CLICK HERE if you are having a problem viewing the photos on a mobile device
They started lining up before 6 a.m. Friday, jamming the drive-thru and packing the lobby.
“They” are the Dunkin’ Donut-deprived of San Jose, and the opening of a shop was cause to rise early on a holiday week and head to Snell Avenue.
Some, like Susan Varsamis, had been waiting a long time for this day.
“I grew up on Dunkin’ Donuts,” the Pittsburgh transplant said. Back there, “you get off the bottle, you get on Dunkin’.”
Varsamis, a special education teacher for the Oak Grove district, has been without her Dunkin’ fix since moving to California, so she’s been stopping by the site frequently and checking in with co-owner Ray Reale about opening day. On Friday she put on her Pittsburgh Steelers shirt and headed over to buy doughnuts for herself — “I love a French cruller” — as well as for her sister-in-law, her mother’s caregiver, even her dog-walker.
For 12 years, she’s tried to find a doughnut here that could hold its own against her Dunkin’ standard. “Nothing ever compares to them.”
Reale understands the devotion. His Connecticut family, headed by father-in-law James Zafiris, has been in the Dunkin’ business for years and now owns 10 shops. They have plans to open others in the South Bay as part of Dunkin’s Bay Area-wide expansion, which has brought the chain’s Boston cremes to Walnut Creek, Fremont, South San Francisco, Santa Cruz and elsewhere. (Next up will be one on Winchester Boulevard, not far from Santana Row.)
“We came to San Jose and we fell in love with it.” said Reale, who is living in the South Bay during this expansion phase. “The opportunity is incredible.”
At one time, San Jose did have a Dunkin’ Donuts — a shop in San Jose on Union Avenue near Camden Avenue — but that’s been gone for decades.
This new store is downright swanky by doughnut shop standards, featuring contemporary high-top tables and a lounge with comfy chairs, a TV and a gas-fueled fireplace. “We wanted to create a warm, soft seating area — like your dining room,” Reale said.
He employs 60 people here to staff the shop’s long hours. For opening weekend, they’ll be serving all the favorites plus the new Donut Fries and Brown Sugar Cold Brew Coffee from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Starting Monday, the 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. hours will kick in.
“This is the best location,” retired San Jose businesswoman Virginia Connelly raved while milling around outside the shop located not far from Highway 85 and Blossom Hill Road. “Great access. The drive-thru is a plus.”
She came at 7:30 a.m. and bought “soooooo much” for friends and family — a dozen doughnuts, croissant sandwiches and lots of DD merchandise. But she couldn’t deliver them quite yet because her car was blocked by that never-ending drive-thru line.
“I’ve been parked here forever!” she said, laughing.
As she pondered whether to go back in and wait it out with more coffee, customer Dennis Marshall came out with his haul. A respiratory therapist, he braved the line when he got off his shift at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View to buy “Munchkins” doughnut holes for his children, Noa, 5, and Eli, 1, and what he calls the shop’s “legendary” iced coffee.
He got hooked on Dunkin’ while on assignment in Massachusetts, working near one of Dunkin’ Donuts’ busiest franchises in the nation.
“It’s the thing. When you go to Boston, you have to go to Dunkin’ Donuts,” he said.
However, he advised, because of the crowds you learn to act like an East Coaster and not a Californian when you get inside. That may become the modus operandi here too.
“You have to order fast. You can’t be slacking.”
IF YOU’RE INTERESTED
This Dunkin’ Donuts at 5519 Snell Ave. will hold its official grand opening from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, July 14. The first 100 customers in line will get free coffee for a year. Giveaways and raffles are planned, and Dunkin’s mascot, Cuppy, will be joined by San Jose’s Sharkie. Details: www.dunkindonuts.com