Jersey City cannot get enough Krispy Kreme.
The chain’s new doughnut shop on Christopher Columbus Drive has been packed since its debut ten days ago, and even the co-owner admits he has been taken aback by the response.
“The craze of the first ten days has now gone into an hourly demand,” says Karl Halligan. “We had a great opening week and we look forward to serving Jersey City for the next 20 years.’
That’s how long the lease is, anyway, for the new Krispy Kreme shop, which occupies the former PNC Bank space, steps from the Grove Street PATH station.
The store makes a staggering 65,000 doughnuts daily. Krispy Kreme fanatics are even streaming in from New York City to pick up just-made doughnuts; the city’s lone Krispy Kreme shop, in Penn Station, gets its doughnuts from Pennsylvania.
The Jersey City location is Krispy Kreme’s first “factory” store in New Jersey; a “fresh” store is in Collingswood. Factory stores make doughnuts from scratch; fresh stores get doughnuts made elsewhere – in the Collingswood store’s case, Delaware – and finish them off on premises.
There’s an ordering system in Jersey City: One person takes your order and rings you up, while “expeditors” at the end of the counter fill orders.
If you want right-off-the-conveyor-belt doughnuts, tell the staffer at the register you want your doughnuts “hot.” The average check so far in Jersey City is about $12; a dozen Original Glazed goes for $9.99, while a dozen assorted is $10.99. About 60 percent of doughnut sales so far are Original Glazed; the other 40 percent, assorted.
Halligan and business partner John Mondry – the two also co-own Liberty Prime steakhouse in Jersey City – thought doughnuts when it came time to broaden their investment portfolio.
“We like to do something different instead of what everyone else does,” Halligan explained. “We have great love and desire for Krispy Kreme and always wondered why they weren’t in New Jersey.”
Krispy Kreme opened a store in Brick in 2003 but it later closed. There are about 300 shops in 41 states, and overall 1,000 shops in 25 countries.
Halligan has identified at least five distinct types of customers at the Jersey City location – a mid-morning “mom and pop” clientele, a lunch crowd, an after-school crowd, an after-work crowd, and a “chill out night crew.”
The store opens at 5 a.m. Monday-Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Closing time is 11 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 10 p.m. Sunday. Beginning March 1, customers can get their doughnuts even when the store is closed via a walk-up window.
Halligan is proud of his barista station where customers can order lattes, espressos, and in the near future, nitro coffee.
He and Mondry hope to open more stores in North Jersey, but there is no timetable; Edgewater or West New York are possibilities.
Krispy Kreme was started by Vernon Rudolph, who bought a doughnut shop in Paducah, Ky., and with a secret yeast-raised doughnut recipe he had acquired in New Orleans, opened shop.
Rudolph later moved the operation to Nashville. In 1937, he and two partners left Music City in a Pontiac, with $200 in cash, several pieces of doughnut-making equipment, and the secret recipe.
The doughnuts — just-made ones are heralded with stores turning on their “Hot Doughnuts Now” signs — have achieved cult status among their fanatical followers.
“The Appalachian love child of the souffle and croissant” is how Melissa Schoor described an Original Glazed doughnut in GQ magazine. “As warm as a June night in Tennessee, as sweet as a blonde belle, it tumbles effortlessly to the bottom of your stomach.”
Peter Genovese may be reached at pgenovese@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PeteGenovese or via The Munchmobile @NJ_Munchmobile. Find the Munchmobile on Facebook and Instagram.
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