The Soundtrack Behind Doughnut Plant

Before Doughnut Plant had five New York City locations, it had a basement, a stack of CDs and a baker working through the night.

Mark Isreal founded the business in 1994 after finding an old recipe from his grandfather's bakery. He started making doughnuts in his apartment on Ludlow Street before eventually moving the whole operation into the basement of the building.

Most nights started around 11 p.m. Mark would bake until morning, load up his bicycle and make deliveries around the city. Eventually his doughnuts were being sold in Balducci's and Dean & DeLuca, two gourmet food markets.

That's when the stereo came downstairs too. "I would bring stacks of CDs," he remembers. "That was kind of my first soundtrack."

He'd put on whatever he felt like hearing that night. Jazz. Opera. Disco. Dance music. Anything that kept him company while he worked. "Music helped me get through the night," he says.

Music had followed Mark into the bakery. But then again, it had been following him most of his life.

From the dance floor to the bakery floor

Mark grew up in a house with very big speakers. His dad built them himself, the kind Mark remembers as "concert type speakers," and music was always playing. His parents threw big parties too. At one of them, a guest told them their party was better than Studio 54. "I didn't even know what Studio 54 was," Mark remembers.

Years later, when he moved to New York, it became his first job. Mark worked there as a busboy and cocktail server, and dancing was practically part of the job. "You're supposed to be having fun," he says. "I remember spinning around with bus trays."

Outside of work, he was going to nightclubs like Paradise Garage and Danceteria, sometimes dancing until four in the morning. Later came a bartending job at CBGB, another iconic New York nightclub, and a completely different soundtrack. He remembers seeing artists like Patti Smith and Debbie Harry perform in the same room where he worked.

By the time Doughnut Plant moved out of the basement and into its first shop, there was never really a question of whether music would come with it. The bakery in the back played music in "every kind of language you could think of," from English to Spanish to Hindi, because the team came from so many different places. Up front, customers got Mark's favorite: dance music. "I wanted the kind of excitement you get from a nightclub," Mark says. "Music is a part of that."

Making a doughnut shop feel like Doughnut Plant

Ask Mark what makes Doughnut Plant different and one word comes up quickly: original. It's something he's been chasing from the beginning. The doughnuts were made from scratch at a time when that wasn't nearly as common. He used real fruit and nuts to flavor and color glazes. Then he kept experimenting. Square doughnuts filled with housemade jam. Doughnuts finished with a torch.

"We were the first to do the crème brûlée doughnut," Mark says. "No one had ever done that before."

That same attention goes into everything around the doughnuts. Mark chooses the Doughnut Plant locations, and found most of them while riding around on his bicycle. He even designs the spaces. At the Flatbush shop, that attention to detail goes right down to the tiles, some of which were handmade by his father. "Every detail at Doughnut Plant has my attention," he says.

Music is one of those details.

The challenge: One brand without one playlist

For Doughnut Plant, consistency doesn't mean making every shop sound the same. Williamsburg and Flatbush are both in Brooklyn, but each neighborhood has its own distinct character. Mark wanted the music to reflect that and give the people working in each location room to bring some of themselves to what's playing. "We encourage the creativity and individuality of each store and the people who are working there," he says.

But that gets harder as the business grows. With locations across Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, Doughnut Plant needed a way to give its teams freedom while still knowing what was playing across the business.

That's where Soundtrack came in.

Giving every shop its own soundtrack

With Soundtrack's Multi-Location Control, staff and managers can create playlists ahead of time, choosing music for their shop, their shift or simply the mood they want that day. Some of the playlist names have even taken on a little Doughnut Plant personality of their own. "Strawberry Sour Donuts" is one of them.

Mark likes that the people behind the counter get to enjoy the music too. "I want to have fun, and I want them to have fun," he says. "If I hear something I love, I'll be behind the counter dancing, and I'll try to get the people behind the counter to dance with me. I want to put on something that's going to move me and move them, and move the customers."

For a guy whose first soundtrack involved hauling a stereo and piles of CDs downstairs, having an almost endless music library at his fingertips is a welcome change. The bigger shift for Doughnut Plant is what happens when Mark isn't in the shop. From one dashboard, the team can see what's playing across its locations. "With Soundtrack, as we grow, it's easy for us to know what's going on in the stores while still encouraging the people behind the counter to express themselves musically," Mark says.

For Doughnut Plant, that's the sweet spot.

A soundtrack people remember

For all the technology behind the music today, Mark's reason for caring about it hasn't changed much. "Music is a soundtrack to your life," he says. "It helps you remember things from a certain time in your life."

For Mark, those songs bring back his dad's homemade speakers, nights spent dancing in New York and long hours making doughnuts in a basement on Ludlow Street. Now, he gets to create some of those associations for somebody else.

A customer might come in for a doughnut, hear a song they love and stay a little longer. They might not think about why the room feels good or how much thought went into what's playing.

That's probably the point.

More than 30 years after Mark carried his stereo into the basement, Doughnut Plant is still making doughnuts with music playing. There are just more shops, more people and a much bigger music library now.

The business has grown and the soundtrack has grown with it.

The Soundtrack tools behind Doughnut Plant's music

Multi-Location Control

Shows what's playing across Doughnut Plant locations from one place, giving the team more visibility as the business grows.

Playlist Creation

Gives staff and managers the freedom to create music for their location, shift or mood.

125+ million songs

Makes it easy to find the right song for the moment, whether it's an old favorite, a new discovery or something Mark heard last night and wants everyone else to hear.

Find your soundtrack

Soundtrack gives Doughnut Plant the freedom to let every shop have its own personality while keeping the team connected to what's playing across the business. Try Soundtrack free for 14 days and grow your brand without losing what makes it yours.