Square Doughnuts Are a Glorious Reality at Sssdude-Nutz in Dinkytown

Imagine wrapping your mouth around your favorite doughnut. Whether it’s cloaked in a simple glaze, stabbed and filled with raspberry jelly or coated by chocolate icing and rainbow sprinkles, we all go crazy for these fried rings of dough. Well Twin Cities residents, there’s a new doughnut shop in town that’s far from the norm– and that’s proved to be a damn good thing.

The Sandlot S'mores doughnut. Photo by Devan Grimsrud

Welcome to Sssdude-Nutz in Dinkytown. Owned and operated by two recent University of Minnesota grads, Bradley Taylor and Ashley Peterson, the doughnut at this place are not traditional. Instead of the classic ring of dough, Sssude-Nutz are gigantic squares of chewy delight adorned with everything you could want: oreos, Fruity Pebbles, bacon crumbles, coconut, specialty buttercreams and glazes. They’re hefty yet incredibly fluffy and the flavor combinations are right on. Ask Bradley, who’s almost always in the shop, what each doughnut is and you’ll see him point to The Sandlot (marshmallow fluff with Golden Grahams and chocolate), Hipster Lumberjack (maple glaze with hickory bacon crumbles), Girls Love Beyonce (cherry amaretto glaze with dark chocolate drizzle), Rick James B!tch (sssdude-nutz’ signature buttercream doughnut) and many more.

Those creations were inspired by Bradley’s youth in California, where great doughnut shops dotted nearly every corner. When he noticed a lack of quality doughnut places near the U of M, he began experimenting with making them himself. Now, he and Ashley are making hundreds of doughnuts every day using his take on an old recipe. They work seven days a week in the kitchen of Potter’s Pasties, a shop in Como who’s owner knows what it’s like to pursue your passion. Before opening their own place next to The Kitty Cat Club in September, the Sssdudes spent months popping up in select locations around Dinkytown – working every day from morning to night, learning how to run their business, connecting with customers and ironing out the inevitable problems that arise within all young companies.

The Sssdude Nutz Shop. Photo by Devan Grimsrud

Now with a few solid months under their belt, Bradley wants people to think of Sssdude-Nutz as not only a kick-ass doughnut shop but also a cool place for people to just hang out. The shop has a few lounge chairs, a TV equipped with video games, a colorful (not necessarily beautiful) chalkboard wall and, of course, a glass display showcasing an array of fresh doughnut –until they sell out, that is. If you’re more on the go, it’s accessible enough to stop by for doughnuts on the run. While it might not be the prettiest doughnut shop in town, that’s not why you go there. At its core, Sssdude-Nutz is a doughnut shop started by two recent colleges grads – and that’s what it looks and feels like. It’s not pretentious, it’s genuine and I’d hunker down in there embracing one of their fluffy, cereal-coated squares any day.