Eggplant Steaks with Goat Cheese and Tomatoes
Amanda Kinden’s
Amanda Kinden had to stop making doughnuts because it seemed her business had become too successful. In September 2014, she started Oh Doughnuts. “Winnipeg didn’t have a locally owned doughnut shop that wasn’t part of a chain so I thought I should take it upon myself to do that,” she said. Kinden didn’t, however, open a store. She made her doughnuts in a commercial kitchen she shared with others. Then she would deliver the desserts to cafés and restaurants in the city.
By February, business was booming, but the one woman behind the one-woman operation was reaching her limit. Kinden found she couldn’t keep up with the demand. Coffee shops were getting a bit frustrated. “Someone posted on Twitter or something how people almost broke into fisticuffs over the last doughnuts at one of the coffee shops,” she said. “I was thinking, ‘It’s just doughnuts people.’ But I guess Winnipeg has been deprived of doughnuts that aren’t by those-who-shall-remainnameless.”kindenhadactuallytaken an oath not to say “Tim Hortons.”
By March, the grind of baking at night and then delivering doughnuts to all her customers was starting to affect her health. Kinden said her brain was turning to mush, too. Also, she had no time to look for a storefront. While getting property meant a greater expense, Kinden felt the business needed it and that there was the demand. In April, she stopped making doughnuts to concentrate on finding a place.
The break allowed Kinden to regroup in other ways. She got back on her bike. Before she struck out on her own, she had worked for the Green Action Centre, an environmental nonprofit that serves Manitoba. In 2013 and 2014, she co-ordinated the province’s Commuter Challenge, a friendly competition among cities and provinces that encourages people to find alternative modes of transportation to and from work. Manitoba has a habit of winning the competition within Canada. Kinden herself commutes on her Jamis Allegro 2.0 hybrid. While she was in the thick of doughnut production, she wasn’t able to ride. But that changed