MEET: TANIA SHELOW, Bitchin Donuts
Tania Shelow, founder of Bitchin Donuts, talks silver lining business expansion, evolving her vegan perspective + taking on Dunkin, one donut at a time.
Interview : Susie Davidson Powell
Photos: Victoria Sedefian/The Dishing
The Dishing talks with tastemakers in the hospitality industry + trailblazers at the intersection of food, culture + art. In this tastemaker interview, we talk with Tania Shelow, baker, vegan restaurateur, mixed media artist + owner of Bitchin Donuts.
Tania Shelow’s passion for donuts has been a through-line in her career and in her business. After managing Dunkin’ Donuts for 15 years, and a life-style change to a plant-based diet, she founded Birch Bark Eatery, a vegan restaurant in Queensbury in 2018. In 2023 she moved and rebranded her business as Bitchin’ Donuts on Lark Street in Albany. Shelow’s donuts have amassed a near cult following and our tastemaker photo shoot in the colorful Bitchin’ Donuts space was intended for a fall feature. But an early November fire in the apartments above Bitchin’ Donuts caused extensive smoke and water damage to the shop, displacing her business temporarily, but also fast-tracking existing plans to expand. This interview coincides with Shelow’s current out of a commercial kitchen on Delaware Ave in Albany, and an active GoFundMe to help the business reopen its original Lark Street space.
Thanks for talking with The Dishing, Tania. First, we’re truly sorry about the fire damage. What happened and can you give us an update on business plans and the GoFundMe?
So much has happened in such a short time. On November 2, a fire started in the apartment above our shop. It was handled pretty quickly but left a lot of smoke and water damage to our space and it was evident by evening that it would be a while before we could work from the Lark Street space. We started a GoFundMe pretty quickly to help us move to a new space and keep our employees paid and fed.
But we were also already at a point ready for expansion. We had been working on a second location near the former Big Body Butcher in Colonie and we signed the lease in August. There’s no kitchen there so that location was going to be dependent on the Lark street kitchen, hence the need to quickly find a commercial kitchen that would allow us to center our operations there. We’ve found a place at 540 Delaware Avenue for our kitchen, and we’re just a few weeks away from opening a Bitchin’ Donuts in Colonie at 2008 Central Ave. It should be open by early December!
OK, let’s start with the origin of the business. You were the manager of a Dunkin’ Donuts for 15 years so you clearly know a thing or two about donuts. First, what made you transition to a wholly plant-based diet?
Almost 8 years ago plant based eating looked like it solved a lot of problems, not just personal ones, but issues on the world stage. I leaned in hard to find out what it was all about. But, I am not personally vegan anymore. I haven’t been for about 2 years and it’s not something I have publicly announced though I’m sure some people have noticed a subtle shift in my messaging as I moved away from promoting “diets” and values connected to strict eating restrictions. It’s all part of my mental health journey and working with professionals to identify parts of my thinking that have held me back from achieving all my goals so it’s deeply personal to me and has been pivotal in my last few years as a human, a mother and restaurateur.
I know so much of my business has focused on being great for being vegan. We would like to just be great in our own regard, and I am encapsulating this into our identity as we move forward. Personally, I’m still figuring out who I am and how that plays into what I put out in the world, but it is becoming more and more refined as we approach this rapid growth spurt we serendipitously launched.
So that means when Lark Street is back and running it will still be 100% vegan. My partner Buddy Dorman is vegan and will be running this location. All of our doughnut baking will still be at the 540 Delaware commercial kitchen but everything there is separate, from separate fryers to kitchen space as much due to allergens as vegan concerns. We have a whole customer base who come to us for allergy reasons.
The new Colonie location and the Delaware Ave kitchen location will both carry vegan and non-vegan options. Vegan goods are still at the heart of the business but as a donut maker, baker, and decorator of other baked goods, I just have to fill out our range of baked goods with French cruellers, cake donuts and other cakes. Right now, 540 Delaware is just the commercial kitchen but it has a front room that will be a sort of storefront, a showcase and a pick up point but no chairs or anywhere to sit. As much as the damage to our Lark Street shop was hard, there’s a silver lining in how it’s helped us streamline our return and our growth.
I wrote about your original vegan business, Birch Bark Eatery, where you were intentional about your mission to serve American comfort food that “does no harm to creature or planet.” How did you learn to adapt your recipes for foods like donuts? And with your expansion beyond a vegan menu, will your signature donuts remain vegan?
