Leave it to Silicon Valley to claim another first. Actually, leave it to Santa Clara—the location of the first Fractured Prune custom doughnuts franchise in all of California.
“We picked the heart of Silicon Valley—Santa Clara—to locate our flagship headquarters and introduce our doughnuts to California…We know that Santa Clara very much wants its businesses to thrive,” says Jeff Gottfurcht, who, with his wife, Emily, holds the only Fractured Prune Doughnuts franchise rights in California.
“Everyone loves doughnuts,” says franchise general manager Derek Hargis. “Cake doughnuts are sweet but not overly sweet. Nothing beats a hot doughnut. It’s a treat.”
Indeed, everyone was there October 3 for the official grand opening in Santa Clara Town Centre at El Camino Real and Scott Blvd. Customers were lined up out the door, and Mayor Jamie L. Matthews, City Manager Julio Fuentes and Fire Chief Bill Kelly were among those in the line-up for the ribbon cutting ceremony.
“The city’s on the move! Today’s turnout is terrific. There’s a lot of interest in a unique shop with an interesting way of providing a doughnut product customers will like,” says Fuentes.
There are no doughnuts on shelves when customers enter the Fractured Prune Doughnuts shop. Instead, customers take an order form and create their own doughnuts, combining any of about 12 glazes and 12 toppings—from crumbled bacon to mini-chocolate chips—or choosing one of 15 standard combinations, such as banana cream pie and salted caramel.
Fractured Prune is named after Prunella Shriek, who in the late 1800s once owned the land in Ocean City, MD, where the first doughnut shop was established in 1976. Because she kept breaking bones competing in sports against men, she was nicknamed Fractured Prunella. Matthews, however, pointed out a local connection: Santa Clara was once the prune capital of America.
“We were looking to get into the franchise business and were blown away by the concept of fresh doughnuts made for you. Always hot. It was a different concept. It brought doughnuts up to age with what other successful companies were doing. Custom doughnuts… is a new concept to California, and Santa Clara has welcomed us. This center has welcomed us,” says Gottfurcht, who designed the franchise’s clever California state flag doughnut logo.
Over the next six years, Gottfurcht plans to open 20 more Bay Area doughnut shops, employing more than 525 workers. The second shop to open will be in San Jose.
“I’d do it faster if I could find the space,” says Gottfurcht, whose favorite custom doughnut is the honey-glazed Carnival topped with rainbow sprinkles.
Open daily, Fractured Prune Doughnuts (www.fracturedprune.com), 2000 El Camino Real, Suite # 11, (408) 247-0440, welcomed its first customers September 29. One lucky customer won a year’s worth of free doughnuts. Now that’s a real treat!
