Today we’d like to introduce you to Dane Newton.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I am the owner of Dane’s Donuts. The dream of opening my own donut shop has been a dream of mine since I was eight years old. I started by my mom giving me a leather bound journal that I started jotting down all my brilliant ideas such as the Sand Bar, Hangin’ 10 Bear Claw, and The Wedge. My mom and dad have been super supportive of my dream and never hesitated to take me to cooking classes as a kid to learn how to make donuts. I also would love to watch my dad cook and was always learning what made his smoked meats better than everyone else’s I have tried. I also got my first job at 14 working in a bakery, Baking Betty’s Cookies, where I got my first-hand experience of what it’s like to truly be a baker. Throughout high school and my teen years, everyone knew me as Dane’s Donuts, kids practically thought it was my last name at that point. I was working at Volcom when I was thinking of more ways to come up with some money, “why don’t you start Dane’s Donuts.” Just with that thought, no second guess, I decided I was going to make my dream a reality.
With the help of my friends and family; I got enough money to buy my starting equipment, spray painted my van to look like a magical donut delivery van, got my logo dialed in, and got exposure making it known that I started my business. So on September 22, 2019 I opened up Dane’s Donuts with a pop-up sale in the Goat-Hill Tavern parking lot that sold out of donuts in one hour! Only two months down the line when I got the offer from William, the owner of Baguette Me, to open up out of his restaurant and be able to use half of his kitchen for my baking purposes. I took the opportunity and on December 14th, 2019 I have my own little retail store that I have been selling donuts out of for the past couple months. I have two people that help me with every decision as they are my co-owners which is Noah Ward and Max Moore whom I consider brothers, love them very dearly, and am doing everything possible to make my dream a success!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has been rough opening a business especially at the age of 19 where experience and finances are at a low. Nonetheless, never let it stop me. Originally we had a tiny fryer at max capacity could only fry 12 donuts at a time which is extremely tedious when you are trying to make 150 donuts. So we had to find a bigger fryer that was in our price range which was 1500 dollars. We ended up finding one fro 1100 dollars that has been working perfectly for us for the past two months. I would say our biggest obstacle is not being able to buy the equipment that we need which leaves us to come up with ways to make pieces of equipment ourselves. We have made a new donut depositor which helps us make cake donuts by depositing molds of doughs into the fryer to make donuts, which took hours of home depot runs and studying the piece of equipments blueprints.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Dane’s Donuts is the staple donut shop to the surf community/culture and a business rooted in Christ. We specialize in making surf-themed donuts such as the Sand Bar donut which is a bar donut with a vanilla glaze covered in a cinnamon sugar streusel to mimic a Sand Bar in the ocean. Another donut would be the Hangin 10′ Bear Claw which is my own creation of a Bear Claw to have ten toes to mimic having ten toes on the noes of your longboard which is known as “Hangin 10.” We are also launching a new donut called The Holy Roller Donut which is a biscuit style donut with a vanilla glaze and then a powder stenciled verse which is going to be on top of the donut. For instance, it will say “James 1: 2-4” and then on the black chalkboard behind the register it will have the verse written out, “2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
This allows me to spread the word of God in a simple tasty delicious treat. I am most proud to say that our company is truly rooted in Christ as I begin every morning posting on our Instagram the verse of the day followed by a little break down of it and some words of encouragement. Along with when all trials and tribulations come up in the business, I accept that sometimes I don’t have control over the situation and ask for His Hand to guide us through our situation. My success and business is ultimately to bring Glory to God’s name as he has truly blessed me with a dream bigger than myself. With that one of my most important acts of service we do at Dane’s Donuts is that we donated all our donuts we don’t sell at the end of the day and donate them to Someone Cares Soup Kitchen. We truly try to serve our community to the fullest extent that we are capable of and for that, that’s what separates us from other restaurants.
What were you like growing up?
I have been a groom my whole life, what can I say. As a kid, I loved anything that pushed my physical limitation with the risk of getting hurt. That’s what started my love for skateboarding and surfing at the age of 8. My mom always wanted me to pursue “actual sports” so I continued to play soccer at the same time I was surfing and skateboarding. I was forced to play soccer as it was thought that I could get into college with my skills as a soccer player from my mother. With that, I played club, high school, and even semi-professionally for a UPSL men’s team but never went on to play for college.
At the same time that was happening, I was also on the Newport Harbor Surf Team where I was the 3rd in the State for bodyboarding and the captain of the surf team my senior year. I have grown up with a very determined mindset but can recognize that I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed. As a kid, I was placed in a special reading group where me and this girl with special needs would go get help from the school librarian on teaching us ways to read faster and stronger. That misfortune of me being bullied for a slow reader and being called stupid lead me to study IB Literature two years in high school and impressing my college professors by my creative writing papers. I don’t let people define who I am rather, I pick up that pen and write it down myself.
Pricing:
- Sand Bar $2.75
- Dozen Donuts $25.00
- The O Nut $2.75
- Vanilla Sprinkled $2.60
Contact Info:
- Address: 401 E 17th Street Costa Mesa 92627 CA
- Phone: 9494443050
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @danesdonuts
- Facebook: @danesdonuts
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/dane-s-donuts-costa-mesa
Image Credit:
From left to right Dane Newton, Noah Ward, Max Moore. John Rallis is to be created for the pictures taken.
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
