They say there’s nothing like the first time. Can you remember who you were with when you first smelled a “hot” Krispy Kreme glazed doughnut?
My grandpa took me and my brother, Chris, to a Krispy Kreme in Rockville, Maryland, and I’ll never forget that day. You know in classic cartoons, when the character smells something delicious, and they just start floating toward it? That’s how I felt.
Well, we all have a man named Vernon Rudolph to thank for the creation of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
In 1933, Rudolph met a French chef in New Orleans and purchased a “secret yeast-raised doughnut recipe” from the gentleman. At the time, Rudolph was working for his uncle, Ishmael Armstrong, at a general store in Paducah, Kentucky, with doughnuts being only one of the many different goods they sold.
With businesses failing during the Great Depression, Rudolph and his uncle headed south toward Nashville, Tennessee with the hope that their business would prosper in a larger city. This time around, those delicious doughnuts were going to be what the business was based around, and the two opened their doors in 1934.
The undeniable success of this store was enough motivation for Rudolph to open his own store in a town called Winston-Salem, North Carolina. On July 13, 1937, “Krispy Kreme Doughnuts” opened its doors!
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