The Ben Mulroney Show - Toronto's viral donut sensation. You'll want to visit soon...

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

Guest; Fab's Donuts If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠���⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You already got this. Because you are made to trade. And TD Easy Trade is made to help. Download it now. Yeah, I found a loophole. I said I wouldn't eat on microphone, but I didn't say I wouldn't eat before we started. And I just scarfed down one of the best donuts I've ever had.

We're going to jump right into this because donuts, you would think I'll bet dollars of donuts you didn't think that there was a difference in donuts until you try some of the best and I'm here with Fab from Fab's donuts Fabb what I just tried was

unlike most donuts it was a Biscoff thing and it had some sort of cream on the inside and you told me that you would have to kill me if you told me what was actually inside it but that was special that was special man that was my pleasure.

Well welcome. I'm glad I'm glad you like them. Yeah. And thanks for inviting me in. Of course. No, I want to get into it because I think, look, some of the donuts are everywhere, right? You've got the Tims and you got the this and you got to that. Like a donut is everywhere. You have to really believe in yourself to believe that you can do a donut better, do a donut different, right? So basically, this is, so anything I do, it like my life depends on that. Okay. So it doesn't matter. It can be donut. I can be a cleaner. I can be anything. But when I do it, I do it right. Well, you're doing it right. How are

people finding you? Because from what I see, you got influencers coming in. You don't pay the influencers. They just come in. And a lot of days, you're sold out before noon. Yes. So basically, we, so when we start the business, my missus reached out to a couple of influencers. And I told I told there, I said, listen, they're going to ask us for the money. Yeah. So we're not there yet. Yeah. And that happened exactly how I explained it to her.

And then I said, you know what? Rather than, because when I do business, I watch out where I put the money in. Yeah. I count my pennies because that's called investment. Yeah. But when I, in my private life, I spend how I want to spend. Yeah. So when I do business, I say, okay.

So the money we're going to push it towards influences, marketing and anything else is going cost between 2 to 4,000. So what we do with that money, we push it into business, we buy the best ingredients, and we make the best donut. Yeah. And then... But Fab, it sounds simple, right? Buy the best ingredients, invest in your business, make the best donuts.

Look, if it was as easy as making the best donut, everyone would make the best donut. But you are clearly, you found an audience. I mean, I just tried one. And it's a, I could say it's kind of life-changing. So how do you get there? So basically, that's one part. Yeah.

Ingredients is one part. Believing in yourself, as you said, the other part, and having, having energy, having love inside you, putting them all together. When you go to work, when I wake up in the morning, I record myself. Any business I build up until today. So I record myself. I'm happy. Yeah. I'm getting that.

I've got energy. and then by the time I opened the shop store and I walk in, I'm recording myself. And I've got proof. I can show it for any day. Well, let's listen to what some people are saying. Today we were taste assessing the alleged best fritters in Toronto from Fab's Donuts. We wanted to try a plethora of their donuts, but they were sold out by news. This is loaded with apple chunks and it's extremely soft in the inside.

As soon as he created this banana fritter with a chocolate drizzle, I knew I had to try it. This thing is also stuffed. What I like about that, it's a chocolate's not heavy. Like some donuts or cookies, you take one bag, like, Guys, I am not joking when I say you have to try this and let me know what you think. Okay, let's go back to the being. First of all, where is the shop? Where's the first shop?

The first shop is in the 16, 18, Queen Street West. It's in Heart of Parkdale community. And the second coming soon in Scarborough, Eglington and Edglington and Warden. Okay. I got to get your whole, I got to get your backstory because I'm listening to your accent. It doesn't sound like it's from around. here. But I'm from here now. You know why? You know why? You know why? Because my son was born here. I love it. I'm a free street person. I don't believe on being belonged to any location.

When I'm here, I'm from here. When I moved somewhere, I'm from there. So you met a lady. You had a boy. Yeah, you're sunny. We've been together since the school. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. Good for you. And but when I have, have you been a baker your whole life? You know what? I'm a good cook. but I've never baked, Rima baked. Yeah? As I said, I believe in myself. Anything I touch, it turns to gold. Listen, attitude is a huge part of anything.

I can see that, right? And there's also an element of manifestation. You know, I do believe that if you put that goal out there and then you take the steps, you'll get there. 100%. But Fab, the one thing we're not talking about is how you go from being a good cook to making the best donuts. There's a big chasm there that I don't think you can

fill exclusively with good thoughts and positivity and good ingredients. That's what I say. I'm a believer. So anything, when Lord, when Lord create each and every one of us, he created us for the success. We have to unlock that.

