Business & Tech

Dough House, Mini Donuts Always A Hit At Berlin Fair

Fair favorite started business 66 years ago as a roadside stand.

 

The Dough House will be in Berlin this weekend as it has for so many Berlin Fairs, in it's traditional spot near the north entrance and exit.

The Dough House was started 66 years ago by the parents of Dave Leavitt. He was 4 at the time and is now 70-years-old. He will be in Berlin this weekend but not in the Dough House. Leavitt will be at one of his two fairs, he works North Haven and Berlin, operating his Mini Donuts right next to the Dough House.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

"Originally my parents started as a roadside stand," said Leavitt from his perch in his Mini Donuts truck serving customers on Thursday night before the Fair started. "We had a full restaurant, kitchen with baked goods and all kinds of food. They found out it was just too much so they started with the donuts because they seemed to be popular.

"We started with three fairs in the 1950's but then we started going to all of the fairs in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont. We lived in New Hampshire at the time and at our peak we would do 16 fairs during the late summer and fall."

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

This old fashioned raised donut is so unique because of the brilliance of the original owners when it came to designing this recipe. In comparison to other old fashioned, raised donuts, you really can taste the difference.

The Dough House is a family business. It was in the Leavitt family from the time it was started up until 11 years ago when Dave Leavitt sold The Dough House to Michael Lanouette. 

"Ever since that time, my father has always employed close friends and family members," said daughter Alexa, a student at Temple. "I started the task of 'sugaring' the donuts at the young age of 11 and got my best friend to start working with me when we were just beginning high school. She still works there to this day."

Leavitt now lives in Florida and parks the Mini Donuts trailer the rest of the year. The Dough House was never his full-time job as he worked on jet aircrafts, in garages and Aircraft Laboratories.

According to Alexa, some of the comments heard at the window from our fellow donut lovers are: 

  • 'I've been coming here since I was a little kid.'
  • 'This is my fall tradition.' '
  • I've been waiting all year long for this.'
  • 'I come to the fair just to get my big donut!' 
  • 'There's no calories in these right?'
  • 'My daughter/son is so upset that's he/she is in college now so we're mailing them to him/her.'
  • 'You guys should open a store.'
  • 'This is the biggest donut I've ever seen.'
  • 'This really is as good as everyone says.'

"For years and years people have been asking us where our store front is and unfortunately we don't have one. However, we will be taking special requests to cater people's events and we are even offering the opportunity for people to order donuts online that we will ship to them."

They can find out all the information on our facebook page here.  Or they can e-mail Alexa with any questions or requests.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here