E.147: The Dirty Dozen | Part 2

SPEAKERS
Dirty Dozen, Amy Gabay, Brent Hanifl

Amy Gabay 00:04
We check back in with the dads of the Dirty Dozen. They’re making waves among area donut fans. In this chapter we talk about growth, new donut flavors, waking up early, how to order the donuts via the Sabadash App. And where people can find out more. You can find more conversations on our website, lacrosselocal.com I’m Amy. And I’m Brent. And this is La Crosse Local.

Brent Hanifl 00:29
Just continuing where we left off. I mean, it just seems crazy. The outpouring of support your business when we talked months ago? Seems like there’s a panic online socially with people trying to get their hands on these donuts. I know you guys partnered with Sabadash App. How does that feel?

Dirty Dozen 00:45
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, since I would say since joining with Sabadash App, it’s taken a lot of work off of our plates, because I’m not having to reply to comments over Facebook. Everyone can just go to the app, order their donuts. Our very first sale, we ended up crashing the site, because there were so many people waiting in queue to try and order donuts at what I think we released it at like four in the morning too.

Brent Hanifl 01:13
So people are just panicking for these weekly sales or every other week, correct?

Dirty Dozen 01:17
Yep. Yep. Sabadash has its own, like built in fan base to it that we kind of tapped into. Yeah, it was cool to like, get a bunch of new customers and have them tell their friends about it. And it was just, it was a good marketing tool, too, I think. Yeah.

Brent Hanifl 01:31
Was it overwhelming? Were you like, what did I do? or?

Dirty Dozen 01:35
Yeah, I wouldn’t say it was overwhelming. I would definitely say it was super exciting. Our most recent sale over Sabadash, we didn’t tell them when we were releasing it. We told them that it would happen at some point during the week. And like that was it. And we released it Monday, I want to say at like 8am. And like no one posts anything about it. But we still sold out. I think it took like just under 24 hours. Or like you could see through the trend that like someone saw it told all of their group of friends, and then so on and so forth. And it was pretty cool to see that. There’s still a buzz without us having to do any of the work.

Brent Hanifl 02:10
So it seemed like people were kind of being hush hush about it. So originally, when we chatted, we talked about the origin of the business. You guys moved into the Coulee Region Business Center too. What other steps have you guys or are you in the process of taking?

Dirty Dozen 02:24
Yeah, we moved into the Coulee Region Business Center in February. Let’s see we started taking on special events. We’ve got a couple weddings booked for later in the summer. Most recently, we have a pop up coming up with 608 Brewery. We’re going to be there on 4/20 for a beer that they’re releasing with Tree Huggers. To build off of that we’re going to be doing a collaboration with them. And we’ll be releasing a 608 Brewery and Dirty Dozen beer in May I believe.

Brent Hanifl 02:56
So can you tell us what like the flavors of the beer or is that secret?

Dirty Dozen 02:59
We can tell you that it’s going to be a sour beer. Okay. Yeah. And it’s gonna have to deal with a little bacon and some maple in there. Perfect for summertime.

Brent Hanifl 03:09
Summertime one. So what is the process been? Like, I mean, I don’t know if we touched on this last time. But what is it day to day with you guys? You know, it seems like it’s kind of an overwhelming venture or maybe just right, you’re excited about it. Like, what’s the process been like, I guess the early morning wake ups. What’s a day, like when you’re serving doughnuts?

Dirty Dozen 03:27
It’s not too bad. You know, it’s like, you anticipate that you’re gonna wake up at like, two in the morning and go do your thing. But it’s kind of nice to do something that we don’t really consider work. So really, it’s more or less, we get up just to hang out and make treats for people. Josh is already there rolling dough. And then me and Max get there and start like frying donuts and Max starts getting ready with the glazes and whatnot. And then once that’s all done, we have like a conveyor system where as we glaze each individual flavor and filled trays, and we move on to the next one. And then we team work through filling the boxes so that we don’t waste any amount of time. So it’s really nice system that we have going on right now. It’s nice with the new space too. There’s so much more space. All the equipment’s like bigger, like real life, kitchen equipment. So we can do bigger batches and everything. So it just we have the whole system down. So it’s pretty smooth these days.

Brent Hanifl 04:26
So it’s probably too early to talk about it now. But is there ever a chance to have a storefront from you guys?

Dirty Dozen 04:31
We’re working on it. Yeah, is essentially what we could say. It’s like, right now we got some stuff releasing that we’ll be announcing soon, which Josh will probably talk about today. That’s going to help us move in that direction. Hopefully by within like the next three years is like the plan.

