Dimple's Donuts opens in St. Charles

Sovannary Wong felt it was time to spread the good news about her Dimple's Donuts shops in the Tri-Cities, after operating one near downtown Batavia for 29 years.

"We have a lot of customers from throughout the area, and the east side of St. Charles was a good spot for us," Wong said.

So good, that a new Dimple's Donuts shop opened a few weeks ago at 1307 E. Main St. The store opening marked the third for Dimple's, which also operates a site in Naperville to go along with the Batavia location.

A future expansion will bring a fourth Dimple's Donuts to Elgin along Route 25 at Dundee Avenue.

But now the focus is on selling a lot of doughnuts in St. Charles.

"It's a very cute building and it is in the right place to catch traffic in the morning," Wong said of the St. Charles site, located just west of the Fydoland pet care business, which is housed in the former Rex's Cork 'n Fork restaurant.

Other than offering tasty doughnuts, another factor may lure patrons into Dimple's Donuts. For those who may lament the loss of some Caribou Coffee sites in the area, that's the brand of coffee being sold at Dimple's.

Wong is also offering breakfast and lunch sandwiches, smoothies and chai tea at her newest Dimple's spot.

But the place thrives on the quality of its doughnuts, and having a third site means Wong will continue to log heavy work hours.

"We do most of the baking in Batavia, but we can also bake at the St. Charles site," she said. "I have six bakers, but as the owner, I am also always baking.

"We are baking 22 hours a day," Wong said, noting that the doughnuts made through the evening in Batavia or St. Charles are taken to the Naperville site in the wee hours of the morning.

It's a different look along East Main Street having Dimple's Donuts doing business in a spot formerly used as a fireplace equipment business and, prior to that, for bars and nightclubs.

A plus for Dimple's is that when it moved into this fairly large site it set the stage for an indoor seating area that will be available to groups for meetings or gatherings in the future.

Getting ready to open:

Batavia-based Aldi has been working on major facelifts in its area stores the past few months, and the grocer is ready to unveil the new look. Aldi says it has done work on more than 130 stores in the Chicago area, to the tune of $180 million.

Area shoppers get their look at the store enhancements when the Geneva store at 975 E. State St. opens Thursday, Nov. 9, and the Batavia store at 451 N. Randall opens Friday, Nov. 17.

In the wild:

Judy and Dudley Burgess of Geneva certainly deserved the Barth Award honor they recently received from TriCity Family Services for their volunteer efforts at the agency and throughout the area.

But one part of Dudley's volunteer duties never ceases to amaze me. At age 75, he continues to go on the eight-day Wilderness Challenge camping trip to the north woods each summer with young people using TCFS services.

It's amazing from this standpoint: I was not good at camping at age 15, 25, 35 or any age with a 5 on the end, so it's safe to say those days are long over for me. In short, I might last a part of the first day on any venture called a Wilderness Challenge.

"You have to learn how to pace yourself," Dudley said of his camping prowess. "But I love the kids and I have been involved in a lot of outdoors stuff."

Dudley figures he can continue with the trips as long as his back holds up. And there's nothing wrong with his back at the moment.

"I still carry my own pack, all 60 pounds of it, so as long as I can sling that over my back, I'll keep doing it," he said.

Sixty pounds on your back? That also doesn't sound like something for me. But for young kids, and for a guy like Dudley, who is a modern version of a Grizzly Adams, it is a piece of heaven.

For Dudley, it also translates into a goal he has in mind.

"I want to keep doing the Wilderness Challenge until I am 80 years old."

Taking on 'Cats':

One of the first major plays my wife and I attended was "Cats" and, as it has done to so many others, we left quite impressed with the costumes, songs and story.

For high school theater students to take it on is quite a challenge, but it appears Batavia High School is up to it.

The school is presenting the play through director Dominic Cattero on Friday and Saturday at the Batavia Fine Arts Centre.

You can check on ticket availability on the arts center website, www.bataviafineartscentre.org, at the box office, or by calling (630) 937-8930.

dheun@sbcglobal.net