And then I always say, I say, God created us to be successful. We have to believe into it. And to believe that we need a bit of time. We have to have patient and we have to have consistency. And we have to have discipline. And discipline is the most strongest way of self-love.

And then you put all the dudes together, it will blossom. It's not going to be over a day or two. Sometimes you're not going to feel good. You don't want to go to work, but you have to carry on. And then Fab's Donut comes along once you put into work. That's it. I'm speaking with Fab from Fab's Donuts. He's in Parkdale.

He's opening up in Scarborough by the accounts of some of the most influential influencers, best donut in town, and I've had a bite of one. I wanted to have more, but Intrepid told me it would be too disgusting of me to be munching on camera. Intrepid, you want to say something? I must say, my daughter has a problem with Fab's donuts. Fab knows this. He's met my daughter a few times. Yes, yes.

And, yeah, she's like, when are we going to Fab's? I'm like, we're on our way home from Fab's. What are you talking about? We were just there. Well, we need to go back. Yeah. And that's it. Well, that's, listen, return customers is actually an interesting thing.

In this era of social media and influencers, they're always looking for the new thing, the fresh thing. So to bring them back, you have to have, my guess is you've got to keep introducing new flavors, new takes, that sort of thing. Is that part of the fabs donut thing? Yes, we do new flavors, six flavors, six box, once a six to eight weeks. And we bring in new flavors for, Mother's Day.

Who tests them out? Because there's no way they're all home runs. So runs between Rima and I. And as I said, Tyson is well. So Tyson, when Tyson holds his hands up and shuffle around his leg, his mean is a good thing. And then sometimes the flavor takes. So from the moment we mix like six flavors for this like month.

Yeah. Until next month. So we have another like so many options. So we run it through. So every day is a work for us. Yeah. So when we go, for example, for example,

we want to bring lemon flavors out. So when we go to restaurants in our own time, we always order, for example, lemon dessert. So we're testing from different. So how was this one? How was that one?

So we pick and choose the best thing about this dessert and the next shop dessert. And we'll merge in and we'll bring Fats out. You know what I've never had? I've never had a key lime pie donut. I had it. I've got it on my menu. You do? Yes, I do. My dad's favorite, my dad's favorite dessert was key lime pie. Loved key lime pie. When is his birthday? It was March 29th. March 29. So I'm 31st. Yeah, you're 31st. Yeah. Hey, listen, we're going to take a quick break.

I'll tell you what I want to talk about when we come back. No. I want to know a day in the life of Fab. A day in the life of FAB donuts. I want to know how hard you work because entrepreneurs are hustlers, right? And I want to know when you start. How many donuts you make a week? I want to know how tough it's been for you. This is not an easy time to open a business or keep a business open. And positivity aside, you have to admit. It's how I want to hear about that. I want people out there who want to start businesses. I want them to hear from you about the struggles and the opportunities and the joy of being a small business owner. And we're going to talk about all that next when we come back. Don't go anywhere. I got fabs, donuts here. I'm going to do

everything I can, not to eat what's in the boxes next to me. Can't promise anything. Don't go anywhere. Look, you can talk to 10 different people and ask them what their favorite burger in town is going to be, you'll get 10 different answers. Increasingly, though, on the conversation of who makes the best donuts, there are more and more people lining up behind my guest. Bab of Fab's donuts makes some of the most beautiful and phenomenally delicious donuts I've

ever had. And we love celebrating entrepreneurs on this show Fab. We love celebrating people who bet on themselves, invest in themselves, build community around their businesses. Talk to me about, well, let's start how hard you work. When do you wake up and what time are you done every day? Okay. So on a weekdays, I start 1 a.m.

On a weekdays, I start 1 a.m. And then I work through all the way. till 7. 1 a.m. until 7. 7 a.m. And then so when I so Rima comes down I go get ready. Yeah. So I go gym

with Tyson. Yeah. And then come back around about 9, 839. Yeah. And then she takes, she needs to go to gym, Pilate, whatever. Yeah. She does have things. And then so I go to sleep. Yeah. Around about 12 noon, 1 p.m. Yep. When Tyson goes to sleep. So he can be, go to like sleeping an hour or two.

Yeah. And then I wake up with him, go back down and carry on working. And stay up until 9 p.m. Yeah. So you do every other day, I have to. So you do two shifts a day. You do two shifts in a 24 hour period. Yeah.

Well, because. Meanwhile, in between like the hours. So I do construction is my main job. So. Oh, what? This is a side hustle? Yeah, this is a side hustle. Whoa.

