The Doughnut Lady of Santee

It’s a Saturday morning at , and the place is packed.

A constant stream of customers is flowing through the door, every table is taken and racks of freshly made doughnuts stand tall, their sugary aromas mixing with the wakeup call of coffee.

Meanwhile, Mary Hennessy, the queen and namesake of this doughnut kingdom on Mission Gorge in Santee—the one with the giant doughnut atop the shop—is working her way across the room, saying hello to some regulars and trading jibes with others.

Since 1985, when she and her husband, Don, bought the landmark shop, Mary has been its face and personality. It used to be called Zona’s, but it became “Mary’s” to give it the personal touch of the new owners.

After 25 years, it’s obvious the strategy has worked. She says of her place: “Busy is a regular thing.”

“It’s a personal business,” says Hennessy, who still works shifts each Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings, overseeing operations, working behind the counter and greeting customers. “Our choice is to interact with the people, and we wanted our own name associated with it.”

She points toward the walls, the undersides of the countertops and almost anywhere there’s space, talking about the pictures of customers posted everywhere as proof that Mary’s Donuts is all about making a connection with those who come in for a jolt of sugar and coffee.

By last count, she says there are 2,774 pictures.

“We do the pictures for a reason, because we like our people,” she says. “I can look on this wall and I may not know their names, but I know their faces, and these pictures were almost all taken by me.”

The fab fritters

Mary’s is a 24/7 operation, with 16 employees and bakers who operate around the clock making doughy delights. Aside from standard doughnuts, Mary’s is making muffins and cream puffs and selling brownies, croissants and bagels. The Mary’s Donuts Facebook page is filled with testimonials from customers claiming their favorite treats.

It’s the apple fritters, however, that are the stars of the show.

Hennessy says the fritters were a Zona’s mainstay, and she and her husband decided to keep making them after buying the place. They’re the size of dinner plates and weigh close to a pound.

“We simply followed the tradition,” she says, noting the fritters rank No. 1 with customers. They’re made all day.

“When we’re out of fritters, we’re out of doughnuts,” she adds, laughing.

Joseph Nemes of Santee, who’s been coming in for 30 years, agrees. He often stops by in the afternoon for coffee and a few doughnuts to take to his mom. Or, he’ll just get one apple fritter to split with her. Every day, Mary’s is part of his routine.

“It’s just the whole atmosphere,” he says. “I see a lot of friends here, the coffee’s wonderful and the people are, too.”

Through the years, neither changes in diet advice (stay away from carbs, sugar and fat!) or the Great Recession seems to have kept customers such as Nemes from walking through the door.

Which makes perfect sense to Mary.

“(Doughnuts) are still a treat,” she explains. “Santee is a and it’s always a treat when you take home doughnuts. I can remember when our children were young and we’d go to the doughnut shop and bring home doughnuts, and it was a festive occasion. We didn’t have much money, so it made the day special.

“So I think that’s what’s going on here. The day becomes a little special. And so our job is to help them make it special.”

Her response to people who say they shouldn’t eat doughnuts?

“So work out a little extra. Walk around the block,” she says. “I myself go to the gym three times a week.”

After all these years, though, doughnuts don’t tempt her. But the muffins and brownies? Those are her vices.

Out of the cold

Mary Hennessey grew up in Minnesota, but knew at an early age she’d like to move to California. She had an aunt and uncle who lived here, and says when she noticed the roses were blooming at Christmas, “that really kind of caught my eye. I just couldn’t wait to get away from the snow drifts.”

She came to this area in the early 1960s, and she and Don had three children. She managed a small store in North Park for a year before being hired by Winchell’s Donuts as a manager, where she worked for 12 years (Don also worked for Winchell’s). In 1985, with plenty of doughnut experience, they bought Zona’s.

Back then, “We were way out in the country,” she says, recalling that Mission Gorge was just a narrow ribbon running through a much smaller Santee. She calls “astronomical.”

Today, Mary still has an active role, but has turned over a lot of the operations to a grandson (one of her five grandchildren), who recently graduated from the University of Oregon with degrees in business and political science. She says he’s agreed to work about a year before deciding whether to stay or try something else.

Away from work, she’s an avid reader, loves music and travel and stays active. But the shop remains very much a part of her daily life. She’ll drop in from her home in La Mesa, just to see how things are going, as will Don.

She also likes checking out the suggestion box, just to see what customers are saying. On this day, one suggestion is to keep ice out, next to the coffee, so the hot java can be cooled off a bit. Another simply wants more cream-filled goodies.

“I only want to hear the stuff that’s bad,” she says. “Then I have to do something about it. I don’t need to know what’s right.”

It all goes back to being a people person, she says. The fritters are important, but the connection with customers is equally key.

“You have to like people,” she says. “One of the things I tell trainees, I say ‘When that customer comes in, you have to look them in the eye.’ There has to be contact there. No matter who you are, once you do that, how can you reject what you’re seeing? That’s where you get an understanding of people, I think.  That’s just my philosophy.”