A Donut Per Diem

Matt Rohdie is co-owner of Carpe Donut, the food trailer that will appear Wednesdays on Elliewood Avenue on the Corner to dispense hot, organic donuts and other things. We spoke to him on the phone to learn more about the business and his pastry ambitions.

Hi Matt. Are you from Charlottesville?

Neither my wife nor I is originally from Charlottesville. We both ended up moving here as young adults, though neither of us went to U.Va. I followed family here, and my wife had wanted to research becoming a midwife (which she didn’t end up doing). We found each other here and got married about eight years ago. We were looking for some combination of mutual self-employment and a good place to raise our kids.

And when did you start Carpe Donut?

About a year and a half ago, last June. Our first gigs were in 2007, the 2007 Albemarle County Fair, in August. That was our debut performance.

How did you start making donuts? Have you been to culinary school? Or did you pick it up as a hobby?

I’ve been to culinary school. I managed a restaurant down in Durham, NC, when I was in college. I came back to work as a caterer in Charlottesville after 15 years as a social worker—basically because the money was better, and we’ve got kids to support. I’ve always been a foodie, though, and I said that if I were to have a food business I’d do one thing as absolutely well as I could, rather than make 20 different menu items. My goal was to make the platonic ideal of a donut. We picked donuts specifically because it was possible to get an automated machine to make them, which allows me to operate solo (and with the help of my kids). Donuts are a canonical American food, a convention, something universally known, and they also have a fairly low food cost. Because we wanted to do organic, which rams up the overall cost, it was important to make something with a low inherent cost. I also had a vision of selling food straight out of the cart to people out there. Freshly cooked and handed to you.

Classic street food.

Yeah, but we were also willing to deal with the complexity of something with a fryer full of hot oil to make a good product. I can’t do this like an ice cream truck. As much as I’d love it, I can’t drive down the road ringing my bell, with all the fat kids chasing after me. I’ve got to be stationary.

How do you eat your donuts? Dipped in coffee or something?

Fresh and hot is the primary requirement. I like dipping them in the Italian hot chocolate I make with organic chocolate.

Why did you decide to move to Elliewood Ave on Wednesdays?

After the better part of a year downtown on Fridays, we were ready to add a second day of the week. A whole range of people at the university can’t pop downtown on a Friday during the day. I happened to run into one of the owners of the Elliewood lot, and she asked, why we weren’t on the Corner. No place to park, I said. So she fixed that. We’ll be there from about 10 to 5 on Wednesdays.

Who designed the trailer? It’s pretty striking.

My wife. All the aesthetics off the donut trailer—from picking the right trailer, to painting it by hand, to putting up the lamps, to making the signage— were designed by my wife, Jen. If it were me, the trailer would have been a white trailer with vinyl sides that said DONUTS. She was very wise to know that making this work means attracting people to come over and look. The effort we made into making it pop has paid off.

Fantasy question: would you be able to make a giant donut the size of a cake?

Well, we’re doing a wedding in April, and the bride and groom want donuts instead of cake. I’m actually going make a tower from powdered sugar dusted donuts. They’re going to break it in half to cut the cake . . .

. . . more of a donut construction than a cake.

Yeah.

Do your kids help out very much?

Absolutely. All my kids, well . . . my first year old just sits around and looks cute. My six-year old loves to take money, is a very excellent greeter. My twelve-year old ran the store with his best friend for four hours a day a few times . . . he’s seen every element. He can make the batter, make change, pull the coffee. We homeschool the kids, and a big motivation for having the trailer was to give them the experience of all aspects of running a business. It helps that it’s at a manageable scale.

After Carpe Donut, what’s the best donut in Charlottesville?

I’m gonna go with Spudnuts. I have nothing against them. We’re not looking to create a donut war. I like that it’s a homemade product, and I like their yeasted donuts. All my donuts are apple cider cake donuts. I’ve been trying to perfect the cake donut recipe; it’s taken about a year and half and I’m still tinkering with it. The yeast donut is a whole different animal. Spudnuts blows Krispy Kream away. Though I have unlimited donuts at home, I still occasionally enjoy one of theirs.