Rolling and cutting…

Frying and flipping…

Glazing and dipping…

There just aren’t many places that make donuts this way anymore.

Joe Astrella – Owner, Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “Doughnuts disappeared. And what they’ve been replaced with are an imitation of a donut.”

So this man made it his mission to make donuts great again.

Joe Astrella – Owner, Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “We wanted to bring it back to its former glory of a good donut that was as big as your hand. And had toppings on it that would make you drool.”

And those are exactly the kind of donuts you’ll find here.

Joe Astrella – Owner, Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “Hey, this is Joe Astrella. This is my son Vinny, my son Dominic. Welcome to Rocco’s.”

With locations in Millbury, Mass, and this one in Westboro, Rocco’s Doughnut Company is using old school artisan techniques to create new school flavor combinations. And the results keep customers coming back.

Domenic Astrella – Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “Everyone who walks in here says, ‘Wow, these are huge.’ And then once they taste it, they say they’ll never go to another donut shop again.”

While this place may only be a couple years old, Rocco’s actually is filled with a whole lot of donut history.

Domenic Astrella – Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “Rocco was my grandfather.”

Joe Astrella – Owner, Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “Rocco was my dad.”

Domenic Astrella – Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “He owned one of the first 11 Dunkin Donuts in Saugus, Mass.”

Joe Astrella – Owner, Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “Rocco was the donut guy. This was his dream, and we took a picture from 1962 of him cutting donuts. And we’re able to turn it into a graphic.”

Vinny Astrella – Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “If you look at our logo, our logo is based on him.”

Joe Astrella – Owner, Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “We just wanted to make my father part of this business, and he was a WWII radio sergeant, he was very, he be ‘oh why you putting my face on all this stuff for?’ But I think part of him would be like, ‘that’s cool.'”

Just as Rocco did decades ago, the donuts here are all made from scratch, by hand, every day. And it all starts with the dough, and Rocco’s baker Todd Bucinskas.

Todd Bucinskas – Lead Baker: “So we flour the dough, and then we fold it. We roll out the dough to the desired thickness, and then we’ll cut the first one, if that one comes out good we cut them all that’s when we put them in the fryolater. We’ll put them in the fryolater for roughly around a minute-fifteen per side, and after a minute-fifteen we’ll flip it. Once it’s done we’ll pick it up out of the fryolater. And soon they’ll be ready to eat.”

But not before each and every nook and cranny of these warm donuts gets bathed in a waterfall of gloriously gooey glaze.

Vinny Astrella – Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “We’ll glaze 16 donuts at a time, we load up pounds and pounds of glaze on the roller, roll it over those hot fresh donuts. So if you’re zoomed in on our glaze going over a hot doughnut, it looks like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory flowing through a nice river of a glaze.”

Rocco’s offers more than a dozen different flavors of donuts a day. There are plenty of creative options, but any good donut shop needs to nail the classics, and here they definitely do. Especially the Chocolate Glazed.

Vinny Astrella – Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “This is the greatest Chocolate Donut that you can get. It actually tastes like chocolate is in there and not like a brown donut that’s trying to trick you that it’s chocolate. This is a chocolate chocolate donut.”

Joe Astrella – Owner, Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “Our chocolate is a deep chocolate, it’s a rich chocolate. So when you look at it, it looks chocolate, and it tastes chocolate when you bite into it.”

The other classic you can’t miss is Rocco’s Honey Glazed.

Vinny Astrella – Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “It’s got a vanilla bite to it that is unlike any other glaze. We make it here fresh every day. And that thing melts in your mouth.”

So while the classics are well covered, it’s the creative donuts that sets this place apart, with flavors like Pina Colada, Chocolate Raspberry Truffle, Nutella, and the colorful, craveable, Fruity Pebbles donut.

Domenic Astrella – Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “The Fruity Pebbles donut was one of our first creations, it’s been popular since day one, and it’s very sweet.”

Joe Astrella – Owner, Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “I call it sugar covered sugar covered sugar. You get the glaze, you got the strawberry frosting and then you got the crunchy fruity on top. You get the glaze, you got the strawberry frosting and then you got the crunchy fruity on top and it gives it a snap. Like you’re crunching into it every time you bite. And that fruit smell is like nothing you’ve ever had. It brings your back to when you’re a kid.”

Another tasty throwback is the Cookies and Cream donut, completely covered in crushed Oreos.

Joe Astrella – Owner, Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “My son Dominic came up with this idea to take the whole mashed cookie, sometimes you get a half a cookie, he dips the whole thing in it’s glaze and then it’s white frosting and then it’s jammed in the whole pail of Oreo cookies. You get about four Oreos on the top of your donut. And then as a chocolate drizzle on top of that. So it just layer and layer and layer stuff.”

With so many delicious donuts to choose from, Rocco’s customers often take a while to decide what to order. But you better not wait too long if you’re hoping to get a taste of the sweet and savory Maple Bacon donut.

Joe Astrella – Owner, Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “It’s one of our best sellers. It always has been, we never have them left.”

Domenic Astrella – Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “It’s extremely popular. It’s a little bit scary at first, thinking bacon on a donut, but it’s fantastic.”

Vinny Astrella – Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “Maple Bacon Donut tastes like nothing else. We like to use a real thin sliced bacon. Our maple topping for it isn’t just maple, it’s also topped with a maple syrup. So that gets drizzled on top of the whole thing. So you’re almost getting like a pancakey, like breakfasty, dessert all in one.”

And from Maple Bacon, and Fruity Pebbles,to classic Chocolate and Honey Glazed, the family at Rocco’s is proud to carry on a sweet legacy. And they’re pretty proud of their donuts too.

Vinny Astrella – Rocco’s Doughnut Company: “People should come try us out because I think we’re the best, we think we’re the best, we hope people aren’t just patting us on the shoulder but we a lot of people tell us we’re the best and we’re up for the challenge.”