Johnny Doughnuts | San Francisco Food Truck
There’s a distinct moment when satisfaction topples into overindulgence. We get our hands on something we’ve been craving, and suddenly we’re staring at a plate of crumbs, groaning and holding our hands over a belly full of five servings’ worth of food. (This is actually pretty typical of any Behind the Food Carts team meeting.) There are a few admirable people out there who can enjoy a good thing and be content, but most of us barrel right over that line.
Craig Blum of Johnny Doughnuts gets it. As a purveyor of one of the more delightful food forms on the planet, he’s all too familiar with overindulgence. “To me, eating doughnuts can be like eating jelly beans for dinner,” he says. “You’re really excited to eat a doughnut and eat two, three, four doughnuts and feel sick but not satisfied. I feel like we’ve been able to accomplish satisfaction. You can get four doughnuts, cut them into a bunch of pieces, share them with friends, and feel totally satisfied. And you don’t feel sick, because all the ingredients we use are top-notch.”
“I feel like we’ve been able to accomplish satisfaction.”
Top-notch and well-researched. His cool-milled flours come from a 200-year old flour mill in Utah. His produce and dairy are always locally-sourced. And the dough recipe for his raised doughnuts is based on a recipe from the early 1900s utilizing fresh potatoes, of all things. “What’s that going to do is give you more substance,” Craig explains. “So you’re going to have a doughnut that’s not just this airy kind of experience.”
An experience his customers have been clamoring for since day one. (When his brick-and-mortar launched, they sold out within three hours.) Fans line up for creative concoctions such as the CroDough, Craig’s take on New York’s Cronut trend. Rich vanilla pastry cream layered with his signature dough, the CroDough is a masterpiece of texture and flavor.
While definitely one of our favorites, Craig advises you get the crew’s take on which of their doughnuts would best satisfy you. “All the people that are on the truck are really knowledgeable. We get that question all the time. ‘What’s the most popular? What’s your favorite?’ And the question back is always, ‘Well, what do you like?’ We have 20+ varieties of doughnuts on the truck, and chances are there’s going to be something on there you’re going to respond to. We don’t want to give you our experience, we want you to have your own experience.”
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