A Dozen Excuses also delivers and has a cool truck.

I stopped in last week and must say the donuts are really good and I love the simple price structure: $1 donut, $1 coffee

But it must be noted that Dunkin' Donuts is on the way to South Tower Avenue (as well as Duluth and all over the region) ...

Duluth News Tribune: Franchisee outlines plans for Dunkin' Donuts locations in Northland

So, A Dozen Excuses has a short amount of time to shore up a few weaknesses:

1) The display layout is poor. Having a 90-degree angle, with donuts on both sides of the register, means people have to ram through those being served to see the full selection.

2) Tags with names or descriptions of the donuts need to be added. At least a sign on the wall. Otherwise people keep asking what is in each donut or don't know how to order one without saying something like, "I'll have one with the Captain America colors ... is that blueberry and cherry?" Adding names to the donuts is just plain fun all by itself, and there's certainly nothing to lose in doing it.

3) The general look of the interior needs some  character. There's more money to be made selling coffee than donuts, so an atmosphere where people want to hang out will help keep things afloat when the corporate giant comes to compete. Anything weird and/or thematic that will attract the attention of tourists and make the place a destination for reasons other than donuts will help in this respect, too.

The place hasn't quite been open two weeks yet, so plans could be in the works already to work toward any of those ends. This is a cool little business with good donuts, so here's hoping the rest of picture comes together over the next few months.

I noticed about a week ago that my two main critiques above have already been remedied. The display has been rearranged and the donuts labeled.

I also noticed there will be "craft, small batch food & drink" coming in October to the former Sclavis / Coney Island space down the block.



Apparently, "it's gonna be awesome."