as rainbow and chocolate sprinkles, shredded coconut and chopped peanuts, can be added to the “Hurricane Sandy” for an extra 99 cents.
“Sandy’s in our memories forever. She’s a mainstay now,” said Todd Hunt, co-owner of Shore Good Donuts.
Hunt, as well as the public, got a fly-on-the-wall view of the devastation that Sandy wrought inside Shore Good Donuts’ building three hours before the power went out at 10:18 p.m. on Oct. 29, via one of the shop’s inside surveillance cameras. The six-minute time-lapse video was picked up by the Weather Channel and featured on the network’s top five videos of the week during the wake of the storm. The video on You Tube has more than 3,000 hits to date.
But Internet fame did not change the fact that Shore Good Donuts had 32 inches of floodwater damage to deal with. Everything in the building four feet and down had to be ripped out and replaced. All of the shop’s equipment was ruined, except, fortunately, for the doughnut robot, which spits out warm, fresh doughnuts in a matter of minutes while customers wait for their orders.
Although the shop lost some business because of the storm, since it usually closes for the season after the holidays in December and opens again just before Easter, Hunt said the storm gave him the opportunity to revamp some things.
“We probably could have opened up two weeks ago, but we wanted to take our time and get everything back to normal, fix some things and make things better than before. I think that’s where we’re at today,” he said.
Hunt had also written to Gov. Christie a month in advance to invite him to the grand reopening. Although Christie wasn’t able to attend, Hunt said he’s glad the governor now knows the business in there. Hunt hopes Christie will stop in sometime during the summer.
Shore Good Donuts will open for daily business during Memorial Day weekend. Hard ice cream will be introduced in the shop this summer. Customers will also be able to order doughnuts through the shop’s new website, shoregooddonuts.com, which should be up and running soon. Directions on how to warm the doughnuts will be provided with all shipments.
The “Easter Basket Donut,” glazed and topped with yellow sprinkles and a blue Peep will be available throughout Easter weekend. The shop will be open Friday, March 29 through Sunday, March 31 between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m.
For more information, visit the shop’s Facebook page at facebook.com/pages/Shore-Good-Donuts/194074517310067?ref=ts&fref=ts, or call 609-492-0100.
— Kelley Anne Essinger
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