KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Stan
Berman, owner of Stan’s Donuts in Westwood Village, has
travelled around the world thanks to his doughnut income. Recently,
his doughnuts have been replaced by Krispy Kremes in UCLA
restaurants.
By Dharshani Dharmawardena
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Thirty-five years ago, a broken hip and $175 forever changed the
life of Stan Berman, owner of Westwood Village’s Stan’s
Donuts.
In the mid 1960s, an elderly couple ran the shop Stan occupies
today when one of Berman’s friends received an unlikely
business offer.
“And then the old lady slipped and broke her hip,”
he said. “Then their son insisted they give up the
business.
“My friend Bob was in the store and they said “˜Bob,
you want it, you can have it,'” Berman continued.
“”˜All you have to do is give us the last month’s
rent,’ which was $175.”
Bob then came to the annual holiday party Berman and his wife
threw, looking for the kind of baking skills Berman and his family
practiced for generations.
“He cornered me,” Berman said. “He says
“˜You gotta come with me tomorrow morning. I want you to see
what we’ve got and you can be a part of it.'”
But Berman hesitated at the risk, unwilling to give up the
security of his job as a baker at a pizza parlor.
“But I came down and I really liked what I saw,” he
said.
Still, the problem of financing the $175, a large sum in those
days, lingered because Berman had a family to support.
“So we talked to the son and he says “˜Okay,
I’ll give you the place today and by the first of the month
you should be taking in enough money to pay the rent,'”
he said. “And that’s what happened.”
A few years later, Berman became sole owner of Stan’s
Donuts, which today has expanded to include a variety of doughnuts
ranging from the staple glazed at 60 cents to the more caloric
Reese’s Peanut Butter Pocket, which costs $1.25.
Although Berman said most customers prefer these two types of
doughnuts, he himself loves anything made of apples.
“I like apple crisps, I like apple cinnamon,” he
said. “But then there aren’t too many that I
don’t like.”
When Berman first started the business, only he and a couple of
workers ran the regular eight-to-five operation.
Today, his employees begin making doughnuts at midnight to
prepare for the onslaught of customers the next morning.
Berman himself comes in around 7 a.m., but said his working
hours vary, especially since the business uses the equipment of the
original bakery.
“This is my life, so I come in whenever I’m
needed,” he said. “This is an old, old building and
sometimes the electricity goes off and this and that goes off.
It’s just kind of involved.”
Despite starting other stores, Berman currently only owns
Stan’s in Westwood, but he prefers it that way.
Unlike the Westwood location, the other stores were closed off
inside malls and fewer customers patronized them, Berman said.
Having other stores “wasn’t for me,” he said.
“This is me. This is my store, this is where I hang out, this
is where I meet life.”
Although Berman said life has treated him well, business has not
always been so good.
During the mid-90’s, ongoing construction near the store
kept customers away and even caused some businesses to close.
“The trucks were all parked out here, dumping dust and
dirt, and business was horrible,” Berman said.
More recently, the opening of Krispy Kremes at UCLA also
affected business.
UCLA cafes and restaurants that sold Stan’s Donuts in the
past now mostly serve Krispy Kreme doughnuts since the opening of
the store on campus.
“Whenever we can we’re using Krispy Kremes,”
said Adriana Carneiro, who works for the Associated Students of
UCLA catering. “Krispy Kremes are better, of
course.”
Berman, however, said both businesses have good products.
“I was a little upset at first,” Berman said.
“I’ve been servicing the campus for 25-plus years, and
all of a sudden they call me and cancel because of Krispy
Kreme.”
He said the doughnut craze started by Krispy Kreme helped
business as well.
“They do a lot of advertising in doughnuts and they talk
about them all over these TV and radio shows,” he said.
Ted Aliado, who works in the physics department at UCLA, has
patronized Stan’s for years like dozens of others, and has
seen the store change over the years.
But he and his family still consider a doughnut at Stan’s
a treat.
“The doughnuts are the best around,” Aliado said.
“They’re still home-made, not like Krispy
Kremes’. Those seem like prefab donuts.”
Berman said some of the worst damage to local business occurred
because Westwood is no longer part of UCLA campus life.
“We had the most glorious times between the time I got
here until about ’86,” he said. “As far as I was
concerned, we were part of the campus, not excluded from it.
“You would see a field of white and green coats from the
hospital,” he continued. “You don’t see that
anymore.”
Berman said the restaurants and cafes opening up at UCLA and the
dearth of parking spaces both on- and off-campus keep students,
staff and faculty from venturing out to Westwood to grab a
meal.
“The few that live on the perimeter, they can walk, but
the others deep in the campus are not going to walk 20 minutes to
grab a sandwich,” he said.
Nonetheless, Berman said he fares well.
With the operation now worth a conservative $250,000, according
to Berman, he has not only made great profit, but has realized many
of his dreams.
Traveling has become his passion, and Berman and his wife have
globetrotted from Paris and Switzerland to China and Africa.
“I had Chinese food in Paris 25 years ago,” he said.
“It was most likely, second to London, the best Chinese food
I’ve ever had.
“And it’s all because of the doughnuts.”