Much Ado About Donuts
I’d never been to the grand opening of a Krispy Kreme Donut franchise before last Saturday night but I’ve got to believe they aren’t all quite like the one held Dec. 2. It had to be the most Austintatious party of the busy first holiday weekend, with the combined rolodexes of GSD&M and Comida Deluxe to make up the invitation list and beloved local Grammy winners Asleep at the Wheel providing musical entertainment. Flowing crowds of donut lovers pressed their noses against the big picture window and watched, transfixed, as thousands of hot glazed donuts streamed down the conveyor belt for the duration of the event. With the neon “Hot Donuts Now” sign blazing, new franchisees Roy Spence and Mike Young spent the evening at the end of that conveyor belt handing out hot donuts to their guests, giving guided tours of the donut kitchen and generally acting like delighted boys with a brand new toy. The gleeful pair of local moguls have both the financial clout and multiple-unit restaurant experience required to land the franchise and with partners Randy Willard, Judy Trabulsi, John Zapp, and Paul Brady, aka Glazing Saddles Inc., they plan to open at least nine more outlets in the Austin/San Antonio area. Surely with a kick-start like this party, Austin’s second Krispy Kreme (12586 Research, 219-0119) outlet will fare much better than the initial Krispy Kreme outpost that opened and closed here during the late Seventies. The new store opened at 5:30am, on Dec. 5.
Brand New Kitchen
Central Market Cooking School (4001 N. Lamar, 458-3068) director Cathy Cochran-Lewis is busting her buttons with pride this week, due to the near completion of a much-needed $150,000 renovation of the cooking school facility. By offering more than 450 cooking classes every year, Central Market is the largest cooking school in the country for home cooks, and the classroom has long needed a facelift to put it in the same league, quality-wise, as the unique food store it represents. Resident chef Roger Mollet inaugurated the new classroom with a sold-out class Saturday morning, Dec. 2, and visiting celebrity chef Susanna Trilling of Seasons of My Heart Cooking School (www.seasonsofmyheart.com) in Oaxaca, Mexico, followed suit that same evening. Students were suitably impressed with the new granite countertops, expanded prep island, and tile backsplash. They oohed and aahed over the excellent line of appliances donated by the Viking Corp., including a six-burner cooktop, four-burner cooktop with grill, a double stack convection oven, a warming oven, a wine cooler, garbage disposals, and outdoor grilling range. A state-of-the-art video system, dual air conditioners, and expanded seating capacity are welcome changes, as well. The cooking school will hold a grand opening of the new facility and preview the 2001 Guest Chef lineup on Sunday, Jan. 21.
AWHQ Museum
Local restaurateur and keeper of the Armadillo World Headquarters flame Eddie Wilson is hard at work finishing a project he started several years ago when he opened a second Threadgill’s (301 W. Riverside, 472-9304) just a stone’s throw from the site of the original Armadillo. Wilson is busy adding 150 more pieces of AWHQ memorabilia such as blow-ups of Burton Wilson crowd photos (find your face in the crowd), the best examples from his extensive AWHQ poster art collection by such famed local artists as Guy Juke, Jim Franklin, and Ken Featherstone, and album covers of recordings made at the legendary Armadillo by the likes of Freddie King, Commander Cody, Frank Zappa, and Peter Rowan.
This article appears in December 8 • 2000.