We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Richard Drews a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Richard, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
On a quiet March 2012 evening at home following a lovely dinner, wife Mary Jane said in one fell swoop sentence “I think you should start your own business, sell donuts and call it Dinky Donuts.” On June 9, 2012 we sold our first donut in Belvedere, IL at Boone County Fairgrounds at an event billed as an ‘All Night Flea’ to lines 20 deep (some with miner lights on their heads) and have not stopped making them since. Why Dinky Donuts? To this day I have no idea. Had I ever made a donut before? No. Prior to that revelation which hit me like a thunderbolt, I sang Opera Internationally as a leading tenor mostly in the US, some in Canada, Italy, French West Indies and Germany. In 1997 I joined the music faculty at Northwestern University and sang my last fully staged performance in Nashville, TN in 2004. During the height of my career 1987-1996, I was traveling at minimum 190 days a calendar year performing as many as 8-10 different operas in seven different languages, all the while, Mary Jane while working full time raised our two children. It was Mary Jane who encouraged me to pursue my operatic performing dreams while we both taught at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire in the early 80’s. I finished my 14 year stint at Northwestern in the fall of 2011 and began a job search, which up until March 2012 hadn’t resulted in satisfaction, worthiness and mostly something that I felt passionate about.
The March 2012 thunderbolt seemed to consume my day to day routine with no adherence to time and space. I was determined to build this family owned/owner operated business because to the best of my knowledge not many if anyone, was selling Hot and Fresh made-to-order Donuts in the Chicago metropolitan area. I registered our DBA in March of 2012 but did not trademark it. In 2017 we changed it to Dinky Delights to comply with an entity who had trademarked it: lesson learned!
Divine intervention seemed to be present during my build up of our business in so many instances. For example, by sheer luck, while visiting in Lyndale, Minnesota, I met a business owner selling Hot and Fresh Donuts out of a trailer, parked just outside of a Hardware store to eager lines of customers on a sunny Saturday morning in April 2012. I introduced myself as Richard, he as Andy. My inquisitiveness was no doubt overbearing as Andy patiently answered my many questions while he served his customers his amazing donuts. Warm Donuts filled Bags, as fast as he could make them, customers were smiling and laughing, kids were hopping up and down with excitement and I was right in the thick of it at the point of sale. Enter divine intervention: after about an hour, we exchanged our business cards, his logo read: Drews’ Donuts. Another thunderbolt! As he read my card, I recall Andy aka Andrew aka Drew saying to me, “…there may be a reason Chicago doesn’t currently offer Hot and Fresh Donuts, and I guess you are going to find out! This coincidence is far too important to ignore. So, if you want, I will mentor you as to our equipment distributor, our business model, and even our recipe.” Thank you Andy.
I have always enjoyed cooking, and still do. Baking has never been my forte, but I quickly learned with the help of Julia Child, my sisters both of whom are amazing cooks, and trial and error. The recipe we use today was developed in 2012 and has not changed an iota. Our sugar spice toppings have taken on a life of their own but the Dinky Delight Donut rolls out just as it has since June 2012. Opera Singer, Teacher, Donut Maker: ideal trajectory! Thank you Andy!!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I was born and raised in Hebron, Nebraska population 1.920 in a loving home with amazing supportive and creative parents, an older brother, and two older sisters. My father was a County Treasure, my mother a Fabric Store/Drapery business owner and Chairperson of the Hebron Chamber of Commerce. I would be in her store helping her clerk, stock and hang while she sold beautiful bolt fabrics of silk, linen, worsted wool, flannel and of course double knit! She would customize gowns, dresses, vests, to tailer them to the needs of her market. Home sewing in the 1960’s was huge in Thayer County. Plus big box stores were not edging mom and pop businesses out, yet. My home was filled with music and so was my maternal grandparents home as well. My grandmother loved to sing, play the piano, violin, and accordian. As a youngster, while my mother was building her fabric business, I would stay with my grandmother and take piano lessons and singing lessons. She would often listen to the Texaco Metropolitan Opera Saturday Live Broadcasts. I remember listening with her, and the range of emotions she would show a youngster like me of belly laughs during “Il Barbieri di Siviglia” or sobbing at the end of “La Boheme” I recognized the power and of course beauty of Opera. I would tell my grandpa “Hey, grandpa, when I grow up I want to be an opera tenor.” He said to me “Oh thats great, now go sing ten or twelve miles away.” This was a happy nurturing upbringing, and I recognize now more than ever how my dreams were encouraged.