Whoa. Whoa. Yeah, I'll run to the job site if I have to. I didn't know that. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, okay, but eventually this is going to become your full-time thing. I'll make a time for it.

Yeah. If I have to stay up even longer, I make a time for it. Wow. Because I love building. Yeah. So construction is everything to me. So, you know, it's weird, man. Like, there's something about you guys in construction because during the pandemic,

I met this gentleman who started a pizza company called One Night Only and made pizza from his house. And then the pandemic started, he was a contractor. He had no work. So he just made pizza and he got so popular and so famous with it that he started his own pizza joint called One Night Only Pizza, O-N-O-Pisa. And now he's consistently listed as one of the top ten pizzas in the city. What is with you construction guys who know your way around the kitchen? I don't know what to say, but I don't know what to say, but you know what?

Like we are hard workers. Yeah. We work in the heat. Yeah. We work in the cold outside. So, like, I don't know, I don't know. Now, what, how many donuts would you, does Fabs crank out a day? It depends on the day.

We do between 300 to 500. Yeah. And sometimes you sell out. We sell out. By noon. Yeah, by noon. But there is order comes in 500, 700, 700, 900. So we get it done.

We get it done. And my goal is. But think about that. He sells out 500 donuts by noon. Yeah. What do you do with the rest of your day? He goes back to work. I'm guessing.

From a short period of time I've met, he goes back to work. Yeah. Every minute we have, we take advantage of it. If I need to take Tyson, I take Tyson. If I need to chill with my family.

But me, any minute, we talk about business. Yeah. And now you're expanding. But so much of, clearly, so much of this is you.

Right? And as you grow this brand, as you build it out, as you find one new location and another, How are you going to make sure that you are, that what you're selling and all of them is up to your expectations. And the people going in there can trust that they're getting what you, because the love that you bring to it and the talent that you bring to it. So we fix that problem as when you grow, your quality goes down. Yeah.

So we manage to fix it. There is a machine, this company making it for us is going to produce the doughnut to my standard. It doesn't matter where the machine is like. like located. Yeah. It makes a donut to my perfection. And that even helps when I start selling franchisee. Yeah.

That's going to help the franchisee to actually save money in their kitchen. Yeah. If that makes sense. Oh, yeah. So they're going to make more money. See, so rather than having too much pay for the labor, they're going to have a machine,

which it costs nothing. Yeah. So you're already thinking franchises moving forward. That's great. Yes. This, okay, let's talk about the environment of building a business in 2026 because we do a lot of interviews on this show with bankers and economists and, you know, small business advocates. And the news that we report is not positive for small business owners that there are a lot of economic headwinds. There are a lot of challenges.

There's a lot of red tape. There's a lot of roadblocks. You've got to pay your HST up front at the beginning. beginning of the year before you've made a penny. But you are expanding and you're doing so with a smile on your face. What's the environment like for you? Is it a challenge? Could it be easier? Do you like it? What's going on? It's like roller coasters. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's hard. But you have to manage to get along with it and adapt to the situation and make sure you get the best result. For example, I wanted to do my own boxes for my donut. And then I looked at the

prices. I'm like, you know what? Customers not going to eat the box. The box is going to go to the bin. That's the extra cost. So yeah, everybody believes the packaging is part of the business. But for me, product is the main thing. My focus is on the product. So yeah, you put the sticker on the front. That's it. It's a great, it's a great sticker though. Okay, let's go. Let's go through some of these because everything is product so we've got okay so we've got here there's a there's one of these is a boston cream yeah which is okay so i don't know how how much you fill yours with but years ago i was at tim hortons and they're doing a competition and i suggested to them i said i don't believe you're putting enough boston cream in your donut i think you're underselling me on that i don't

think you're giving me as much as the donut can hold and so we tested it out it turns out that you can actually put in 250% of what they were doing. You can put over twice as much Boston cream in there before it exploded. I tested. And so I bet you that I bet there's a lot of Boston cream in there. So basically, this is how we do it. We, the rule is each donut has to be minimum 105 to 110 gram. Okay. And then we minimize the dough and we maximize the fillet. Yeah, you do. So we cut from, We cut from one end and we push it to the other end. Love it. Love it. So you don't have to have a giant loaf of bread with a tiny bit of filling.

I know what's all that about. You need to balance everything, right? You cut from one side, you add to the other side. Okay, so I got another. So this one over here is, it looks like a kinder Bueno on the outside, and there's definitely filling on the inside. This one is a pistachio. We're beautiful.

