"What do you think of when you think of doughnuts?" Hypnotic Donuts' owner James St. Peter asks me.
Um, coffee?
Nope.
Sugar?
"No, no, no," says St. Peter, who's obviously never going to pick me to be his Password partner on Board Game Night. "People like their doughnuts fresh and...."
Thank goodness more of my sources don't spread their news through riddles. What the puckish St. Peter was trying to tell me was that this weekend he'll be serving cold doughnuts, which could either be his single greatest contribution to summertime fried dough art or his worst idea yet.
"I think it's going to be awesome," St. Peter says of the doughnut smeared with lemon frosting, dipped in white chocolate and chilled to 40-degrees. "But we'll see how it goes. We might bite into it and it might be solid as a rock."
St. Peter, who started his doughnut career with Facebook-heralded "donut drops" about four months ago, isn't shy about experimenting. His second most-popular doughnut is slathered with Tabasco sauce and topped with jalapenos; this weekend, he's premiering the Macho Nacho, a glazed doughnut crowned with jalapenos, queso and refried beans.
"You've got to get out of the doughnut mindset," says St. Peter, who recently started selling his donuts out of The Pizza Guy on most Saturday and Sunday mornings.
"We're different from the traditional point-and-go model," St. Peter says of his guerrilla set-up, in which doughnuts are customized to order. "What's exciting about that?"
St. Peter plans to add biscuit sandwiches to his menu next month: He's most excited about a preparation featuring fried chicken, a sausage patty, sausage links, bacon, cheddar cheese and cream gravy.
"It's no more than 2,500 calories," he says with a laugh.
"I'm doing it for the fun," St. Peter says of his operation. "Our mission is passion before profit."
