More Than Just Doughnuts with Natalie Mitchell of Nana's - No. 13
And why "I quit my job to follow my dream," isn't realistic
Welcome to Vegarie. If you found your way to my substack and aren’t yet subscribed, let me help you with that. Enter your email below and receive my biweekly newsletter on Tuesdays—full of interesting and inspiring stories of women in food. Maybe these are women that cook on the line, own a restaurant, or food cart…or maybe they’re just friends who are great at building a beautiful rise for their challah. No matter which it is, I hope you enjoy the quick read and learn the unique ways we all got to the same place—loving food.
In this week's newsletter, I am beyond thrilled to be sharing Natalie Mitchell’s story. If you live in New York City and love beer, you may already know Natalie Mitchell, as “the doughnut lady.” Natalie is the owner and creative genius behind the pop-up NANA’s and can be found at some of the most famous breweries in the city every week. Believe me, I’m not just gushing when I say her brioche doughnuts are some of the best treats I’ve had in the city. Uniquely square-shaped, perfectly light and fluffy, as if brioche and cotton candy got together and had a baby. BUT—Natalie is so much more than her famous doughnuts, she started from the ground up and ended up running her own kitchen in 2018. Stories like hers are important to hear because they illustrate a truth, I think we all easily forget; that success takes time, hard work, and dedication even when things get tough. She has so many valuable tips to share with us. Together we talk about the heart-warming story behind the naming of her business, why she loves a rotating menu…and of course, her opinions re: best doughnut.
Natalie and I met a couple of months back at Talea, where I bartend, and she frequently holds her pop-ups. Amazed by the buzz amongst our staff whenever she’s on the schedule—seriously Natalie, your lamb sliders are still whispered about in hushed tones—I had to learn more about where she was from, how she got into the kitchen, and what kinds of tips she might have for others just starting in this industry.
Growing up in Connecticut, Natalie constantly found herself in the kitchen. However, she’d describe it as more of a chore than something she loved right away. With the mindset of her more traditional mother growing up, the kitchen was where she needed to learn to cook, “so that one day [she] could find a husband and cook for him.” Natalie would come home from school and have things to do in the kitchen. Like cleaning the chicken or preparing XYZ to help with dinner, while her brother got to relax and play video games.
“My grandmother always said, of all the grandkids, I was by far the easiest to feed. I would just absolutely sing when there was food. I was that happy to eat. So, I was like ok—there’s this big part of me that’s always loved to eat, but the way it was presented to me, being in the kitchen as a child, I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed it.”
It wasn’t until college, where she studied music, that Natalie entered the world of hospitality. At first, it was just to pay the bills, but the more time she spent as a server, the more she found herself cooking again.
“I wanted to get into a professional kitchen, but I live in New York. What you could make as a server versus what they were making in the kitchen was an unlivable difference at the time.”
You can say that again, Natalie! Nothing has changed. Servers make half our weekly paycheck in one day…but who’s counting? Inspired by the food she was surrounded by—she began flipping through old cookbooks with her mother to try new dishes. Before she knew it, Natalie was spending a ton of her free time making elaborate meals for herself.
“It brought this kind of euphoric happiness that I still have today.”
Coming from the mindset that cooking in a restaurant kitchen wouldn’t pay enough, but knowing she wanted to be in food, Natalie worked her way into restaurant management. Not only was the pay better, but it allowed her to learn more of the business components necessary to run her own kitchen. Then she found Jacob’s Pickles, which she hoped would be her next step in advancing her knowledge. Serving southern comfort food, or soul food, from the outset, Jacob’s Pickles seemed like it would be a good business model to learn from. The menu even had one of her favorites, which she says is rare to find, fried chicken and pancakes. As I’m sure you can tell by the looming tone here, this place ended up as “a bit of a disaster.”
“I walked through the door on my first day, and the first thing I noticed in the kitchen was a box of Aunt Jemima instant pancake mix. I mean, I should’ve walked out right then and there, but I had already quit my job, I was there and was going to make the most of it.”
And make the most of it she did, regardless of the appropriation…and boxed pancakes. Equipped with the strong relationships she’d built at Jacob’s Pickles, Natalie woke up one morning in 2018 to an email from an old colleague, Irene, asking her to run the kitchen at her new bar. Immediately, she said yes. In two short months, she pulled together the resources necessary for a full menu—an incredible feat for anyone, but especially impressive considering she’d never been head chef of a restaurant before.
“So essentially, I cut the line, and I know that. I’ve never worked for another chef, for better or worse, I’ve always worked for myself and run the kitchen how I want it.”
That is, until COVID hit, closing down her restaurant and canceling the pop-ups she’d just begun operating out of bars in Brooklyn to expand. At first, she didn’t know what to do.
“There were times I felt like I was swimming in the dark. I had no one to talk to and would have loved a mentor. No guidebook tells you here’s how you get from point A to B in owning a restaurant.”
Like anyone in the restaurant industry during this time, she’d hoped that things would pass quickly, but we know how that song goes. Unfortunately for Natalie, her mother got sick, twice—she’s ok now—and more and more time passed, without change. One day, she read an article about doughnuts and remembered how long it had been since she’d had one. She decided, if she couldn’t go out and buy one, why not try to make her own?