All of my recipes started off as inspired by another recipe. I look at recipes like guidelines and take a lot of liberties with the seasonings and processes to get results I personally desire from the finished product. For your donuts, it was a blend of coconut cream and coconut milk with a fat content high enough to fry up light and crisp. Everything we have historically offered has been vegan. One thing I noticed very quickly is vegan recipes try too hard to be healthy, often at the cost of flavor or texture. My best recipes have come from taking a non-vegan recipe and finding a way to make it vegan by substituting ingredients or processes. So yes, the donuts will remain vegan, but we’ll have cruellers and savory baked goods. And our 23-year old daughter Azalea has taken to making macarons. She’s self taught so she’ll have those in the two locations. She is looking for a vegan macaron recipe too so she can have those at Lark Street.
You were in a pretty out of the way spot in the Knights of Columbus in Queensbury but people would drive to you from hours away in all directions. What made you decide it was the right move to head south to downtown Albany?
The constant upward trajectory of my business plan pretty much demanded that I bring my skills and products somewhere they would be more fully appreciated. While Queensbury was my home for many years, many people there were just not ready to 1. buy and support vegan products and 2. support local over franchises.
Why did you rebrand as Bitchin Donuts?
I love to play around with branding and marketing ideas so the idea for Bitchin Donuts came up in casual banter one day. I was just being silly and ranting in the kitchen about how If I was smart I would change our name to BITCHIN DONUTS. When we first started to actually enter this process, NYS said no to my proposed DBA name change so on paper I settled for us being known as Birchin Donuts which holds some of the Birch Bark Eatery flame—but was close enough to my intended moniker. We use Bitchin Donuts anyway. It’s kind of fitting to our whole persona and it’s part of our lore now.
I know when you first opened on Lark, you brought some of your vegan menu. Can you see yourself reviving the full Birch Bark cafe menu at some point?
Seeing as life has thrown us quite a few redirects at this stage in the game I am exploring a complete overhaul of everything we are currently doing. Until recently, I just had one shop and a second lease in the works. Now I have 3 commercial leases and a need to maximize the potential in all 3 spots, so I’m exploring what that may look like and keeping all options on the table for this rapid unplanned expansion. That means the possibility of a full menu is on the table, yes.
By moving donut production out of the Lark Street location into the kitchen on Delaware, we can utilize Lark for something different. But—understand that Buddy and I are both burnt out from cooking, so we’d be looking for someone who might be willing to cook, hire and manage people and fulfill their own vegan vision. I imagine it would be a collaboration between me, Buddy and whomever we hire. My recipes or theirs, and their talent. But right now we don’t even really know when Lark Street will be up and running, so….
Everything about your business screams fun, bright colors, vibrant flavors. There’s poured paint on the purple outside and murals on the wall. Who was behind the design and build out?
I had a couple of great ladies help me with the art and branding: Hats off to Hannah Williams who 100% pushed the boundaries with our exterior paint job. Truly made us look like the most unique thing on the street. Hannah also designed and executed both inside murals. Our vibe came from deep conversations with Kate of Advokate in Glens Falls about what our shop was to induce in the mind of our guests. It’s giving arcade rug meets ‘80s punk at a jam band rave.
While we wait for Lark Street, we’ll use 540 Delaware for pop ups, drops and pre-order pick up, and then we’ll get an espresso machine in there and showcase our pastries. Although Colonie is still under construction on the build out, the interior is nearly done. It’s super colorful, bright purple with drippy frosting, blackboard paint so people can draw on the walls, icing dripping off windowsills. Azalea painted all the interior. It really is a family business.
Is it true you were previously a seamstress and mixed media artist?
I’ve had an entrepreneurial streak for as long as I can recall. While my children were very little, I began sewing and making pendants and other accessories using multiple different media. I’m fluent with fimo/polymer clay, crochet, vinyl plotter designs and cutting, and I can sew almost anything by reverse engineering patterns. I fully supported myself with this work for a few years.
Your drinks are as colorful as your donuts. We shot a plant-based red velvet cake macchiato with a signature purple cold brew foam and one with sprinkles and vanilla cold brew. Can you tell us more about your drinks?
We make and mix a good amount of our specialty drink syrups in house. There is always a drive from us to be different, taste different, and in order to achieve that we have to “do different.” We aren’t using the same ingredients that everyone else in the coffee world is. We’re creating our own unique to us flavors and generally using very expensive top of the line ingredients to achieve this palatable difference. Our coffee is Kru, which is locally made, small batch coffee.
