Doughnuts return to downtown Seaside

News > Local News:

New bakery opens along BroadwayBy Jeremy C. Ruark
Seaside Signal
(Created: Thursday, September 24, 2009 11:36 AM PDT)

If you have been craving a chocolate-covered doughnut with your morning coffee, now you can head to downtown Seaside for that sugar fix.  Dundee’s Donuts has opened along Broadway right next to Dundee’s Bar and Grill. 

Owners Neil and Stacey Dundas, who also operate the bar and grill, opened the bakery because “it kind of rounded us out,” said Dundas, whose wife is a fourth-generation baker.  Her parents own the Cannon Beach Bakery, “so it was kind of a natural,” to open the bakery in Seaside,” he said.

The bakery opened Sept. 12; it offers a variety of doughnuts, some with Butterfinger Bars topping, others with Heath Bar topping, some with different glazes, some with chocolate frosting, and some with maple frosting.

 “Whatever our customers might want to try, we’re going to give it a shot,” said Dundas.  “I was trying to dress ‘em up and make ‘em fun.  But I found out real quick that a lot of the customers want just a plain old cake doughnut to dunk in their coffee.  They said they just wanted the good old-fashion cake donut with no glaze or anything else,” said Dundas. 

You’ll pay anything from 50 cents for a cake donut to $2.50 for an apple fritter.  Right now, the bakery offers customers doughnuts, coffee, and espresso drinks.  It opens at 7 a.m. and stays open until they run out of donuts. 

Dundas hopes to add ovens to make breads, muffins, scones and cookies;  once those additions are made he hopes to have the bakery open from 7 a.m. to midnight. 

So far no new employees have been hired to help run the new bakery.  “Right now we are just kind of burning the candle at both ends,” said Dundas. 

He is working as counter person and his wife bakes the doughnuts. 

Opening the bakery is also stabilizing for his overall crew he said.

“This is going to help us keep all of our staff and keep their hours, and they will be able to take care of their families.”

Dundas has already started cross-training some of the restaurant’s cooks to help out with the baking at night.  “So we won’t have to lay anybody off or cut their hours.  Which is nice,” Dundas explained.  Dundas Bar and Grill employs about 23 workers. 

Seaside has not had a downtown bakery in a number of years. Dundas believes it is time to offer what folks are asking for. 

He wants to target “everybody” as customers for the new bakery. “We hope the people just walking down the street in the morning, looking for a cup of coffee and a doughnut will stop in.  It’s just quick and easy, and then out the door, or they can also sit down and relax,” said Dundas. 

He said the bakery now allows his restaurant to offer more desserts for the dining crowd.

Several large-screen televisions have been installed at each of the booths in the bakery allowing sports fans to follow their favorite games.  Parents can switch on programs to keep their kids engaged while at the bakery.

So what’s Dundas’s favorite doughnut?  It’s the buttermilk bars.