5 days Ago By By Pat Hill Pikes Peak Courier
The Donut Mill. As times change, development happens, traffic all over the place, construction woes, snow piled up, you name it, it’s a hot mess sometimes. No matter what, though, the Donut Mill in Woodland Park is still open.
Every day for 47 years. Well, except for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Bob and Marcia Kinner bought the building and founded the Donut Mill in 1977, eventually adding the signature windmill.
A Woodland Park institution, the little blue building in the center of downtown is nostalgia for some, a place to put aside cares and woes and just go for it. Go ahead, enjoy the indulgence of a luscious apple fritter, glazed donut, you know the drill. “We use all the same ingredients,” said Eric Cabrera, who bought the Donut Mill 2 1⁄2 years ago from Michael Sturdevant, who owned the business for 18 years.
“We use fresh ground cinnamon; I’ll let a little secret out – the only sugar in our products is in our icing. We don’t use preservatives; we’re different.” The most popular choice is the apple fritter, he added.
Historic photos throughout hint at the building’s connection to the past, to the old Colorado Midland Railway terminal across the street. Built in 1896 as a home for the station master, in 1911, John Webb and his wife purchased the home where they raised five children. The donut display case is in the original part; the eating area was a deck.
The back room is an addition. Cabrera shrugs off internet reviews that rate the “mill” as dingy and old. “They don’t understand how much work it takes to keep it this way,” he said.
“It’s a lot of work.” But it’s the stories that contribute to the lore of the Donut Mill. There’s the one about the meeting of two cousins who, through a genealogy search, found each other and arranged a meeting at the Donut Mill.
One had been adopted as a baby and had never known his biological family. “They were hugging, screaming, laughing,” Cabrera said. Turns out each lived in the Florissant/Lake George area.
“She told the man that his mom was born in the corner of the building during a time when a midwife came up here,” Cabrera said. “And that’s her picture hanging inside the door. He had been walking past the picture of his mom for years and had no idea.
Yeah. Mind blowing.” Some stories are wrenching.
A man came in, ordered a chocolate donut and coffee and sat at a table for two hours. The business was closed but Cabrera let him come in while he was cleaning. The man was a widower who, with his wife, stopped at the Donut Mill before every ski trip.
One trip he refused to stop on the way up but did on the way back. “They went to bed that night, and she died in her sleep,” Cabrera said. “It took him nine years to get back here.
He said he needed that.” Then there’s the couple from New Mexico who drive to the Donut Mill, have a donut and a cup of coffee and drive back home. “Yeah.
It’s crazy,” he said. “You’d think I’m making this up.” Add the source of the biscuits and gravy and the stories go on.
Sturdevant, the former owner, was the head baker on the Queen Mary. “And we still serve the same recipe for our biscuits,” he said. Queen Mary biscuits and secret Donut Mill gravy, the recipes come with the purchase of the business.
“The secret ingredients for the gravy are kept in a vault; Michael and I are the only ones who know it,” he said. “I grind the seasonings; if I need to do it during business hours, the staff needs to leave the kitchen.” At the Donut Mill it’s not only the (luscious) donuts, the biscuits, the gravy, it’s the staff.
“I have such a phenomenal staff. I created an environment that allows them to manage themselves,” he said. “Right or wrong, I want them to make the decisions.
” Elijah Calhoun oversees the baking staff, a promotion from when he worked in the front. Calhoun is among Cabrera’s hires who rose to the challenge. “This is a crazy crazy story,” Calhoun said.
Fired from one job in the area, Calhoun said he suffered depression but found a job in construction. “I had a friend who knew Eric (Cabrera) and he urged me to apply,” Calhoun said. “I had been a knucklehead and Eric helped me change from a boy to a young man.
He has been like a father figure to me.” Two years later, Calhoun leads the baking team which makes hundreds of donuts, including three trays of apple fritters every day. “We never have day-olds,” he said.
J.J. Allison works at the front and gets a kick out of his customers.
“I’ve had people come in at 8 a.m. and order a donut a la mode,” he said.
For the past several years, due to the interest of a past owner, the late Mary Guenzel, the “mill” features Golden Bell Ice Cream. “Everybody who comes in is happy. We serve smiles,” Allison said.
“It’s awesome here; I love it.” Allison, a student at Pikes Peak State College, works part-time from 4:15 a.m.
to 1 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Saturday.
On the side, he dreams of one day racing in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. A former firefighter in Florida, Cabrera has owned a landscaping business, a landholding/acquisition company and two gyms. For two years, he did a motivational segment, “Living Local,” on Fox News in Colorado Springs.
“I got rid of all that, tried to figure out what to do and this came up,” he said. In his spare time, he is a member of the Downtown Development Authority. In a recent development, when a five-day snowstorm shut down much of Ute Pass, Cabrera opened the doors.
“It’s the Donut Mill,” he said..
