Elbow grease, traditions and family values: Examining the makings of Buckeye Donuts

Nick DeSantis
Thu, 17 Oct 2024 05:37:00 +0000
Arts & Life, Best of OSU, Entertainment, food & drink, Instagram Page, News, 24 hours, Best Late Night Eat, bricking the grill, Bryan Thomas, buckeye donut, buckeye donuts, cake donuts, cleanliness, coffee, Columbus, Columbus Ohio, cook, donuts, Eric Bretschnider, general manager, gyros, high street, mcdonald's, Ohio, ohio state, raising cane's, The Lantern, wendys, Yanni, yeast donuts

Bryan Thomas, cook at Buckeye Donuts, bags an order of french fries during his Monday shift. Credit: Nick DeSantis | Asst. Arts & Life Editor

Disclaimer: The Lantern’s “Best of OSU” polling was conducted via social media and should not be considered statistically representative of Ohio State’s extended student body.?

When searching for a late-night snack on Ohio State’s campus, a few obvious options emerge. The familiar signs of fast-food chains like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Raising Canes light up High Street, attracting a crowd of students and locals alike.

But between the neon signs, one may see a line forming outside a small shop with aromas of glazed sugars, gyros and coffee. The storefront — located at 1998 N. High St. — is home to Buckeye Donuts.

The shop opened 55 years ago and has since become one of High Street’s most iconic staples, winning “Best Late Night Eat” during The Lantern’s 2024 “Best of OSU” polling.?

Though many Columbus residents know the menu and its various donut offerings, including the signature Buckeye donut — a chocolate donut with chocolate glaze and peanut-butter filling — the process behind keeping the shop running 24 hours a day is a lesser-known tale.?

Eric Bretschneider, general manager and employee of Buckeye Donuts for over 20 years, said the eatery’s efficiency can be traced back to its training process.

“When we hire a new guy or girl, unless they come with a lot of cooking background experience, or they’ve been hired for a specific vacancy they’re experiencing, we’ll put them on the register first,” Bretschneider said. “So, any of these guys you see here can take the register, and then once they get familiar with the register, then we’ll start cross-training them in the back.”

Bretschneider said using this training method creates a work environment where employees are better equipped to handle unexpected situations.

Eric Bretschneider, general manager at Buckeye Donuts, prepares a sandwich in the kitchen Monday. Credit: Nick DeSantis | Asst. Arts & Life Editor

“At night shift, especially if [the store gets] really busy up front, they have two people working the register, and then they get a bunch of food tickets, and the guy in back is like, ‘I can’t keep up,’ the guy on the register can pop off and start helping him,” Bretschneider said.?

While the Buckeye Donuts team works 24 hours a day, Bretschneider said there are typically only six to nine employees working at any given point in time.?

“Each shift runs with a three-man principal crew, but then they also do the baking in the afternoon, which is an additional three on top of that,” Bretschneider said. “The mornings will be a little bit busier, and we’ll be taking care of the prep for the day, so we’ll be running like three up front and then four back.”?

Throughout one shift, Bretschneider said there is one aspect that is of particular importance — cleanliness.?

He said during all shifts, the staff will continuously clean any equipment or surface that isn’t in use. The most important step, however, is “bricking the grill,” a process which involves cleaning the grill with a brick.

“You throw some oil on [the brick] and we scrub it down with an abrasive material designed for cleaning the grill,” Bretschneider said. “Other places can use those chemical cleaners, but we don’t use chemical cleaners because we really don’t shut down. We don’t have time to get it clean enough that we can take chemicals to it and then get the chemical[s] off.”

For Bryan Thomas, a cook at Buckeye Donuts, every day begins with setting up for the breakfast rush.

“The grill will be on, so then we gotta cook all the bacon, cook all the sausage. A lot of times, they don’t do very much at night, you know, as far as restocking or cleaning or anything,” Thomas said.? “Usually, the first couple hours are just making sure everything’s stocked up in case we do get busy, and then looking to see what needs are addressed as far as cleaning.”

Thomas and Bretschneider agreed that the most prominent process in the shop, which has been perfected throughout the past 55 years, is the donut-making process.?

“We have a donut-baking machine. It’s a 70-year-old man named Yanni,” Bretschnieder said. “He’s been working here for 40 years and comes in on Friday, Saturday, Sunday mornings, and makes them.”

Bretschneider said the process for creating donuts is divided based on the shop’s two kinds of donuts: cake donuts and yeast donuts. He said the process of baking cake donuts tends to be less laborious and time-intensive than that of yeast donuts.?

“For the cake donuts, the mix will come in for the mixer,” Bretschneider said. “[The bakers] mix it up with some water. They’ll take it out and spread it on the table with the rolling pin. You’ll cut out your donut shape, put it on the screens and then you’ll put it in the fryer until it’s golden brown, delicious, flipping it a couple times, bring it out, give it a glaze and then it’s ready to serve.”?

Bretschneider said when it comes to yeast donuts, the baking process typically takes a few more hours. He said the process begins when a bag of yeast, along with sugar and water, is dumped into the mixer. The mixture is then set aside in order to grow before being kneaded and left in a proofing oven —?which keeps the dough warm while it is resting. After letting the dough rest once more, the finished product is ready to be fried and served.?

Thomas said for him, working in a community-centric environment has been extremely rewarding.

“You work at a corporate place, you got all these checklists, you got [general managers] coming in, and, you know, they’re going to count how many plates you use that day, all that stuff. We don’t do a lot of that here,” Thomas said. “The best thing about working at a family restaurant is they treat you like family.”

As far as Bretschneider is concerned, Buckeye Donuts will not undergo significant change anytime soon.

“Steady on. Like, there’s no plans to expand,” Bretschneider said. “ We just are gonna keep doing this. There’s nothing wrong with this, so we just gotta maintain this. Make sure we keep our stuff up, keep it good, keep it fast and then keep it popular.”