Photo by Shirley Ruhe/The Connection
The long-awaited Duck Donuts opened in the Lee Harrison Shopping Center on Nov. 17. A high school student in line at lunchtime a week later commented there had been 50 people waiting to get in when it opened last week. A jug of batter plunks donuts into a vat of hot fat where they are flipped over and moved by small conveyer belt to a large bowl. Each hot donut is made individually as ordered. The customer handcrafts the donut with choices of icing including strawberry, lemon, orange, chocolate, maple and then tops it with peanuts, bacon, chocolate sprinkles and more. The first Duck Donuts was opened on the Outer Banks in North Carolina eight years ago and is now one of several in this area as well as other stores in North Carolina and other parts of Virginia.