As New York City eateries roll out their Chanukah doughnut offerings, including sufganiyot filled with flavors like pistachio cream or mango, bakery owners told JNS that customers continue to overwhelmingly demand classic jelly doughnuts, such as strawberry and raspberry.
They also have found an increase in pre-orders well ahead of the holiday, which begins Dec. 14 at night and lasts eight days. Those is this particular food business believe that this reflects the growing role that sufganiyot play in home entertaining.
“The most popular flavor is, of course, the classic strawberry jelly,” Gadi Peleg, the Jewish founder and owner of Breads Bakery, told JNS. “It is simple, elegant and probably the one that most reminds people of their childhood.” (Breads operates five Manhattan locations and a kiosk in Brooklyn.)
Breads is both drawing on tradition and leaning into trending flavors.
“We recently introduced pistachio—anything pistachio-flavored seems to be having a moment,” Peleg told JNS. “This year, we also introduced mango, and there is something about the brightness of the mango which really works beautifully with the sufganiyot.”
Peleg cited a shift in customer behavior toward advance planning.
“More people are ordering ahead of time than ever before,” he said. “The incredible popularity of these fried beauties has taught people to plan ahead and not rely on a Chanukah miracle when they really need the sufganiyot.”
A Zabar’s spokesman told JNS that the family-owned Upper West Side store has only one doughnut flavor, “classic raspberry jelly” and that Scott Goldshine, the general manager, reported no shifts in demand or customer behavior, “since folks simply just want their usual doughnuts.”
Simchas Scher, who works in the bakery department at Aron’s Kissena Farms, a kosher grocery store in Queens, told JNS that “people like the old-fashioned jelly doughnuts most.”
“Jelly and custard are the most popular traditional flavors, and the Dubai and lotus are the most popular creative flavors,” Scher said. “I also have a cheese doughnut that is very good but doesn’t sell so much. Maybe because it’s dairy.”
At Miriam, a restaurant that operates three locations in Manhattan and three in Brooklyn, Jewish co-owner Rafael Hasid said that nostalgia still drives the strongest demand.
“We’re keeping it really classic this year, doing a traditional raspberry filling,” he told JNS. “It’s the flavor people keep coming back for year after year, and it’s the one that feels the most true to what we do.”
Miriam has offered chocolate and vanilla fillings in prior years, but “nothing has ever surpassed the traditional jelly in terms of demand and nostalgia,” Hasid said.
The restaurateur also described a rise in advance ordering ahead of Chanukah.
“The sufganiyot are consistently popular, which is why we create a pre-order link for people to grab theirs before the holiday,” he told JNS. “We see guests ordering earlier each year in larger quantities, especially for entertaining at home.”
“I think people are leaning into tradition in a bigger way, and they want those handmade classic items that really feel like the holiday,” he said.
Demand remains consistently high for a rotating menu of doughnut flavors at Michaeli Bakery, which is Jewish-owned and kosher, and has two Manhattan locations, according to Adir Michaeli, the owner.
“Our most popular flavors are pistachio and hazelnut,” he told JNS.
This year, the bakery is reviving a previous offering from three years ago: banana-pecan. “We made it three years ago and it’s back this year, but as an improved version,” he said. “We made a crunchy glaze instead of the soft one we used initially, and there is more crumble on top.”
Michaeli added that the “flavor of the cream has also been tweaked—the banana flavor is more gentle with a touch of vanilla.”
Unlike others that rely heavily on preorders, Michaeli said his operation works on a walk-in basis only.
“Every year, we have super high demand for sufganiyot. We get a lot of requests for orders every year, but due to our size and oven capacity, we can’t take any,” he said. “It’s first-come, first-served only at both of our two stores.”
Beyond strawberry, the bakeries “rotate our flavors daily, so people can come on different days to try new options,” the owner told JNS.
