After a pie shop and Squid Shack, Sandy Dickie finds his calling with van and a fryer as Albany’s ‘Donut Man’

He’s become something of an Albany icon, selling donuts and hot dogs from his colourful van parked on the weekends at a spot in the carpark at the junction of North Road and Sandford Road. It’s the donuts which lure in most of the punters as Sandy Dickie spends his weekends bent over his fryer to produce the light, fluffy bundles of sweetness for which he is best known. The hot dogs sell too, but not like the donuts which go at about 1000 a day — and more when there’s soccer, footy or it’s the weekend of the Albany darts at the nearby PCYC. Mr Dickie is now 74 and he cheerfully admits it’s the people he meets on Saturdays and Sundays that keeps him going. He has back problems so the small van suits him fine and the business is his way of keeping going both mentally and physically. “I worked hard as a young man and damaged the vertebrae in my back so I couldn’t stand up straight in the van even if I wanted to,” he said. He’s had a lot of jobs but it’s his second wife Margaret who has encouraged his culinary escapades. These have included being owner of a pie shop in Middleton Loop and, after that, the Squid Shack at Emu Point before switching to life on the road. “I’ve been a truck driver, a garbage man; I’ve had a lunch bar as a young man, but it’s Margaret who is the amazing cook in the family,” Mr Dickie said. “She was working at Squid Shack when she suggested I should buy it and it’s from her that I’ve picked up the skills I have. “The Squid Shack got too much whereas the van is a bit more casual because I don’t have to be there.” While Mr Dickie says he doesn’t have to be there, when he’s not, social media buzzes and people notice. As he is not on social media himself — “I keep off it” — so he asks proxies to let people know the “Donut Man” is not working. His top tip for making the best donut is to have good, clean oil and to fry at the correct temperature. “I find it so easy; it’s just a matter of doing it properly,” he said. “When I started I used to get stuck in to test them, to make sure they tasted right, but nowadays I’d make myself sick if I ate like that. “I don’t use any machinery, it’s all by hand, so I’m flat out when I’m working, mixing and dumping.” He has had the business for eight years, but before him the first owner had it for 16 years and the second for 13. He’s not sure what will happen to it when he finally decides to retire. “I’ve tried the family but nobody else wants it, so I’ll just keep going,” he said. And what’s the secret recipe for the best donuts in town? “There is no recipe,” he said. “They come in a bag from the wholesaler.”