No one will judge you if you’re the first in line at Duck Donuts on Hilton Head this weekend

A woman walked up to Craig Hutchings on Thursday and looked into the storefront behind him.

She pivoted a little, got a gander through the window, glanced at the sign.

Then she was all business.

“What’s ‘Duck Donuts’ mean?”

He explained.

“Are these cake doughnuts?”

They are.

“Will you have apple fritters?”

No, no fritters. Just the doughnuts. They’re all made to order.

The woman seemed satisfied by the answers. Mostly, anyway. I sensed some latent fritter disappointment, but that was unavoidable.

“Wow,” I said after she left. “She really knew her doughnuts.”

I was standing outside the new Duck Donuts at the Fresh Market Shoppes on Hilton Head Island with Hutchings, who is the local franchise owner, and with Marissa DiGilio, whose father is the founder and CEO of Duck Donuts.

Hutchings was hosting a private preview ahead of his opening weekend. And I was the first person to arrive, just like the kid no one wanted at their birthday party in the first place.

I could feel the triggers going off in the Rube Goldberg contraption that is my anxious brain. Whether or not I actually am a sad, eager woman who still sleeps with stuffed animals at 42 — which I am NOT — I certainly felt like I was playing the part of one now that I was front and center and staring down the doughnut hole.

So things got really awkward and really chatty for my inside voice and sometimes for my outside voice.

That woman had some extensive knowledge of doughnuts. OK, maybe not “extensive” but that was some above and beyond knowledge, right? I’m such a bad journalist. I never would’ve thought to ask the fritter question. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever said the word “fritter” to another person before. Or have I? And what’s a cake doughnut? What’s a non-cake doughnut? Why didn’t I sit in my car and research doughnuts and just wait for someone else to be the sad eager woman with stuffed animals to be the first to arrive? Actually, the better question is why am I even here? I’m not a doughnut person. I could go the rest of my life without eating a doughnut and I’d be A-OK. Oh God. I think I’m about to blurt that out. Do not say that out loud. Do not say that doughnuts are stupid. That would be so rude.

Don’t worry. At no point did I tell DiGilio or Hutchings that doughnuts are stupid.

I did, however, scream CAKE DOUGHNUTS ARE THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE in my inside voice while saying “Oh no” in my outside voice when I had my very first bite of a Duck Donut.

I think I found religion.

Here’s what you need to know about Duck Donuts: Around a year and a half ago, Hutchings — who works for the federal government, lives in Virginia, but will soon be moving to the Lowcountry full-time — was on a golf trip with some friends in the Outer Banks.

Look, his friends told him, when we get there, we’re not checking into the hotel, we’re not golfing, we’re not doing ANYTHING until we go to Duck Donuts.

Hutchings had never heard of a Duck Donuts and was like, really? Doughnuts? Doughnuts that cause lines of people to happily wait for them? I mean, how good could a doughnut be?

Then he was like, whaaaaaaat is this warm magic? (OK. I’m projecting.)

After throwing back a dozen Duck Donuts and hitting up Google, Hutchings suddenly found himself on the path to becoming a franchisee. He eventually chose to open his store on Hilton Head, where he has fond memories of vacationing with his family. It’s the 35th Duck Donuts to open and as of right now the most Southern location.

OK, so back to the fritter lady’s original question.

What’s “Duck Donuts” mean?

It’s actually simple. The first Duck Donuts was opened in Duck, N.C., in 2006 by the DiGilio family, who vacationed there.

They thought it would be fun to open a shop that could offer made-to-order doughnuts — with topping combinations that the customer chooses — that are still warm when you eat them.

Needless to say, it was a popular concept.

The doughnut I had Thursday was called The Beach. It tastes like you’re about to get in trouble with your mother because you just took a giant chunk out of the cake she had cooling on the counter and then rolled it in cinnamon and sugar.

Actually, it tastes better than that and this isn’t even their most popular doughnut (that one has bacon on it).

The store will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. this weekend and then 6:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays after that.

And it’s OK to be the first one there. I promise. No one will think you sleep with stuffed animals still.

You live, you learn, right?

This story was originally published March 11, 2017 at 12:58 PM with the headline "No one will judge you if you’re the first in line at Duck Donuts on Hilton Head this weekend."