Brent Hanifl 04:49
Nice. Besides that, what other flavors are coming down the road? I know people it seems like, you know every time I see on social people posting pictures, it’s usually the same individuals that are just actively just engaged with it and having a great time. But what are some new flavors that you guys are excited about or have been released?

Dirty Dozen 05:05
We just did this past weekend. We just did a lineup of like fruit and spring inspired flavors. So we did like a blueberry lemon. We did like a strawberry glaze, and we did the orange vanilla. And I think it turned out fantastic. They were super refreshing. super light. And so I think we’re gonna this summer, kind of stick more with the fruity lights. Fun flavors. Yeah, they turned out amazing. I would definitely say that our kitchen that day smelt like a package of starbursts. Then on this next box, we’ve got coming out, right now it’s one of my favorite times of the year where it’s nothing but Girl Scout cookies out there. So we themed our next box after Girl Scout cookies. We’re going to be doing the coconut and Carmel cookie. We’re going to be doing the peanut butter and chocolate one. And then a lemon pound cake. Nice lemon shortbread. But yeah.

Brent Hanifl 06:01
Kind of touched on a variety different things, you know, moving to the center, that beer, maybe some collaborations with some other businesses? What are you excited for in 2021? What’s the like the or maybe even 2022? What’s like the pinnacle of something that you’re excited about?

Dirty Dozen 06:15
For me, and I probably could say for the rest of us, we’re about to release these investment packages. So back in December, we released pre order packages where you got two halves or two full dozens, and essentially, it’s going to be the same thing. But on a much larger scale, we’re going to be releasing packages for $500. And that’s going to cover doughnuts for an entire year for you. Along with the donuts, it’s also going to come with a new hoodie that we’re about to release for sale, we’re going to be doing some travel mugs, some real limited edition ones, just for the people that get the package. We’re working with a couple other like breweries and coffee shops and see if we can get some Buy one get ones or something like that there. But what’s most exciting is we’re going to take that money that we get from the packages, and we’re going to use it to push ourselves into the next phase, which is going to be us getting a food truck, and then being able to take that food truck and become like a mobile operation throughout La Crosse.

Brent Hanifl 07:13
That’s exciting.

Dirty Dozen 07:14
Yeah,

Brent Hanifl 07:15
I think it’s something needed, especially at 2am in the morning, once that starts happening again, you know, people going out which there still are, but you know what I mean? So besides these packages, which, you know, I saw that people, you know, seem to be really getting on that sort of process with purchasing it that way. You know, I feel like there is some still confusion about getting the donuts. Can you take us through the process, if I just want to try the donuts this weekend? What do I do?

Dirty Dozen 07:38
Yeah, absolutely. So the easiest way to follow or to get the donuts, step one, you’re gonna want to go on to either the Google Store or the Apple Store and download the Sabadash App, you’re going to want to create an account on it. And then after that, you’ll either want to follow us on Instagram at the underscore Dirty Dozen, or just go to Facebook and type in the Dirty Dozen we’re on there as well. And then just follow our pages. we’ll release the flavors in the week that the sale is going to go live. But now we keep it kind of a mystery as to when it will go live. Because when we first did it, a lot of and it’s not a bad thing, but a lot of people would be like waiting for like noon to hit and like start clicking buy. So now when we release it randomly, we’ve definitely seen a lot more new faces, which has been great. People a chance to get in there and get a box. Yeah.

Brent Hanifl 08:31
yeah, it seems like there’s almost like a panic going on. You’re gonna have some angry people just never get it.

Dirty Dozen 08:37
We’ve definitely got those people out there.

Brent Hanifl 08:41
Just freaking out waiting, waiting at the thing. See if nobody picks anything up for,

Dirty Dozen 08:45
Yep. Yeah. And then if anyone ever has questions, I’m pretty active on Instagram. So everyone can just like do a direct message and I’ll get back to them as soon as I see it. If they have any questions on how to order or if they have any questions about any event they want to do. We’ll redirect them to our email, and they can talk to our head chef, Josh, for like any details on pricing.

Amy Gabay 09:10
La Crosse Local Podcast is a production of River Travel Media. Do you have an interview idea you’d like to share with us? Message us on Facebook @lacrosselocal. Find out more about us at lacrosselocal.com. And you can subscribe to the La Crosse Local podcast on your favorite podcast app. If you’d like us, rate us five stars. We appreciate it.