It's My Job: Sandy's server fulfills coffee, doughnut cravings

Dan Runck helps the people of downtown Fargo warm up and escape the cold by serving them at Sandy's Donuts.

His own plan to get out of the cold winters of Fargo-Moorhead might involve a move to sunny Hollywood. The Horace, N.D., native wants to be an actor or do other work in the film industry and graduated from Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Moorhead in 2015 with a degree in liberal arts and sciences.

Runck began working at Sandy's when the downtown location opened in September of 2014 and has witnessed the entire life of the store.

You worked here when the store first opened in 2014, was it busy that first week?

It was pretty hopping. I know the day we opened, we had a line out the door. People were really looking forward to this place opening.

People tend to eat doughnuts in the morning, do you work a lot of early mornings?

My schedule is pretty open. Some days I'm scheduled from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Some days I'm scheduled from noon to 8 p.m. Sometimes it's somewhere in between there. It really depends.

What are some changes you've noticed at the downtown Sandy's since it opened?

When we first opened we didn't have lunch. Then in January of 2015 we started doing lunches. Some behind the scenes stuff—the ice machine moved to the front from the back. We got a new website. So things people can see are lunch and the website. When we first opened we were open until 10 but we realized we weren't that busy for those last two hours so we close at 8 p.m. now.

Do you eat a lot of the doughnuts when you work?

I don't, actually. Once you're here for a while you kinda don't feel like eating doughnuts anymore. I just don't always have a craving to eat a doughnut.

If you do have a craving for a doughnut, do you have a favorite?

It bounces around. I guess the three that it bounces between are the marble twist, the German chocolate and the chocolate frosted Bavarian Cream Long John.

Which doughnut is the most popular with the customers and flies off the shelf?

We definitely make certain doughnuts more than others because we know they're more popular. Our old fashioned sour cream and our classic glazed doughnut—those are definitely our two most popular.

You live in Horace but work in downtown Fargo, is that a long drive every day?

It's about a 20-minute drive, so that's always fun. I used to live in north Fargo so it was a three- to five-minute commute. That was way easier.

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