SOUTHBOROUGH — Like many businesses, The Vin Bin struggled during the height of the pandemic. The wine and cheese shop with multiple MetroWest locations had a hard time drawing customers. So in an effort to provide a spark, Mike and Hanna Lombardi began selling homemade doughnuts from the parking lot of the chain’s flagship store on Main Street in Marlborough.
“We were quickly selling out, we were doing online orders of four doughnuts and people kept driving buy and they would roll down their windows and we would just hand them the bag of doughnuts,” Hanna Lombardi recalled.
Mike Lombardi, whose family owns The Vin Bin, was a professional baker in Cambridge and Boston. As a baker and chef, the challenge of making the optimal doughnut always appealed to him.
“I just really like the ‘dough’ aspect,” he said. “Learning how to make the dough. A lot of doughnuts are just mixes, but we make brioche doughnuts — an old-world European-style dough that takes days to ferment. It’s very temperamental to make it well. The quality stands out, you don’t feel super-chunky afterward, while (with) other doughnuts you might not feel so great because you just ate a pound of sugar.”
The Donut Stand opens café in Southborough
Following the success of the Marlborough parking lot sales, the duo decided in 2021 to open a café inside The Vin Bin’s Turnpike Road (Route 9) location in Southborough. Called The Donut Stand, it quickly gained a solid reputation for its light, brioche dough that is built over 24 hours to allow for a slow fermentation process.
“The doughnuts here are amazing,” said Kevin Isabelle, an electrician from Revere, while enjoying a Nutella doughnut Thursday at The Donut Stand. “I love the size of the doughnut, how they mix everything, the texture, really everything about it, my tastebuds are really on fire. I wish a lot of places made doughnuts like this.”
“They are real doughnuts, unlike Dunkin Donuts, which are like fake compared to this,” added Will Wilson, of Wakefield.
Permanent pop-up:The Donut Stand reopens in The Vin Bin’s Southborough shop
Isabelle and Wilson, who seek out good places to eat while they travel on the job, had high praise for The Donut Stand, with Isabelle putting The Donut Stand ahead of even Kane’s Donuts, a North Shore institution.
“Even Kane’s doesn’t compare to this,” Isabelle said. “These are pretty light, I could eat two of these.”
The Donut Stand is now poised to attain a new milestone. It will expand further, opening its first standalone shop, in Hopkinton’s Price Chopper Plaza at the corner of West Main and South streets. The spot formerly housed the Bison Burger restaurant, and is located in the same plaza as The Vin Bin’s Hopkinton location.
“We love Hopkinton, it’s very family-oriented,” Mike Lombardi said. “There aren’t a ton of quality dining options, and my family’s business is right next door. We always wanted to add a café there but never had the space.”
Menu to expand and include coffee, breakfast sandwiches
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The Lombardis are aiming to offer more in Hopkinton, expanding their menu to include local coffee options and breakfast sandwiches.
“We want to be able to offer breakfast sandwiches, and we are going to have a gourmet coffee program,” Mike Lombardi said. “We are going to work with local roasters, we are going to add specialty coffees and we want to focus on that too.”
Lombardi said the doughnuts are made using all local ingredients. The milk and butter are from Vermont, eggs are delivered from The Country Hen in Hubbardston and all fruit comes from local farms.
“My dad has always said that we aren’t doing this to get rich,” Mike Lombardi said. “We’re doing it to make a living and because we really believe in what we’re doing. If we wanted to, we could just buy all our supplies from BJ’s and make a lot more money.”
Lombardi said he always dreamed of opening a restaurant, which he envisioned would be for fine dining. However, as he grew older and more experienced, it became clear that running The Donut Stand was his calling.
“As time goes on, we have three kids, we have a family, these are what our lives have led to,” he said. “We are making really good, comfort food, the doughnuts are selling and there is a market for it and we need a bigger space.”
The Donut Stand is expected to open in Hopkinton sometime during the first quarter of 2024. While the Southborough café will continue operating on a Thursday-through-Sunday schedule, the Hopkinton store will be a full-time café, open at least six days a week.