Por Morgan M. Hurley | Editor

Donut Bar owners are finding themselves increasingly on the rise

In March 2013, Santiago Campa and his longtime partner in life, Wendy Bartels, opened up a humble but festive little doughnut shop on B Street in Downtown San Diego. They called it Donut Bar.

The first day it opened, the line to get in the door was all the way down the street and around the corner. Since then, it is a rare day if they will have any doughnuts left by noon. Their 35 doughnut varieties are presented 22 at a time on a daily basis, with 10 of those what they call their “solid core” and the rest on rotation.

Their unique flavors, coupled with their whimsical decorations and quality products, have made them a staple in a metropolis that before their arrival hadn’t even seen a doughnut shop, let alone supported one.

But as 2013 went along and word continued to spread about this unusual new little doughnut shop in Downtown San Diego, the awards started trickling in.

Soon, the local awards began piling up and before long, the national awards also began to arrive. It seemed every time they turned around they were a favorite on some internet or travel site contest and suddenly they were nationally known. People came from across the country — and the world — to check out their fare.

“I really love the social media aspect of running a small business in this day and age,” Campa said to those gathered at a recent Six Degrees networking group lunch.

He’s doing something right there, too, because nearly 32,000 people follow their Facebook page, which posts their menu on a daily basis, shares photos of luscious doughnuts and whatever else is happening on Campa’s calendar — which he says is always filled to the brim — on any given day.

Their latest social media playground is Instagram — where they have more than 54,000 followers — and its new app, Instasnap.

While he admits he was never professionally trained as a pastry or bakery chef, Campa, aka “Chef Santiago,” wears his white coat with pride. As he should. He cured his kitchen passions during a decade in the five-star hotel industry, including the Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons and Grand Hyatt. Then he spent another eight years racing motorcycles, before one day realizing his calling was in the baking industry.

Bartles, who spent time in catering, had also owned her own business for 25 years, giving her the acumen she needed to handle such an upwardly mobile, popular brand.

Earlier this year, the couple bought out the Robek’s Juice space next door and expanded, adding not only ice cream — with a doughnut cone, of course — but beer to the menu.

“We knew we had to expand the space to make more doughnuts,” Campa said. “Sometimes we were selling out at 9:30-10 o’clock in the morning, and it was just because our production was so limited.”

He said while a 30-percent increase in doughnut production just wasn’t enough to justify the build out, they began kicking around ideas. Campa said his first thought was ice cream.

“But I looked at the numbers and not just the numbers, I looked to see what people wanted,” he said. “And you know what? People love beer.”

So they shifted gears and added 24 taps — 23 of local craft beers and one rotating “out of towner” — and kept the ice cream idea, too.

“Yep, we have a doughnut ice cream cone,” Campa mused. “We fill it with vanilla soft serve — and not just any soft serve — we fill it with Madagascar vanilla bean ice cream and sprinkle caramel on top. People can’t wait to get to the doughnut.”

While they still cater to their morning crowds, since expanding, they now also turn the music and vibe up a notch on Fridays and Saturdays, with a second shift from 5–11 p.m., when Donut Bar turns into a hipster-style joint where fresh doughnuts and beer are both on tap.

“For all the young parents out there, it is now a place where you can bring your kids and belly up to the bar, so to speak, and enjoy a fun atmosphere,” he said. “You can have a beer and your kid can have a doughnut, ice cream, or chocolate or strawberry milk on tap.”

After opening with just two employees in 2013, they currently top out with a staff of nearly 30 today, who help them run not only the B Street shop but also all the weddings and special events they are in such high demand for. On Dias de los Muertos alone, they made 1,000 doughnuts in the shape of sugar skulls for Sycuan Casino. Bartels did six weddings Halloween weekend and Campa said she could have easily done 20.

With all this activity, business is definitely booming, but the only way you can really tell Campa is richer is by the Lamborghini he parks in front of the B Street location. His personality hasn’t changed a bit, despite the fact that less than three years after opening, the Donut Bar brand has continued to explode — so much so that later this month, Campa is heading to San Francisco to be honored as one of Yelp’s 100 Top Business Leaders in the country.

“Man, I don’t even have words for it,” Campa said. “It is absolutely amazing. I don’t think I’m going to be able to grasp just how important it is, or the magnitude of the award, until I get there and I’m able to meet with these other 100 business leaders from around the country and speak with the owner of Yelp one-on-one.”

In addition to expanding the inaugural store, Campa and Bartels also opened a storefront in downtown Las Vegas this year — which matches their decision to only open “destination locations” in the future — will be profiled on Animal Planet’s “Tanked” show later this month.

In 2017, they will be ramping up things even more, with 50 destinations across the U.S. that will be incorporated into a franchising plan.

“It’s definitely challenged my above-average organizational skills I think, but I’m still rising to the challenge,” Bartels said about Donut Bar’s success. “[Campa] always wants to set the bar higher, so I just try to keep up with things organizationally.”

When it opened, Donut Bar, was making 2,000 doughnuts per day. Today that number is 3,000 per day during the week and up to 4,000 on Fridays and Saturdays, not counting special orders.

“The most rewarding thing is seeing it all work,” Bartels said. “I’ll go home and read some Yelp reviews, or when I walk through the restaurant, people will stop and thank me and tell me they had a wonderful time with their family and that they came to San Diego from Ohio just to go to Donut Bar and the other things in San Diego. It’s a very nice feeling when you realize you’ve created something special for nice people.”

Campa agrees that it is the community that has helped them get this far; he and Bartels may be guiding it, but their support has given the brand a life of its own.

“That is why we call it San Diego Donut Bar. It belongs to the community,” he said. “I didn’t think the hug could get any stronger, but San Diego just keeps holding us tighter and tighter all the time and we’re right there to give the love back to them.”

Follow them on Instagram @DonutBar.

—Morgan M. Hurley puede ser contactado en [email protected].