When Will Dutch Girl Donuts Reopen In Detroit?

When will Dutch Girl Donuts reopen? Remember last fall when we had Paddy Lynch on the show - he had bought Dutch Girl donuts on Woodward in Detroit after it closed…and was determined to bring it back to it’s glory. Well, it’s almost time - we caught up with Paddy for all the details. 

There’s obviously a huge sense of nostalgia in Detroit - whether it’s the cars we drive, the road trips up north, our favorite sports teams (don’t mess with the Tigers jersey) or our food. We love comfort food. Dutch Girl donuts was that place since 1947. 

(Big Jim) Was  there  a  moment  when  you  stood  there  and  said,  this  is  really  going  to  happen,  we're  really  going  to  do  this. 

(Paddy) Yeah,  you  know,  it's  funny  because,  you  know,  it's  no  secret  the  place  got  broken  into  a  couple  times. Some  of  the  equipment  was  pretty  trashed.  And,  you  know,  after  taking  ownership,  I  wanted  to  take  the  opportunity  because  it's  like,  when  are  you  gonna  have  the  opportunity  to  do  it  again? We  painted  the  place…all  new  lighting,  you  know,  we  polished  the  terrazzo  floors,  got  in  a  bunch  of  new  equipment.  And  so  we  kind  of  took  a  couple  months  longer  than  I  would  have  initially  wanted  to  get  the  place  up  and  running.

And then finally, it was like, all right, it's time to make donuts. And I just quietly kind of internally told them, all right, you guys, this weekend, meaning last weekend, I wanna put some donuts out. We're not even gonna charge people. We're just gonna get donuts made. I know we're not gonna have the full variety, but let's just do this. this. And you know, when that happened, when I was standing outside on Woodward and people were lining up, it was sort of like, you know, damn, this is sort of surreal. 

You  know,  and  I  grew  up  going  there.  My  dad  was  a  Dutch  girl  patron  long  before  I  was  born.  And  so  it  was,  it  was  definitely  a  little  bit  of  like an  out  of  body  experience.

Here's what Paddy said today (Wednesday) about the opening date:

We're in great shape. And then the hope is that Saturday, 8 a .m., the doors will be open officially and for good. And we're gonna, you know, we'll announce that on social media in the next day or two.