You called this a family business with you, Buddy and your children, Azalea and Avery and I know that a work/life balance is very important to you. You have been very open about your weight loss journey as well as your journey to sobriety. How has that path influenced the way you operate your business and manage stress to create a positive work/life balance?
I spent 15 years giving the best part of my life to a corporation at 50 to 70 hours a week. These were years when I was a young mother, striving to have meaningful moments at both home and work but continually having to choose work over my own personal desires. For the first 4 years of setting out on my own food business journey, I gave my own endeavors as much and more as Dunkin Donuts ever asked of me because I refused to fail. I am not afraid to admit that I was really crazy-driven. I often worked upwards of 80 hours a week and spent my first full year of business taking zero days off. I was also burnt out, operating with zero capacity for grace, for myself or others and just in general miserable inside no matter how much people loved my products or presence. This past year I truly honed in on what kind of culture I want to create for not just myself, but all of the people I surround myself with, and fill my businesses with. I’ve started moving towards those ideals for all aspects of my life. I feel as if it’s the beginning of some kind of flourishing, not just for me personally, but for the people around me as well as the ideas we are all working together to put out into the world.
In addition to the art on your walls, you have leaflets and helpline information for help whether its addiction services or counseling services. Why is that important to you to have that so prominently in your business?
We support community. I personally fully support mental health and wellness, self care and keeping taboo subjects in the spotlight.
It was only a year ago that a random act of gun violence on Lark Street also impacted your business. The owner of New Scotland Spirits and Tasting Room on Lark Street has been very vocal about the need for improvements and investment on Lark Street and recently the owners of record bar LoFi announced its closure citing uncooperative city government. What are your thoughts on Lark Street and keeping Bitchin’ Donuts in its corner spot at Lark and Spring?
This is a tough subject because we love Lark Street for both what it is and what it could be. Lark Street does need to be prioritized more. I would say this is a call to action for both the City and the residents to get more involved in making it better. I personally started getting active in the BID so I can hopefully help that process.
You grew up in Potsdam. What are some of your childhood memories of food?
I came from a gardening, canning, homesteading kind of family. My food lore is deeply rooted in how a woman's hands can shape anything. My grandmother was very self sufficient and her children took on her ways. There were family canning parties to make strawberry jam, tomatoes, waxed beans. It would get done and then all be split between her and her five daughters.
What are three of your favorite places in the Capital Region or Hudson Valley for breakfast, lunch and dinner?
My number one favorite food in this area is TapAsia. What Natalie does with flavors and fusion cuisine is top notch, off the charts and I constantly crave her vegan coconut soup. No. 2 would have to be Simones because the food is so fresh and boldly flavored. No. 3 is Soho Pizza which is my favorite pizza in the area and my go-to comfort food when the pizza craving hits.
Imagine it's your day off. Reservations are not an issue. You can get anywhere in the world. Where would you go and how would your day or night unfold?
I would go back in time and visit Neon Tiger in Charleston one more time. I’m a sucker for having my expectations met and this place stands out for me as having both met and exceeded my wildest food dreams.
You already had some growth plans in the works. Where do you see yourself (or frankly all of us) in the next five years?
Phew, myself and all of us. Well, historically after we overthrow a dictator it is a grand awakening of the artistic variety, so I’m sticking with that timeline. In 5 years I hope aliens have finally revealed our true human origins and we have found a way to turn earth into a huge co-working space where everyone gets a seat at whatever table they please! [Laughs.]
But the big tease is that we’re already thinking about a 4th location! We have been approached about a space that’s also in Albany, but a different kind of space than we’ve ever had before.
You know, truthfully, at some point my mission changed from slowly expanding to growing and edging out Dunkin’ Donuts. Down with the bigger corporations and up with mom-and-pop stores. Taking it over. You know, it’s something we did very quietly. We order our donut boxes from China so I can change the design with each order and I very quietly put the second location on the boxes before the second location was even ready. And I changed our tagline from Bite Me to “The best things come in purple boxes.” You know why? Because Voodoo Donuts tagline is: “Great things come in pink boxes.” I’m just putting it out there. Letting them all know we’re coming for them.
Tania, thank you for talking with The Dishing. We're looking forward to seeing Bitchin Donuts back on its feet on Lark Street and the business growth that seems inevitable with you at the helm.
Tania Shelow, baker-owner of Bitchin Donuts | Photo: Victoria Sedefian/The Dishing