Upon my graduation at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Korff School of Music with my BS in Ed and my Masters in Music Performance, I was accepted as an apprentice singer at the iconic Santa Fe Opera. I spent two consecutive summers there, and was immersed in watching incredible world renowned singers rehearse, inter act, pace their voices, engage with conductors, directors and producers all the while singing 3- 6 shows a week as a chorus member and as an understudy to the major roles. After my second year in Santa Fe, I accepted a teaching job at UW-Eau Claire, where again divine intervention would show up, I met Mary Jane. We were married there in 1985, and I was accepted into the Chicago Lyric Opera Center for American Artists now “The Ryan Center”. The late great Ardis Krainik supported my career and helped launch it with her many letters of recommendation and phone calls. In 1988 I was one of 10 other singers chosen nationally to win the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. This along with other competitions that I was fortunate enough to win, helped launch my singing career. I made my Metropolitan Opera debut in January of 1990 as Alfred in “Die Fledermaus” with an illustrious cast which included the late Dom DeLuise as the Jailor in the third Act. He was one to improvise our dialogue which to this day still makes me both laugh out loud and shudder.
As our children began pre shcool and kindergarten, I made the decision to cut back my traveling and performing so that I could be at home with them as they grew up: a decision which did not make my management happy, but was one that I do not regret in the very least. During the time I taught at Northwestern, I was able to attend our childrens’ many sporting events, dance programs, hockey games, baseball games, school plays and of course teachers conferences. (God Bless Teachers!!!)
I am blessed to have been on this journey, and to have met so many very influential individuals along the way. I am honored to have had the opportunity to share my God Given gift of song. I still sing today almost every day. That said, my audience is often limited to our grandchildren listening to hushed lullabies, or full voice in the vehicle en route to a Dinky Delights event with windows rolled down. I am fortunate to have the digits of thumbs up while busting out Verdi, Puccini, or Mozart as opposed to a certain middle finger from my fellow Chicago commuters.
Dinky Delights has morphed, in a way, into another stage and proscenium for me, at our point of sale. The audiences I regularly performed for during my opera days would range from 1,500 to 5,000. Ms. Kainik was quick to point out to me that when my career begins to soar, I will be singing to audiences twice or three times the size of my hometown, she always did her homework! Our customer base with Dinky Delights is loyal, appreciative and fun. After 11 years slinging our Hot and Fresh Donuts, I regularly see steady repeat customers, a business characteristic my mother touted as one of the key elements for success in business. I am humbled by our customers who have supported us over the many years we have been in business here in Chicago and the many neighboring suburbs; for without them, we would not exist!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Along with so many small family owned businesses we were faced with the option of folding or pivoting during the pandemic. Afterall our business thrives in mass gathering environments. This was not possible for the years of lock down and social distancing. Health Departments were not allowing any cooking on site; so we pivoted to cooking off site and offer our Dinky Delights Donuts in sealed labeled Grab n Go portions. We were able to sell enough of these portions, and to qualify for the many Government loans and grants during the pandemic to help pay our bills, and keep our business alive. I would suggest to you that is resilience, it also is a matter of struggle to do whatever is necessary to keep the bottom line afloat.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
I funded our business using savings from my retirement account during my years of singing, and also during my teaching years contributing into an IRA. By the time I pulled the funds I was at an age where the penalty was not a factor. The goal is to pass this family business on to our children and then maybe our grandchildren. Meanwhile, I will continue to sling Hot and Fresh and Grab n Go portions as long as the lines show up to enjoy them.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.DinkyDelightsChicago.com
- Instagram: DinkyDelightsInc.
- Facebook: @dinkydelights.inc
- Twitter: @DDelightsInc
Image Credits
Richard Drews Randy Mesloh