A shop full of doughnuts, with no holes in sight
Forget what you know about doughnuts, including their shape and consistency. Christchurch’s newest doughnut shop is breaking the mould.
Benyay has popped up in the space at Christchurch’s Riverside Market vacated by the Donut Dispensary, which shut up shop at the start of the year.
The crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside Benyay doughnut is a take on the French beignet, which is usually made of paˆ te a` choux, a delicate French pastry dough. Benyay’s doughnuts are made with yeast dough but have the same consistency. They also offer filled doughnuts with custard cream and even Nutella.
Benyay also has an array of deepfried desserts like icecream, banana splits and French toast.
The owners of Riverside Market’s infamous Riverside Butchery and Cluck Cluck Slurp – Joe Ye, Madlen Shaw and Wayne Shaw – are the ones who brought Benyay to life in April this year.
Benyay’s doughnuts are not your usual round-holed variety. They are folded over to form a rectangle, with no hole in sight.
‘‘People look at the beignets and go what are those. It’s just the French word for doughnut which a lot of people don’t realise. That’s why we always like to put samples out,’’ doughnut maker and store manager Karli Ross says.
Ross admits opening a doughnut shop in the same space a previous one used to be has come with challenges.
‘‘Out of towners who had been here before were looking for the Donut Dispensary . . . We’re trying to learn from what [they] did.’’
Benyay is also on Uber Eats, so Ross can see how many people are ordering, who is a returning customer and who is new. He has noticed familiar faces returning to the shop.
Benyay has been working on its social media and throwing in some regular specials ‘‘because we’re new’’.
Ross believes it is all about getting people talking about the shop.
‘‘It’s just getting our name out there. Christchurch is so small that it is a word-of-mouth place.’’
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