Brittani Schlager
Get excited, St. Louis: Iconic donut shop World's Fair Donuts (1904 South Vandeventer Avenue) Southwest Garden reopens tomorrow under new ownership.
As reported by the Riverfront Times in December, Strange Donuts owner Jason Bockman purchased the longtime local favorite from Peggy and Terry Clanton, who had operated the business since 1974. The shop has been shuttered in recent months due to health and personal reasons for the Clantons.
In a call with the RFT last month, Bockman said he planned to complete some deferred maintenance on the building before reopening. Bockman said at the time that he had no plans to change the name of the shop or the menu, adding that he has purchased it under a separate LLC apart from Strange Donuts. Today he announced via his personal Instagram account that the business would open again tomorrow:
"Man this has been emotional. I feel so lucky. I love this city and what it’s made me. My family has taken all the brunt of me being out late and up early the past six years. We’ve had big wins and been so broke. My wife @yurybockman and the Strange family deserve all the credit for letting us move forward. The significance of walking in this place and feeling like it’s mine and being able to give it back to the city is not wasted on me. Thank you."
When the RFT first spoke with Bockman about the purchase, he was similarly emotional, expressing that he felt a certain weight of responsibility in stewarding World's Fair into its next chapter.
"I’ve cried a couple of times, honestly, thinking about it," Bockman says. "I feel so honored. This is crazy to me that the place … I lived on 39th Street for fifteen years. They’re legends to me; those people are the salt of the earth, good people, and it’s crazy to me that they could have gotten way more money from other people but they had trust in me to carry on World’s Fair as a brand, as a company, as a service to the community."
World's Fair will be open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
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