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Dunkin' Donuts drops kashrut at two stores; third to follow

The doughnuts will still be made with kosher ingredients, but, as of next week, the Washington area will have fewer Dunkin' Donut franchises certified as kosher.

With the corporation's push to expand its menu offerings, Jim Willard, who owns five franchises in the area, says he has received a letter from the corporation saying he could no longer make menu modifications in his stores. That, in effect, means he must sell nonkosher food products.

As of Wednesday, the Cabin John location in Potomac and the Rockville Metro Pike Plaza store near White Flint will no longer be certified by the Vaad Harabanim of Greater Washington kosher supervising agency.

Two other Rockville locations, at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington and Veirs Mill Road in Twinbrook, will remain kosher, as will, for just a short time, the Gaithersburg location.

With three years remaining on his 10-year contract with the JCCGW, Willard said that Dunkin' Donuts corporation "will not put us in default." As a result, the Twinbrook shop, where the baking takes place for the JCCGW location, also will remain kosher.

With renovations planned for the kitchen at Twinbrook, the Gaithersburg store will handle the baking for a short time. Once renovations are completed, the Gaithersburg store will also begin to sell nonkosher products. That's expected to happen sometime in the spring, Willard said.

A spokesperson for Dunkin' Donuts' corporate office did not know how many franchises are certified as kosher, and was unable to answer other inquiries by this week's deadline. The regional manager did not respond to phone messages, nor would Willard provide a copy of the letter from Dunkin' Donuts.

Clifford Snapper has been a regular at the Potomac location for about 10 years. He spends most mornings there - with his cup of Joe and a bagel, doughnut or muffin - pouring over Gemara and Mishnah, among other Jewish texts.

"It was a nice routine," said Snapper, a professor at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda. "It's very hard when you're kosher to find a place," said Snapper, quipping that "Dunkin' Donuts should provide free counseling for a month."

Rabbi Binyamin Sanders, who had overseen the kashering of the stores on behalf of the Vaad Harabanim of Greater Washington, said he was saddened by the decision. "I'm hoping we can work with Dunkin' Donuts to broaden the program once again," he said.

Willard, who is not Jewish, said it's unclear how the changes will affect his business. On the one hand, he said, people who eat only in certified shops might simply take their business to one of the remaining kosher locations.

Willard said he also might gain business once the other stores add new menu items. He noted that customers seeking something they've seen nationally advertised - Dunkin' Donuts, for instance, recently introduced a breakfast sandwich with sausage - sometimes get angry when a shop doesn't carry the item.

The Twinbrook and Cabin John locations have been kosher for about a decade. "We were getting requests from the community," Willard said, explaining why he took that step some two years after opening the franchises.

He noted, however, that when he dropped the kosher certification about two years ago at his shop in Rockville's Wintergreen Shopping Center, business wasn't affected. That shop had been kosher for two years.

http://www.washingtonjewishweek.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=6714&TM=64478.37