On Restaurants | Not just doughnuts
By
Denise Trowbridge
View Slideshow
Jeff Hinckley | Dispatch photos
Server Diane Malas waits on the Pucketts — from left, Sharon, Lee and Annie — at the newly renovated Honey Dip Donuts Diner.
Honey Dip Donuts has added two more words to its name:
and diner.
The 37-year-old Kenny Road institution shut its doors for three months last fall to renovate the
space, turning it from exclusively a doughnut shop into a doughnut shop and diner.
“We just got to the point where we needed to spice it up,” said owner George Nicoloulias. “We
needed it and the area needed it, because there isn’t a breakfast place nearby. The response has
been overwhelming.”
Now, in addition to apple fritters and its assortment of glazed, iced, powdered and filled
doughnuts, Honey Dip serves omelets, eggs, pancakes and a selection of more than a dozen
sandwiches, soups and salads.
The meal fare is simple and inexpensive: two eggs with home fries and toast for $3.99, or $5.99
if you add a side of bacon, sausage or ham. Omelets range from $4.99 to $6.49. Options include
cheese, vegetarian, Western and Greek, with tomato, onion, green pepper and feta cheese.
Two pancakes — including blueberry and chocolate options — are $3.99. A fried-egg-and-cheese
sandwich served on Texas toast is $2.75. Breakfast is served all day.
The lunch menu includes gyros for $4.95; a $3 grilled cheese sandwich on Texas toast; a coney
dog with homemade sauce, onion and mustard for $3.10; and hamburgers, fish sandwiches and grilled
chicken sandwiches for $3.50 to $4.95.
And then there are the doughnut sandwiches, with glazed doughnuts replacing the bread or
bun.
There’s a doughnut BLT, egg sandwiches served between doughnuts, and the doughnut burger — a
hamburger served on a bun made of grilled glazed doughnuts.
“I got the idea from the Ohio State Fair,” Nicoloulias said. A vendor there served something
similar.
“Everything is the same except for the bun, and we put that doughnut on the grill, which
caramelizes the sugar. It gives it a really rich taste. We’ve sold a lot. People love them.”
The marriage of doughnuts and other breakfast foods was no small undertaking.
Nicoloulias turned a back storage room into additional dining-room space, and he had to retrofit
the kitchen to include not just baking equipment, but everything needed to grill and fry foods.
Although the shop’s retro exterior remains unchanged, inside the counters have been moved and
the kitchen is larger.
The seating capacity has gone from a handful of swivel stools at the bar and a few small tables
to space for 69 people.
“It’s bigger than it looks from the outside,” he said.
The three-month renovation “took longer than we had planned, but it’s been well worth it,” he
said.
Asked about the price, he chuckled and said, “It wasn’t cheap. I’ve got two kids going into
college, and two in middle school. Don’t tell them the college money is gone.”
Renovation, he said, was necessary for many reasons. The restaurant needed a bit of a face-lift,
and consumer tastes have changed.
“The doughnut business is not what it used to be,” Nicoloulias said. “People are more
health-conscious now. Doughnut sales are still good, but breakfast adds to it.”
The numbers say the doughnut business isn’t exactly hurting, despite consumers’ reported desires
for more healthful dining options.
According to
Baking Management magazine, doughnut sales have increased or held steady all through the
recession. In 2010, sales of fresh-baked doughnuts rose 8.4 percent compared with the year
before.
But where people buy doughnuts has changed.
“There aren’t too many mom-and-pop doughnut shops left,” Nicoloulias said. “Now, all the big
corporations like Dunkin Donuts and Tim Hortons are everywhere, and a lot of them don’t even make
the doughnuts in the stores.”
Honey Dip, he said, needed to expand its options to become more relevant.
It’s working.
“We’re drawing in new people, and we hope to have even more once the word gets out.”
Grandview’s ‘Plus’
Rocco’s Pizza Plus opened at 1664 W. 1st Ave. in Grandview Heights on Jan. 31. It’s owned by
some of the same people behind Bexley Pizza Plus and Gahanna Pizza Plus and has similar offerings:
52 pizza toppings, 28 specialty pizzas, subs, salads and desserts such as gelato.
The house special is a red-sauce pizza with applewood smoked bacon, roasted red peppers,
caramelized onions, goat cheese and cilantro. Rocco’s is open for lunch and dinner every day and
offers carryout, delivery and dine-in seating for 75.
Fruit on the go
Edible to Go opened at 14 N. High St. Downtown last month. The restaurant is a subsidiary of the
Edible Arrangements company, known for its fresh-fruit arrangements.
The restaurant focuses on healthful and quick “grab and go” options such as fruit smoothies,
fresh-squeezed fruit juice, fruit salads, chocolate-dipped fruit and parfaits. It also sells the
fruit arrangements the company is known for.
There are 100 Edible to Go locations in the U.S., and the company plans to open 200 more this
year.
“Consumers are on the go all the time, and they want healthy alternatives when it comes to
reaching for a snack or a beverage,” said CEO Tariq Farid.
The Downtown location is owned by Chris Bukovac, current owner of the Grandview Heights and
Reynoldsburg Edible Arrangements locations.
Denise Trowbridge, Dispatch restaurant columnist, can be reached at
onrestaurants@dispatch.com.
