Dunkin' Donuts to Save Long Beach's Giant Donut

Long Beach business owners along “Retro Row” are celebrating today a pledge from Dunkin' Donuts to save the iconic Long Beach doughnut.

The Long Beach Planning Commission Thursday voted to shelve the discussion on the demolition of the building that houses the giant, doughnut until March after a Dunkin' Donuts representative told commissioners the chain wants to keep the sign, according to the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

The fiberglass doughnut, which is pale pink, has sat on top of the former Daily Grind coffee shop at 5590 Seventh St. in Long Beach for five decades.

According to the newspaper, Dan Almquist, managing partner for the Frontier Restaurant Group, told commissioners: “We don't want to be known as the guy who killed the doughnut.”

Originally, Dunkin' Donuts planned to demolish the building and take down the doughnut. However, business owners of Long Beach's “Retro Row,” a series of shops selling items such as vintage clothes and records on Fourth Street, spoke out to save the sign, and asked that it be moved to Fourth Street. A Facebook group Save the Giant Donut was created, and has grown to more than 1,600 likes since Tuesday.

With the doughnut's future seemingly secure, Long Beach business leaders are not calling for it to be moved anymore, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“It's always been about saving the doughnut, not stealing the doughnut,” Kerstin Kansteiner, the owner of Portfolio Coffeehouses who was involved in the campaign to save the doughnut, told the newspaper.

While Dunkin' Doughnuts has pledge to integrate the doughnut, the details still need to be ironed out, according to reports. In recent years, Dunkin' Donuts has moved away from identifying its brand as a sweets-only shop, and now serves other breakfast foods and a variety of drinks.

--City News Service