Crave Doughnuts opening Oshawa location March 31

The next 11 days will be hard on those doughnut aficionados who have craved their weekly sweet treats at Durham’s hottest doughnut shop, Crave Doughnuts.

The store on Lupin Drive in Whitby will be closed for some needed renovations and Crave fans will have to wait until March 31to get their fix when Crave owners Nicole Morais and Jeremy Black open their second location on Wentworth Street in Oshawa.

The gourmet doughnut shop opened in 2019 and in the days leading up to the pandemic in the spring of 2020, the hottest sweet destination in Durham was Crave, with weekend line-ups that sometimes snaked all the way around the plaza.

When the world returned to some semblance or order months later, so too did the lines. And while the hysteria has died down a tad – sugar comas are real, you know – the popularity of the little family business found in an unassuming strip plaza near Garden Street and Hwy 2 never waned.

The new location will re-open at 1115 Wentworth St. W in Oshawa March 31. Eventually the original store will re-open, giving people who have a serious love for doughnuts two places to satisfy their sugar needs.

Jeremy Black and Nicole Morais

The doughnuts are handmade from scratch using locally sourced,
quality ingredients and the signature brioche dough makes for a light, fluffy and slightly sweet doughnut that has created a legion of fans.

Crave offer fritters – Carrot Cake Fritter, anyone? – classics like old fashioneds and a whole line of crullers, such as honey vanilla, churro and even hot chocolate, that would be enough for many people all on their own.

Exotic donuts are regulars on the vanilla as well, from Oatmeal Cream Pie, Chocolate PB & J, French Toast and Cosmic Brownie. Not to mention Birthday Cake (confetti butter cream-filled with birthday cookie crumb, sweet polita and confetti sprinkle) and Guava Passion Fruit Cheesecake (whipped cheesecake filled guava passion fruit glaze).

All the glazes, custard and creams are made in house and Crave also has vegan cake and yest-risen varieties.

The doughnut shop offers pre-orders as well as walk-ins, with regulars learning quickly to arrive quickly before the best varieties are sold out.

Morais started the business making doughnuts out of her home in 2017 and selling her wares at festivals, brewery pop-ups and to family and friends before sub-leasing kitchen space from bakeries. Morais and Black, now with a staff of 10-plus, opened their permanent location in Whitby two years later.

The new location in Oshawa has been almost a year in the making and the production kitchen will be moving to a larger space when they open on Wentworth Street at the end of the month.

“We’re hoping our Whitby reno will be quick, up and running soon enough,” Morais said on social media, while thanking Crave customers for their loyalty. “All of this could not be possible without all of you. Thank you for supporting our dreams and a small business … and thank you for all the incredible messages, comments and likes we received about our new location in Oshawa. We’re incredibly excited for this new adventure.”