By Rieva Lesonsky
Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve no doubt heard about people lining up out the door and down the street at the Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City’s trendy SoHo neighborhood to get one of Ansel’s Cronuts, a half-croissant, half-doughnut pastry (photo courtesy Dominique Ansel Bakery). Chef Ansel, who has trademarked the pastry (which made its debut two months ago), makes a limited number of Cronuts every day, which has no doubt fed the frenzy. Cronuts are made in only one flavor, which changes every month (in July, Ansel is serving up blackberry Cronuts).
Cronuts have become so popular people are actually scalping them, selling the normally $5 pastry for as much as $20. An enterprising entrepreneur (not affiliated with the Dominique Ansel Bakery) launched a Cronut delivery service, charging $100 for one pastry.
Ansel says he’s trying to scale Cronut production, and hopes to go “nationwide soon,” but Cronut copycats are popping up all around the world. Eater.com is on the Cronut beat and has already found “Zonuts, Frissants, Dossants, Cro-Nots, Dough’Ssants, and, no joke: One of Those.” (The article, peppered with pictures of the various treats, is well worth taking a look at.)
Will Cronuts (the real thing or the army of imitators) become as ubiquitous as cupcakes? Probably not, but if you own a bakery or restaurant, it’s worth experimenting to see if you can create a food craze of your own.
Rieva Lesonsky is CEO of GrowBiz Media, a media and custom content company focusing on small business and entrepreneurship. Email Rieva at rieva@smallbizdaily.com, follow her on Google+ and Twitter.com/Rieva and visit her website, SmallBizDaily.com, to get the scoop on business trends and sign up for Rieva’s free TrendCast reports.
