Curiosity Doughnuts Bringing Ring-Shaped Fried Goodness To Doylestown

DOYLESTOWN, PA — A new family owned and operated doughnut store will be opening its doors on Thursday, Feb. 9 in Doylestown Township with a delicious assortment of ring-shaped fried goodness.

Curiosity Doughnuts, which some locals might remember from Stockton, New Jersey, has set up shop inside the former Back to the 50s Diner at 800 Edison-Furlong Road and Route 263 next to Rita’s Water Ice.

“We are opening with a limited menu that will gradually expand as we get used to our new space and figure out what’s possible, in terms of service and production. If we can’t do something well, you won’t be seeing it until we can,” said Chef Aki Kamozawa who co-owns the business with her husband, Alex. “For this opening week there will be doughnuts, drinks, one flavor of onigiri, and our classic pretzel crusted fried chicken sandwiches.”

Their doughnuts are unlike any you can find in the area. They are moist, delicious and bursting with flavor.

Photo by Jeff Werner

“Curiosity Doughnuts gets its name from our own restless curiosity,” said Aki. “We are always thinking about new flavors and textures, bouncing around different ideas, and rotating our offerings, because we’re never satisfied with the status quo,” she said.

According to Aki, Curiosity uses about 28 different types of dough in making their delectable creations.

“We don’t make every dough every day. The widest variety is on the weekend because that’s when we’re the busiest,” says Aki. "We do a combination of yeasted and cake. The majority of our yeasted doughnuts take about two days to make. And we’re inspired by all kinds of pastries and breads from everywhere,” she said.

One of its best selling doughnuts is its Curiosity Cruller.

“It is very different than you would get at another doughnut shop,” says Aki. “We also have an apple cider doughnut that everyone loves. And we have a Pennsylvania Dutch potato doughnut with potato in the dough.

“We also have something for everyone who loves chocolate - a chocolate yeasted doughnut, a chocolate cake doughnut and a vegan chocolate doughnut.”

While their crawlers, apple cider doughnuts and chocolate moose-filled challah doughnuts are popular, at Curiosity all the doughnuts are big sellers, says Aki.

“We never sell day old doughnuts,” she adds. “Every doughnut that you buy in our shop will have been made that day. All of our fruit glazes are made with fresh purees. And unless we’re using a cereal or something for fun, we don’t use food coloring. Everything comes naturally.”

Curiosity Doughnuts will open its doors on Feb. 9 at 800 Edison-Furlong Road. (photo by Jeff Werner)

Curiosity traces its beginnings to a recipe for buttermilk lime glazed doughnuts, which the couple had included in their second cookbook, “Maximum Flavor, Great Recipes and Why They Work.”

“When we were moving back to the area we were talking about what we wanted to do as our next project,” said Aki. “Kind of randomly Alex said he wanted to make doughnuts.

“We scouted them out in farmer’s markets and took road trips to try different variations. We saw a lot of great ideas and ate a lot of mediocre doughnuts. Great doughnuts were few and far between,” said Aki. “Long lines and good press did not always lead us to what we were looking for, but there was inspiration everywhere we looked.

“Not long after that, we stumbled across a space at the Stockton Market. They liked our idea for doughnuts and frozen custard and the rest is history.”

They opened their first shop inside the Stockton Market in 2015. Three years later, in 2018, they were offered a spot inside a new Whole Foods Store opening in Spring House, Montgomery County.

The opportunity was too good to pass up. So they closed their Stockton location and relocated to Spring House.

At the Spring House Whole Foods, they operated as an independent vendor for the past four and a half years making and selling their doughnuts to Whole Foods customers.

At their peak, they operated as an independent vendor at both the Whole Foods Stores in Spring House and in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

(photo by Jeff Werner)

“We were so busy, but we didn’t have the space to expand and improve our work flow,” said Aki. “We ended up working longer and longer hours until we decided it wasn’t working anymore. We decided to go in a different direction.”

They closed their location at Whole Foods in July 2022 and signed the lease at its new 1800 square foot Doylestown location at the end of November.

“It’s been kind of a mad dash ever since then,” said Aki.

Their new 1800 square foot space is a little bigger than what they had planned, but it has allowed them to expand their menu to include a coffee program, egg creams and savory offerings, including breakfast sandwiches in the morning and fried chicken sandwiches in the afternoon.

“We’re going to have some fun with it,” she said of the menu.

To help launch the new shop, the couple organized a Kickstarter campaign in the fall, which offered exclusive opportunities and merchandise to donors in exchange for financial support.

Their Kickstarter supporters were also invited to a soft opening over the weekend, where they got to sample sweet and savory doughnuts and enjoy an egg cream sample.

One couple drove up from Center City Philadelphia for the soft opening. They stumbled upon Curiosity at a pop up shop that Aki and Alex operated briefly on Passyunk Avenue.

After checking out the long line at the Passyunk pop up, they fell in love with product and have continued to be loyal customers contributing to the Kickstarter campaign.

In addition to its doughnuts, one of the coolest byproducts of the shop are its homemade bars of soap, which are made from the recycled oil used to make the doughnuts.

“We go through a lot of oil frying things and we wanted to find a way to recycle it and make it useful,” said Aki.

For more information about Curiosity Doughnuts, visit curiositydoughnuts.com. Hours will be Wednesday to Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The kitchen closes at 2 p.m.