Federal Donuts by Mike Solomon and Steven Cook

Federal Donuts by Mike Solomonov and Steve Cook with Tom Henneman, Bob Logue, and Felicia D’ambrosio

Federal Donuts is the rare non-fiction book that is a blend of business, cooking, and hilarity. The book tells the tale of how the instantly popular Philadelphia donut and fried chicken restaurant named Federal Donuts got its start in 2011, and how nearly everything went wrong from the start. But somehow the shop -- run by folks who a short time before had no idea how to make donuts -- became a smash. They had lines out the door and were selling out of both donuts and fried chicken while plenty of people were still standing in line. Now the little donut shop has multiple locations in Philadelphia, an offshoot called Rooster Soup that donates proceeds to charity, and a new location in Miami.

The book by FedNuts founders Mike Solomonov and Steven Cook (plus three others) takes a light-hearted look at countless kitchen disasters, including the early days when they had staff on the clock for nearly 24 hours a day despite the restaurant only being open for about three hours before they sold out of product. They include customer comments and critical reviews they received, such as the countless customers who suggested they could solve the ‘sold out of chicken’ problem by simply making more chicken -- which prompted a funny t-shirt that reads, YOU make more chicken. There is even a twenty page section that highlights ‘fan art’ people have made that feature either the donuts or the FedNuts employees.

This is a fun book to read even if you have no plans to fire up the fryer and make any of the recipes. The photographs are enticing, so much so that I’ve started wondering when I’ll be passing through Philadelphia (or Miami) anytime soon. Fortunately for me, the answer is yes to both. I promise to blog about that when the time comes. But the photos from the stores won’t be nearly as enticing as the photos in the book.

The recipes alone indicate why a donut & fried chicken shack got so much attention so quickly. These are not the traditional donuts. Rather, these are both whimsical and artistic, and look incredibly tasty. Donut recipes in the book include pomegranate nutella, blueberry mascarpone, strawberry shortcake, salted tahina glaze, strawberry lavender, s’mores, chocolate eclair with eclair crumbs, and french toast glaze with crunch and maple drizzle.  The twice-fried chicken recipes include spice blends such as Ballpark Barbecue, Buttermilk Ranch, coconut curry, and za’atar. Glazes for the fried chicken include chili garlic, soy garlic, and honey ginger.

Perhaps my favorite part of this book is chapter eight, which features other donut shops that serve ‘better’ donuts than Federal. Yes, the owners of FedNuts took a full chapter of their book about their own restaurant to pay homage to a handful of other donut shops from around the country, in places like Portland, Los Angeles, Nashville, Minneapolis, Chicago, San Francisco, and New York.

Give this book to anyone with a sense of humor, the foodies in your life, donut lovers, and anyone heading to (or living near) Philadelphia. In a sense, you might be able to consider this a travel book since after reading it, I’m willing to travel to Philly for breakfast and dinner at Federal Donuts.