Donut Nation: A Cross-Country Guide to America's Best Artisan Donut Shops by Ellen Brown

Author:Ellen Brown [Brown, Ellen]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780762456055
Publisher: Running Press
Published: 2015-05-12T04:00:00+00:00

THE TATONUT SHOP

OCEAN SPRINGS, MISSISSIPPI

The TatoNut Shop

1114 Government Street

Ocean Springs, Mississippi 39564

(228) 872-2076

www.tatonut.com

While some people may think that adding potato to a donut sounds like a bizarre marriage, they change their minds once they’ve had a yeast-raised potato donut at the TatoNut Shop. In the wonderful world of food chemistry, the addition of potato to a baked good—or in this case a fried good—cuts back on gluten formation, so the donuts are ethereally light and almost melt in your mouth.

While the TatoNut Shop, housed in an adorable yellow clapboard building with awnings sheltering the outside tables, also makes a full range of cake donuts, ranging from devil’s food and blueberry to strawberry and pumpkin, the vast majority of the daily production of three-hundred to four-hundred dozen donuts a day is permutations on the potato dough. The plain glazed donut reigns supreme, but the dough is also braided into twists and turned into what the shop names a Persian, its variation on a cinnamon bun.

You could say that donuts were destiny for Ocean Springs native David Mohler. His father opened a Spudnuts franchise in the Gulf Coast village in 1960 to supplement his income as an air traffic controller, because he had seven sons to feed at home. He would work almost all night making donuts and then head to his day job. After work and a meal, along with a few hours of sleep, it started all over again.

David was in the middle of the pack age-wise, and he remembers going to the shop before he went to school to help with the morning rush. It was in the early 1970s that the name of the shop was changed to the TatoNut, and one of David’s brothers ran it for some time while David was working in other parts of the country.

David returned and took over the shop in 1983, when he was 23 years old. It was in the shop that he met his wife, Theresa, who has worked alongside him for the past twenty years. David and Theresa close the shop on Sundays and Mondays every week so they can rest up for the five grueling days they’re open.

In addition to the donuts, the shop also sells unusual flavors of coffee beans, including German Chocolate Cake, Cinnamon Butter Cookie, and Irish Cream. It’s also known for its delicious fruit smoothies.

Ocean Springs was one of the communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. While the shop was not harmed, many of the employees’ homes were destroyed. And, of course, the shop’s supply lines for ingredients from New Orleans took months to restore. That was when the shop started making bits of fried dough from whatever scraps were left from other donuts. They became known as “Katrina Pieces,” and they’re still being made today as a reminder of the resilience the town demonstrated during that sad time.

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