SAUGUS — As a mom-and-pop neighborhood doughnut shop prepares to open its third location on Route 1, we thought we’d delve in the history of the business many doughnut already know.
Kane’s Donuts was started by a 29-year-old Bob Kane in 1955.
Kane, who died at the age of 90 in 2017, had a long-standing love for baking.
On any given day, the smell of sweet treats would permeate the family’s kitchen on Johnson Street in Lynn, said his daughter, Judy Shepard.
“I don’t know how he learned to make doughnuts, to tell you the truth,” said Shepard. “He always made cakes and pies. Anything hot was my favorite. The hot honey dip — you can’t believe what it tastes like.”
Her best guess is that he learned to bake doughnuts while working at New York Model Bakery in Lynn, but his experience in the kitchen far predates that, she said.
His mother was an avid baker, and he would create his own confections when his parents were out on the weekends. Later, Kane was a cook while serving in the U.S. Navy in 1945 and 1946.
Kane and his wife, June, risked it all by investing their savings into creating a doughnut shop in 1955. They took over a space on Lincoln Avenue that had previously been used as a variety store and moved into the upstairs apartment with their two children.
Shepard, who was in the third grade at the time, remembers her father experimenting with different ingredients, refrigeration, and other methods until he settled on the perfect recipe.
“My father was frightened because they put all of their life savings into the shop and he was afraid nobody would show up,” said Shepard. “The first day, the customers were lined up.”
The shop was especially a hit with local fishermen and first shift workers at General Electric whose days started early, much like a baker’s.
It wasn’t just the doughnuts that drove people wild, she said. The shop was known for bismarcks filled with apple, blueberry, or lemon jelly, and for its coffee rolls.
“My brother and I would sneak downstairs and steal doughnuts,” she said.
When he became a grandfather, Kane started saving the round doughnut centers and dressing them up for his grandchildren.
“I remember my father catching them on his thumb,” said Shepard.
Bob Kane operated the shop on his own for the first few years, starting his days at 2 or 3 a.m. and working until lunchtime. He would sleep and wake up to have dinner with his family, said Shepard. He eventually hired help on the weekends, and, as the business grew, full-time employees.
“Those hours were gruesome,” said Shepard. “It started affecting him physically to the point that he started closing on Sundays, which would have been the most successful day economically.”
In 1985, he made the decision to retire. Family members weren’t interested in taking over the business, so he sold to a pair of men who also operated a Dunkin’ Donuts.
Peter Delios Sr., who owned Mrs. Foster’s Doughnut Shop in Lynn with a few partners, walked into the shop for a cup of coffee and noticed it wasn’t up to Kane’s standards. He looked into it, and found out that it was under new ownership and again listed on the market.
Peter Delios Sr. sold his share of the bakery in 1986 and purchased the Lincoln Avenue store, said his son Paul Delios.
“We cleaned it up,” he said. “We tried to get it back to what it was when Bob Kane had it.”
The recipe Kane’s Donuts is using is from Mrs. Foster’s Doughnut Shop, which was created by Peter Delios Sr., said his son. It was later altered to use locally sourced ingredients. Many of the ingredients come from Peabody; the dairy is from Dunajski Dairy and the honey from Crystal Bee Honey Company.
Shepard attested that her father’s doughnuts had a cakier consistency.
“Dunajski is run by a nice, hard working family, much like ours,” said Paul Delios. “They work long hours like we do and they’re doing the old New England thing just like we do. We try to use as many fresh, local ingredients as possible.”
The Lincoln Avenue shop was renovated but still boasts the same neon sign designed by Judy Kane decades ago.
In 2015, Paul Delios was approached by one of his former restaurant investors to open a Boston location. Before returning to run Kane’s Donuts with his siblings Maria, Peter, and Stephen Delios and Catherine Panesis, Paul Delios had a successful career as a Boston restaurant owner, chef, and cookbook author.
The store is a more contemporary, faster-paced doughnut and coffee shop where people run in to grab a few treats to go. The baked goods are sourced from the Lincoln Avenue shop, but will soon be manufactured at Kane’s newest location on Route 1 in Saugus.
“The store on Route 1 will be a manufacturing facility with a storefront and a drive-though,” said Paul Delios. “The (original) location is approximately the same size, but it’s an old building and it’s the legacy store where it all began.”
Products for the Saugus store will still be manufactured on site, he said.
The newest shop will be a hybrid of the classic style of the Lincoln Avenue store and the modernized feel of the Boston store. It will be the first to have a drive through.
Shepard said she was happy to see the Delios’ business succeeding.
“And I’m happy that my dad’s name is still out there,” she said.
Kane’s Donuts will go before the Board of Selectmen Wednesday night for a Common Victualer’s License. Paul Delios said it was too early to estimate when the shop would open its doors.
