Most of Greene County turned out to help celebrate the 60th birthday of our legendary donut maker Randy Bunkers, the co-owner of Bunkers Dunkers Bakery, makers of the best glazed donuts on Earth

The bakery was packed on a Saturday morning when the “donut holes” and coffee were free. And everybody was telling their favorite Bunkers Dunkers stories.

By CHUCK OFFENBURGER
January 16, 2012
JEFFERSON, IOWA

The story goes that in 1980, young Randy Bunkers showed up from Remsen in northwest Iowa to take over the bakery here in Jefferson. He renamed it “Bunkers Dunkers,” opened the front door for business and about 10 minutes later, this roving columnist from the Des Moines Register walked in, looked around and ordered a glazed donut.

If you know the two of us, you can imagine that a conversation ensued.

“So, if you were selling used cars instead of donuts,” Bunkers remembers me asking him, “what would the name of this place be?”

His answer: “Bunkers Clunkers” or “Bunkers Junkers.”

My conclusion then and now: How could I not become a frequent customer of a donut maker who thinks like this man does?

I stopped many times over the next 23 or 24 years, when I would travel through Jefferson and Greene County. And then in 2004, my wife Carla Offenburger and I moved here, and I’ve been in Bunkers Dunkers at least weekly ever since.

There are a million stories. Four of my favorites:

--On one of RAGBRAI’s first stops in Jefferson, Bunkers Dunkers Bakery was in its first location, on Lincolnway, the big bike ride’s route through town. It was a one-story concrete block building, painted white. He invited all the RAGBRAIers to use markers and “autograph” the exterior of the building. It was covered on all four sides!

--In 2007, noting that the Kum & Go store in Jefferson was selling the then-very popular Krispy Kreme donuts, I got curious. I stopped there, bought one of the light airy Krispy Kremes and drove over to Bunkers Dunkers. When I walked in with the Krispy Kreme sack, Randy Bunkers roared, “What are you doing bringing that in here?” I told him it was a challenge, and instructed him to bring me a Bunkers Dunkers glazed donut and a little kitchen scale. He didn’t have the scale and had to run next door to Don’s Hardware to buy one. Then we had the weigh-off. The result: Krispy Kreme 1 ¾ ounces, Bunkers Dunkers’ big lunker 3 1/8 ounches. And the Bunkers Dunkers’ donut was 20 cents cheaper! Within a few weeks, all the Kum & Go stores around this area of west central Iowa were selling Bunkers Dunkers glazed donuts – and they still are!

--In 2008, when RAGBRAI bosses T.J. Juskiewicz, Wes Hall and then RAGBRAI host Brian Duffy showed up in Jefferson in early January, they said they were thinking of bringing RAGBRAI back to Jefferson for an overnight stop. Juskiewicz told a great story of how the community had gotten on their radar, and you can read that story by clicking here.

--That next July, when RAGBRAI was on its way for a great stop here, the Bunkers Dunkers crew put on one of the most awesome baking performances ever reported. They produced more than 600 dozen glazed donuts, more than 300 dozen “donut holes,” and hundreds of other rolls and cookies. We figured up that if you stacked just the glazed donuts one on top of another, and somehow avoided crushing, that the donut tower would be more than five times as tall as Jefferson’s 168-foot-tall famous bell tower, the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower on the courthouse square. The bakery operated 36 continuous hours, serving the bicyclists and other visitors.

In the last two years, we nearly lost Randy Bunkers when he had a serious heart attack. If you can imagine this, he came back an even nicer guy than he was before it. And that’s what we were all celebrating when we packed the bakery on Saturday morning, January 14, to salute him on his 60th birthday.

You can see some of the fun, from over the years, in the photos below here.

You can write the columnist at chuck@Offenburger.com.

Phyllis & Randy Bunkers, co-owners of Bunkers Dunkers Bakery, paused for this portrait on Saturday, January 14, when they were celebrating Randy's 60th birthday with their customers. There were free ''donut holes'' and coffee for most of the morning. Randy has bounced back from a serious heart attack. ''They brought me back to life twice and gave me a nice helicopter ride,'' he said, ''so when my birthday came around, I told Phyllis, 'Let's celebrate!' ''

Here is a photo of Randy & Phyllis Bunkers in July 2008, when they'd just completed baking 600 dozen glazed donuts, 300 dozen donut holes, and hundreds of other rolls in preparation for the overnight stay in Jefferson of RAGBRAI – the Des Moines Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.

In 2007, we were curious about just how much bigger and better the Bunkers Dunkers glazed donuts were than the Krispy Kreme glazed donuts, which were popular at the time. Here's the side view.

We also weighed the Bunkers Dunkers glazed donut and the Krispy Kreme glazed donut, to compare them. The airy Krispy Kreme donut, which cost 20 cents more than the Bunkers Dunkers donut, weighed just 1 3/4 ounces. The Bunkers Dunkers lunker, as you can see, weighed 3 1/8 ounces.

Here were the Bunkerses in 2007 celebrating after we proclaimed that their famous glazed donut the winner in the weigh-off and taste-off with the Krispy Kreme product.

Send your comments to carla@Offenburger.com or chuck@Offenburger.com

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