We call it pistachio heaven. And then this one here is. Bonofi pie. Bonofi pie. It's like a banana pie, right? Banana pudding. And then in this, this one, one here. Is this a cheesecake one?

Mango cheesecake. Damn. What are some of the chocolate ones you do? I do chocolate peanut butter. I do chocolate decler. I do chocolate dip. I do cat.

And you got the banana chocolate fritter? Yes. I do banana chocolate fritter. Of course he does. Of course he does. And what do people say to you? Because you got obviously get people coming back all the time.

What's the reason why they keep coming back? What do they say to you? Anybody comes in. they know they're going to get their money worth with a smile and respect. I respect everybody who comes to my shop, buy a single coffee or buy a box of six bucks. I treat everybody the same.

I respect everybody who brings joy to my life. He's brought joy to our studio. I think his store out there on Queen West is the busiest in the area. I mean, there's people just, the parking illegally, running in and stuff. It's a tiny little store. Yeah.

It's in a place where you, wouldn't expect to see that much business. What, I know that you go through the, the different flavors, you test them out with the family. But what happens if you guys, have you ever gotten one wrong? Have you ever put something out and people just didn't like it? No. Sorry, mere mortals have to deal with self-doubt. I don't think you deal with that.

No, but because if it's not good, I won't bring it. Simple as that. If it's a six box and there is one is not matching the box, sorry, we have. having six, we're having five with six. The last six one is the regular one comes in. Yeah. So I don't have to do things. I do it. If it happens, happens. If it's not, I'm not going risk it. What do your fellow business owners in the neighborhood think of your success? Are you, are you, is the fact that you're bringing traffic into the area? Are they viewing it as a good thing? Are you a good neighbor? Like, you know what? Like, everybody wants you to be successful. But when

they see your success is more than what they gain. Some of them start, like, turn into the hate. Yeah, but I'm going to give a shout at to Colors Barber. The best barber in whole Toronto from day one. He always supported us. He sent so many customers to us, and I cannot thank him enough. There's other businesses as well. They're supporting us, but Color is the real one.

Intrepid. Do you need a new barber? See, you know. I brought you in the donut guy. Yeah, yeah, you did. Yeah, and now you're doing this? I cut my own hair. Yeah, I'll cut yours too.

Very well. Very well. It's high and tight, buddy. So we've talked about, do you have a growth plan? Do you know because you're opening the new place, the new location, I'm sure, with much fanfare and influencers from that area of town are going to chomp at the bit to come to that area. And then franchising is on the horizon. Is there a fear of growing too fast too quickly? Okay.

We don't, I believe on a fast growing, is going to be a failure. But again, our franchisee model is going to be different. Yeah. We're not going to have, we're not going to put the franchisee in a rat race, as we say. Yeah. We're not going to have 20 location in one city. Right. If we're selling, only couple.

Yeah. It's not going to be overcrowded. Yeah. And then the thing about customers, if they see. see it makes sense for them to go grab something from the small business and is they going to get their money worth, no matter how far or where the business located, they will make their way. So you're a small business owner trying to help out people who want to be small business owners. That's right.

Yeah. That's right. And it's tough. It's tough to start a business. And I get it. I love how positive you are. We need more people like you. But it's scary to take a risk on yourself.

Can I say something? Yeah. So starting up the small business, I know disrespect to any franchisor, but I call them a gold diggers because they take, when somebody joined their show, when somebody joined their team,

they drain the money out of them to make their own pocket rich. So for me, I'll make sure minimize the people's cost on the opening. If the cost is for franchisee right now, is $350 to $400,000, I'll make sure they get it down with $170,000 because you don't need a brand new friar.

Yeah, yeah. You need a friar. You don't need a brand new fridge freezer. You need a fridge freezer. So you can buy the secondhand good one is going to do you good and you're going to save the money in your pocket. We got to end it here, but let me tell you, we started the show with some not-so-good news

and sometimes it can be kind of heavy. And I knew you were coming in. I knew the donuts were going to be good, but I did not anticipate this level of positivity coming from the person opposite me, especially a small business owner who, my goodness, the stress is on small business owners today. And the fact that you show up here with joy, not just, well, we got this joy, but not just the food that you bring, but the positivity in your heart, we need more people like you. We need to tell your story as much as possible. I congratulate you. I salute you. I say thank you for being here.

Thank you for the donuts. Thank you for sharing your story with everyone. And thank you so much for listening to the Ben Mulroney show today. Of course, we put the podcast out. Find us on our socials. Enjoy your Monday. I know I am. I want to home with the donuts.

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