The doughnut holes are back at Le Cave’s Bakery & Donuts.
At least for now.
In honor of National Doughnut Month, the midtown Tucson bakery on Monday started adding the hole in the middle of its popular ring-shaped pastries — something you haven’t seen from Le Cave’s since the original owners nixed the holes back in 2011.
The idea then was to create a “personality for our doughnuts where if you were to see them sitting on a table, or anywhere they may be, people say, ‘I know what those are. Those are Le Cave’s doughnuts,’” Rudy Molina Jr., who was running the show at the family’s bakery, explained at the time.
When the Molina family, which closed the bakery in 2017, sold Le Cave’s and the original vegetable doughnut recipes to Chris and Naomi Pershing last year, the couple pledged not to change a thing, even those holeless doughnuts.
But they knew that the community was still divided on the issue, much as they were when Le Cave’s made the bold move and sparked one of the area’s most fiercely debated culinary controversies. In the weeks leading up to last fall’s opening at 3950 E. 22nd St., there was even a debate within the ranks of the new staff: Holes or no holes?
“It was really, really hard to decide what we were going to do,” recalled Le Cave’s sales and operations manager Charlie Salgado. “It was the day before our grand opening when we decided.”
Salgado said they are tracking input from their customers this month to decide if they will go with the holes or without come July. Customers are encouraged to participate and store employees will keep a running count of yeahs and nahs.
Salgado personally is a fan of the version with the hole.
“I like the idea of having a hole in it. The whole surface, I think, gets a nice, even cooking,” he said. “I think because there is no hole, the doughnut sometimes is a little softer inside, a little chewier.”
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