Unsung Donut
In 1998, on my second date with Bridget, we ate Italian donuts with Danny Aiello at Tutta Pasta on Washington Street in Hoboken New Jersey - best 500 calories I’ve ever had and hands down maybe the best date….25 years later, Bridget and I still love a good Zeppolle and some people watching….
***
So I think society may have underappreciated the value of the donut as a health benefit. The donut isn’t just empty calories – it’s camaraderie around a table with wobbly legs, the centerpiece of stories from vets and old friends about people like Sister Mary who used to discipline kids by throwing chalk and pulling them by the ear down to the principal’s office.
An academic medical center here in the northeast actually found donut-holding families in their ERs appeared less stressed and more receptive to discharge instructions, which makes some sense but also makes me wonder what else the hospital ER staff are recording during those visits! The rate of readmission among those with donuts in the exam room was about ~30% less compared to those without one….Donuts have had a love-hate relationship with the healthcare system but given the state of the mental health crisis, there is an argument that donuts could play a role in treatment. “It’s not the donut, it’s the conversation you have with someone when eating one,” psychologist Vern Stanton told me while we shared cinnamon munchkins and coffee last year at the local Dunkin. Some people who swear by a daily donut often seem to have a glass half full attitude. Kelly Saven, a nurse’s aide in Connecticut, told me she likes the jelly ones, “because my doctor said I need to eat more fruit.”
She wasn’t joking.
Dissolution of the family these days and family meals has been a major driver of mental health deterioration in both kids and adults. Suicide care is now necessary and for many the common reason is a lack of social interaction, real connection, laughing about stories, people watching. “My daughter is 37 and says it’s hard to find time to make supper and sit down with the family – her kids constantly being raced around,” laments Norm Tartaglia, 70. “She should slow down and have a donut and coffee once in a while.” I caught up with three old men and a lady down at the local donut shop in my hometown last week – 92-year-old Benny, 95-year-old Sam, 87-year-old Kristine and 86-year-old Roger. They’ve met here off Lasalle Road for coffee and a donut and a conversation for most days since the 1970s. “I remember when the place opened,” Roger said. “Used to have penny candy, peanut brittle and hot donuts. We’d come after school.” Fred Marcucci, a Marine Corp vet living in West Brighton New York said today that he is upset about the local D&D closing for 3 hours each afternoon given unruly students and parents causing traffic issues. “This prevents us from going inside to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee and a donut,” he said. I’m personally not suggesting the healthcare industry needs to lean into donut shop franchises or that we’ll lower healthcare costs with more donut diners. Nor am I advocating Medicare insurers should use supplemental benefit dollars to give free donut vouchers to seniors, but the broader public might want to re-think about the value of the donut. When I was a kid, my folks would take us to Gil’s Bakery for a cinnamon cruller and Very Fine grape drink after Sunday mass. For 5 nickels and a dime we could get “seconds.” We would just tell stories, listen to the people, savor each bite – maybe coincidence, but afterwards I always felt lighter….
***
…When I was older, courting my wife, we met Moonstruck actor Danny Aiello at Tutta Pasta on Washington Street in Hoboken New Jersey where the guy I knew as Johnny Cammareri was seated in the table behind us. What happened next was straight out of a movie. “Don’t turn around Bry, but it’s that guy from Moonstruck…” Bridget said.
I didn’t turn, but Danny Aiello did, and suddenly the guy who made me laugh saying “Loretta! My mother is dying!” spent the next 30 minutes selling us on his son’s new Hoboken bakery which had Zeppoles, the Italian version of a donut. “Let’s have a Zeppole,” Aiello said with a big smile. He just happened to have a few at the table and we ate them like we were eating at that kitchen table in Moonstruck.
Now back in ole Napoli where my grandparents are from….well, they call that amore…
Gil’s Bakery Menu, circa 1975