“I don’t know why it became something that I kept doing, but I kept making them—and trying different things. Like let’s see how we can make them gluten-free, or maybe I’ll bake them, or maybe I’ll fry them. Then I’d keep saying ok, I like this, but what happens if I tinker with the recipe in this way and that? I kept going until I ended up with what I have now, which is so delicious. And I just kept doing it. Then one day I said, let’s try to sell these.”
She started first by posting a ‘make-to-order’ sort of ad from her Instagram…and got no orders. Shortly after, she heard that a friend of hers, who does a vegan pop-up out of the bar King Tai and jumped in to join them.
So, what is the ultimate doughnut, you ask? According to the expert, it’s “the classic glazed at Dunkin Donuts. But we’re talking back in the 80’s when they were still privately owned, I think they called it the honey-dipped doughnut, and when I was younger, I could have a half dozen without even thinking twice.”
Throughout the later stages of the pandemic, Natalie launched NANA’s. First as a pop-up with her friend at King Tai, and then at other bars around Brooklyn. At first, she was carting things around without a car, until she just couldn’t handle the stress of taking a cab or borrowing from friends to make her business operational. A car became an essential purchase. “It was either that or leaving my $400 fryer out on the street while I ran up four flights of stairs with all my other gear,” which sounds equally terrifying and exhausting. From there, she became a regular at farmers’ markets in the Hamptons, where a lot of New Yorkers had moved during 2020 & 2021. Things continued to grow through word of mouth, and she did personal orders for events, wrap parties, and even worked Macaulay Culkin’s birthday party.
Why NANA’s? The story behind the name
Natalie named her business NANA’s after her grandmother, who passed away when she was only five years old, but who is remembered as the cook amongst a family of good cooks, and who played a major role in the early years of Natalie’s life. But the name means so much more to her than that, it’s about a belief in serving food that may not be fancy, but that tastes good, and makes you feel good like her grandmother would.
“My grandmother was my inspiration when I started cooking because I didn’t go to culinary school or anything, so I’d worry, like how am I going to make a name for myself? Then I realized she made amazing food. And all the women that came before me did too. They didn’t have any formal training. No fancy tricks. They just made good food. It tasted good, and it made you feel good.”
Another unique part of the story is that NANA also stands for bananas—which Natalie hates the taste of now, but that she distinctly remembers being fed by her grandmother.
“What I remember most about my nana is her food. And that she’d always feed me bananas throughout the day. Now, I hate bananas—it’s funny, my cousin says the same thing. It must’ve been subconscious as a child, but now it makes total sense. To have someone around all the time feeding you bananas and then suddenly that person is gone, and you don’t understand why, but someone else tries to do it? No. They’ll never taste as good. To this day, you put even a little bit of banana in a smoothie or something and all I can taste is banana, I can’t stand it.”
Feeling like there was still room to expand, Natalie started in breweries with a pop-up at Talea. Spread by word of mouth, she’s now at breweries all over the city. You can find her at Fifth Hammer, Other Half, and more.
“I realized I’m one of the few vendors coming to breweries here without a niche—like most of them are in specific boxes, of like I do ramen, I do pizza, I do barbeque, I do cookies, you know? I’ve sort of been dubbed the doughnut lady because I do always bring doughnuts with me, but more than half of my menu is other things and I’m changing it constantly. I have both sweet and savory, as well, which is something unique.”
Her menu is split into two sections, “brioche doughnuts,” and “not a doughnut.” Right now, she features chicken chilaquiles nachos, a french onion grilled cheese, and three different sliders, along with a doughnut fried chicken sandwich—which cleverly brings the two sections together.
“My food isn’t meant to reinvent the wheel. I just want it to taste good, like my grandmother would have liked. I wonder all the time what life would have been like if she was alive today. We’d probably cook together; I could talk to her about stuff. Not having her in my life in itself has affected how I cook.”
“Unless you have hundreds of thousands just sitting in the bank from your past career in finance, or something, the— ‘oh, I just quit my job to follow my dreams’-trope, it isn’t real.”
Natalie’s path is incredibly inspiring. For me, that’s mainly because her story is one of struggle and hard work, from the ground up to own her own successful business. Our conversation made me think a lot about the difference between a success story and having something handed to you, as so many of the “successful,” restauranteurs of New York have. Ones who were handed restaurants or who summered in the Cape, tasting fine wine at twelve years old. The same ones that pull hundreds of thousands from their trust funds to decorate their new spaces on Madison Park. I suppose it can make you bitter, or it can make you appreciate a true day’s work and support businesses like Natalie’s.
The last thing I love to ask everyone featured on Vegarie is, why is food so important to you and why do you feel like it brings so many people together?
“I don’t think people realize how much it means to me when they tell me—oh my god. that was so good. It gives me a lot of satisfaction to hear that I’ve given someone a positive experience. It’s why I had to center the name around my grandmother, because at the end of the day, my company is about making you feel good. Cooking, and giving others these positive moments, that’s what makes me feel connected to [my grandmother] still, even though she isn’t around to see the woman I’ve become.”
Natalie, I cannot thank you enough for chatting with me and sharing your story. If you like what you read, share this post! If your mouth is watering, and you want to try Natalie’s food for yourself, go see her at her next brewery! You can check out her Instagram: @eatwithnananyc where she posts her schedule.
This is Awesome Nat!! This is your cousin Jasmine!! IM SO PROUD of You!!! My husband and I will be there very soon to come enjoy your place!! I CANT WAIT TO U YOU!!!!!