The Magic of Fried Dough

Santa Barbara-based duo Denisse Salinas ’03 and John Burnett make “damn good donuts.” Just ask around.

The two founded their downtown donuttery, Hook & Press, five years ago with a browned butter brioche donut as their version of the classic glazed. Since then, they have added a rotating selection of flavors: orange creamsicle, strawberry habanero, ube matcha lemonade, fig & honey, Boston cream, butterscotch budino, white chocolate peanut butter cup, smoky road, beet & ricotta, maple bacon bar. Drool.

Demand for their donuts is stunning. The Santa Barbara Independent reported that “on day one, Hook & Press opened at 8 a.m. and was sold out in 90 minutes.” Angela Borda wrote in Food & Home Magazine that the “doughnut masterpieces” are “unusual enough that people are lining up for them, tagging them on Instagram and taking a visit here seriously as a foodie event.” “If a donut could heal a broken heart, Hook & Press’ doughnuts are those doughnuts,” Santa Barbara Life & Style’s Meghan Kelly told her readers.

Video by Jessie Ward O'Sullivan

Burnett and Salinas swiftly outgrew their space in a retail co-op and moved to a 3,000-square-foot locale in historic La Arcada Plaza, originally designed by architect Myron Hunt in the Spanish Revival style of the 1920s. In addition to brioche donuts, they offer cake donuts, vegan donuts, donut holes and coffee. But the new lease required a bigger menu, so Salinas — who was already giving “moral support” and “an extra set of hands” — chose to become a partner with her husband Burnett, who until then had been Hook & Press’ sole proprietor. To do so, Salinas put aside her successful private chef services business, Le Petit Chef Santa Barbara, and her popular cooking blog, lepetiteats.com, and committed herself full time to Hook & Press.

Co-owners John Burnette and Denisse Salinas pose in a quiet moment between customers at Hook & Press.

It was “daunting” at first, she says, but the prospect of creating a menu and fashioning a restaurant was “really fun.” She got right to testing breakfast recipes that were made from scratch but could also be scalable. “We had to be able to replicate it over and over and over again and have the quality still be the same,” she says. The menu includes housemade buttermilk biscuit sandwiches, brioche tartines, seasonal fruit and salads.

The G.O.A.T. sandwich from the Hook & Press menu

All of this work is in complement to the perennial attraction of the donut. Salinas, who has a natural sense of light, decorated the interior in a modern bohemian style taking inspiration from donut shop aesthetics of the post-war era. Throughout the café, Salinas’ custom blended terrazzo twinkles with natural stones that she has chosen because they remind her of “rainbow sprinkles.”

“I want people to feel like it’s a donut shop,” Salinas says. “People should be happy here.

“I’m someone who is really into the small details. I want people to get a feeling that a lot of care went into this, whether it’s the style of the space or the food that I’m making them. I just want people to feel like, ‘Oh, they really thought this through and wanted to create the best experience for me.’”