Known as the Baker’s Dozen, the concerts would each have a specialty flavor of donut that would be provided by Federal Donuts to people as they entered the arena. The reason for the Philadelphia-based donut shop’s involvement was that owner Felicia D'Ambrosio is a big fan of the band.
“I don't know what we did to get this special blessing from Phish,” D’Ambrosio tells NPR. “I've been getting a lot of attention I don't deserve because all I did was answer emails from the band's manager. It really has been the hard work of our chef, Matt Fein.”
The shop worked hard each night to prepare thousands of donuts for each show. According to Matt Fein, each night’s work was the equivalent of five days at one of their locations.
“We had to come in around 9 p.m. the night before to make the red velvet donuts for night three because the dough for that one can be a bit more temperamental,” Fein says. “The same went for night four's jam filled donut. We knew it'd be a lot of extra work to fill them, so we had to go with mini donuts.”
Phish also contributed to the promotion, playing songs at each performance that intersected with the night’s donut theme. For instance, the night of the red velvet donut, the band covered Velvet Underground songs “Sunday Morning” and “Sweet Jane.”
