The owners of Cops & Doughnuts bakery in downtown Clare aren’t shy when it comes to talking to the media.
In fact, they love to talk about the bakery to almost anyone who will listen.
But when the television show Donut Showdown tells them to not talk to the media, they keep their mouths shut.
As it turns out, the nine cop owners don’t know what happened on the episode that airs at 10 p.m. this Friday on the Cooking Channel.
“When we picked them up from the airport we told them we wanted hear all the stories – but not until after the show airs,” Al White, vice president of the bakery, said. “We didn’t want anyone to accidentally slip so we decided to forget it happened.”
The Cops & Doughnuts episode includes contestants from Toronto and Charleston, S.C.
The episode description says that the three teams compete in a speedy elimination round with Candy Apples as the mystery ingredient.
The two remaining teams compete for $10,000 in a Shipwreck-themed Donut Showdown.
When co-owner John Pedjac found out they were going to be on the show, he wasn’t sure it was a good idea.
He has seen the show, now in its second season, and he pulled White aside to share his concerns.
“He said that we were going up against people who really knew what they were doing,” White laughed. “He thought Ryno and I were going to do the baking on the show. We know nothing about baking.”
Cops & Doughnut’s baker Dave Wittenbach is the head baker during the contest with Katie Nice serving as his assistant during the show.
A viewing party will be held at The Venue, the former location of The Mill End at the corner of McEwan and Fourth streets in downtown Clare.
Doors will open at 9 p.m. Friday.
“You’ll be able to get sweet treat samples from Cops & Doughnuts,” said Greg Rynearson, President of the bakery. “Revive, a new coffee shop in Clare, will have coffee available.”
During commercial breaks, plans are for Wittenbach to give some behind-the-scenes information as to what happened when the cameras weren’t rolling.
As far as the $10,000 prize money goes, if the Cops & Doughnuts team wins, the two of them will split the money.
“The bakers win it and they can split it,” Rynearson said. “We weren’t doing it for the money.”
Rynearson said that at some point, after the episode airs, it will be available to watch on OnDemand.
As always, the business is continuing to move forward.
The facade grant they’ve been working on through the City of Clare is coming together.
All three building fronts will be redone and each will have an individual look.
“Our goal is to have the work started on this winter,” Rynearson said.
The number of visitors to the bakery continues to grow and will hit an all-time high in 2014.
“We will be well over 500,000 visitors for this year,” White said.
They recently joined Circle Michigan, a tour-bus networking group.
Five busses visited the bakery in one week and another one is scheduled to visit within the next couple of weeks.
They will be attending Circle Michigan Association Conference in Petoskey to promote Clare.
“Not just the bakery,” Rynearson said. “It’s been that way since the beginning. We want people to come to Clare and explore everything we have here.”
