The Little Donut is a family-owned, family-friendly neighborhood donut shop that offers a donut experience like no other. Upon entering the charming establishment with walls the color of a pink pastry box, you will be visually impressed with how expansive the immaculate interior space is. Your olfactory senses are stimulated by the smells of freshly fried handmade doughs and batters that have been subsequently frosted or glazed and sometimes filled. You are greeted warmly by The Little Donut staff.
As your eyes hungrily ponder the large selection of confections, upbeat music brightens your mood. It strikes you that a theme is playing out. Not only is the interior of the shop large, the smile on the face of your helpful assistant behind the counter, the number of donut choices, and the sheer size of each of the donuts are all very large. There must be a not-so-little story behind this budding business.
Sergey Maguire, the 23-year-old entrepreneur behind The Little Donut, has a lithe, muscular build, short brown hair, sparkling blue eyes, a soft-spoken Russian accent, and a kind demeanor. Just as The Little Donut is the antithesis of little, Sergey is anything but small in experience.
Orphaned at the age of 7 in Ivanovo, Russia, Sergey was eventually adopted by the Maguire family in San Diego, CA. Throughout his youth, he was competitive in many sports – football, track, baseball and tennis. At the age of 12 his passion for donuts began. He spent every spare minute after school at his family friend’s donut shop – Peterson’s Donut Corner, which recently has been named the 18th best donut shop in the nation according to ABC news (http://6abc.com/food/here-are-americas-50-top-doughnut-shops-how-does-philly-stack-up/2977884/).
Sergey officially began working at Peterson’s Donut Corner at 15 years old. He honed his baking skills under the tutelage of his mentor, Ralph Peterson. A 21-year-old Sergey followed his high school sweetheart Emily Shields to Northern Nevada so that she could be closer to family. Sergey has partnered with Sam and Julia Shields to bring The Little Donut and the dream that originated in the heart of a little boy to life. Sergey continues the legacy of his mentor by keeping their traditions of artisan donuts made with handmade frosting, high-quality dough and batters, made freshly by hand daily, with only the finest of ingredients and recipes.
He has perfected the donut. The donuts are not greasy and have a thin delicate crust to the outer shell that creates a donut experience like no other. His plain cake donut needs no frosting. Yet, the large selection of cake donuts creates a cornucopia of exquisite taste bud encounters.
Cake donuts include white, chocolate, blueberry, and red velvet. Frostings include creamy chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, orange, blueberry, cream cheese, or a glistening glaze. Zebra stripe frostings include chocolate and vanilla, and strawberry and vanilla. Toppings include sprinkles, coconut, white chocolate curls, dark chocolate curls, crumb, Oreo cookie and nuts. When you bite into the exquisitely fried cake donut that has that thin delicate outer crust and is dressed in the handmade frosting, your mouth encounters layers of textures and flavors with each savored bite.
There is nothing diminutive about these donuts or the breadth of selection. The fluffy raised donuts are made according to a secret recipe handed down from Peterson’s Donut Corner. The round donuts are offered in all the glorious frosting and topping offerings as the delightful cake donuts. The raised bars are topped with chocolate frosting, maple frosting, and maple frosting with shredded bacon for those who enjoy a salty-sweet encounter.
The ever-popular twists come with a sugar topping, a glaze topping, and cinnamon twist that intermingles cinnamon sugar between the twisted raised dough and enveloped in a glistening glaze.
The lemon jelly-filled raised donut will take you back to your grandmother’s homemade lemon meringue pie. Other real-fruit fillings include raspberry, strawberry and blueberry. Toppings include glaze and powdered sugar.
The Vienna Kreme donuts scream for your attention. The handmade raised donuts are filled with a rich vanilla cream custard. Topping varieties include glaze, powdered sugar, regular sugar, chocolate, and maple.
The cinnamon rolls, apple and cherry fritters and bear claws are as large as a linebacker’s outstretched hand. The fritters are fried with a golden crispy exterior accentuated with glaze. The interior is soft and fluffy with intermingled pieces of real apple or cherry. The cinnamon rolls invade the senses with cinnamon and rolled fluffy dough encased with a delicate glazed crust.
The bear claws are out of this world. This is another recipe passed down to Sergey. They truly are the size of bear claws. The cinnamon apple filling within the fluffy raised dough with a crumb coating is a combination that ignites the senses. The size is perfect as a dessert to be shared, or a guilty pleasure for one.
The cinnamon rolls, apple and cherry fritters and bear claws are as large as a linebacker’s outstretched hand. The fritters are fried with a golden crispy exterior accentuated with glaze. The interior is soft and fluffy with intermingled pieces of real apple or cherry. The cinnamon rolls invade the senses with cinnamon and rolled fluffy dough encased with a delicate glazed crust.
The bear claws are out of this world. This is another recipe passed down to Sergey. They truly are the size of bear claws. The cinnamon apple filling within the fluffy raised dough with a crumb coating is a combination that ignites the senses. The size is perfect as a dessert to be shared, or a guilty pleasure for one.
Many patrons return time and again for the French crullers. The rich, light, airy dough is fried to golden perfection. Frostings include vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, maple, and zebra combinations with vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.
The flaky buttery croissants include strawberry and cream cheese filled, blueberry and cream cheese filled, cream cheese filled and buttery plain.The apple turnovers have a flaky golden crust with large crystal sugar coating surrounding an apple filling.
Let’s not forget to include the coconut macaroons. These have a soft, chewy sweet coconut interior with a crunchy golden brown coconut exterior. They come with and without a jelly dollop on top.
Two of the most popular items are the ever-glistening buttermilk bar and round old fashion donuts. The buttermilk bar has a creamy cake interior with a crunchy golden exterior. It comes with toppings of glaze, chocolate, maple or plain. The old fashion round donuts have a similar creamy flavor cake interior with a crunchy golden exterior. They share the same toppings as the buttermilk donuts.
The Little Donut coffee selection is comprised of gourmet coffees roasted by a local family-owned business, Blind Dog Coffee Roasters. Sergey’s favorite is Nevada Black. Other beverage offerings include tea, juice, milk, bottled water, and soda.
The Little Donut is nothing short of grand. It offers an exquisite donut experience like no other. While the young, affable man who personifies The Little Donut is young in years, he is large in training and experience. As I end my sojourn at this gem of a donut shop, he thanks me for coming, with a twinkle in his eyes.
We vow to provide the highest quality and remarkably comfortable, home-like experience to all our customers. The Little Donut Inc. awards its business to as many local suppliers as possible – keeping the business in our community, or the very least, our region.
