Montclair Bread Company, previously Gunkin’ Doughnuts, is rebranding to Rabble Rise Doughnuts, a name that owner Rachel Wyman says is fitting for her brand and new business model. The company will now focus on doughnuts exclusively in both locations and offer a streamlined menu and DIY “Naked Doughnut Kits” for consumers, retailers, bakeries and restaurants nationwide to order online.
In 2012, Wyman opened the Montclair Bread Company to sell her family’s recipes and to experiment with different kinds of breads. As she learned more about the craft, she began to develop bread recipes for larger companies like Whole Foods. She also began to experiment with brioche dough, inspired by the sugar-dusted fried brioche pastries she discovered while traveling in France.
She quickly found success with her brioche donuts, and soon she was competing on the Food Network’s 2014 “Donut Showdown” to win a $10,000 first place prize for her Mexican-inspired tres leches brioche donut. It was that moment that Wyman realized her business could be more than just a bakery.
Eventually, she was able to make enough doughnuts to sell them daily, and it wasn’t long before lines stretched into the street. So in May of last year, she consolidated her two locations, Gunkin’ Doughnuts and Montclair Bread Company, and rebranded both as Rabble Rise Doughnuts (Wyman has a fondness for the word “rabble”).
Today, she makes brioche doughnuts and what she has dubbed sourdough doughnuts with 36-hour sourdough starter. There’s a rotating selection of donut specials, too. Some of these include a sweet potato casserole, creme brulee, Fruity Pebbles, banoffee, and a cranberry herb sourdoughnut.
Since the start of her business, she’s hosted several fundraisers for local charities and participated in a 5K doughnut run. This year, she brought her doughnuts to thousands of unpaid TSA agents at Newark airport during the government shutdown. She’s also teamed up with Ironbound Farm to provide eggs for her donuts.
Wyman says she’s also excited about a collaboration with Paper Plane coffee that will see the Montclair and New Paltz shops serve the specialty roasting company’s products. She’s also planning a small farmers market for her patio this summer.
Her outdoor seating is a perfect spot for watching the doughnuts being made. The shop also hosts cooking classes and parties for doughnut decorating, and is open to all ages.
As a rabble-rouser, Wyman isn’t afraid to push the limits of what a doughnut can be. That’s why she has a brioche donut called the “trijam”: it’s triple-jam, made with raspberry, strawberry and blueberry jams. And she’s not afraid to delve into the world of vegan doughnuts with her “sourdoughnuts.”
