New York has its pizza. Philadelphia, its cheesesteak. Texas boasts its barbecue while New Orleans serves its famous gumbo.
On Cape Cod, tourists and locals alike crave fresh seafood.
Yet, the most intriguing food resides in South Yarmouth, where the donut burger — a freshly grilled patty served between a savory donut — is offered exclusively at Merrill “Red” Wilson Field during Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox home games.
“The donut burger is now a legendary food,” Y-D Red Sox president Paul Izzo said. “People come here from all over the United States knowing about the donut burger.”
The burger is celebrating its 20th anniversary at Red Wilson Field this year. Despite its popularity, the burger wasn’t available for purchase in 2021 or 2022 following the COVID-19 pandemic, which canceled the 2020 Cape League season. However, it returned to the menu in 2023 and has sold out at every game since.
“I said, ‘If I'm going to be involved with the Y-D Red Sox, I'm bringing back the donut burger,’” Izzo explained after becoming YD’s president in 2023. “The fans love it and people come here game after game to try to get one.”
The Founder
While the Red Sox offer three different burger variations, allowing customers to pair their patty with a glazed, jelly or Boston cream donut, Robert “Burger Boy Bob” Phillips said the burger started from defeat.
As a first-year volunteer with the Red Sox in 2003, Phillips remembers selling concessions from a trailer that was too high up and had narrow counters. He also remembers the burger cooking station having a large, flat surface, so he suggested they sell donuts there for kids to conveniently buy.
Y-D’s staff listened. Soon after, Phillips said he tried prying anyone he could to replace the traditional burger bun with a donut. He was so determined for someone to try his invention, he even offered to pay for the donut. Still, nobody was interested.
“I struck out, I was 0-for-60,000. I got nothing,” Phillips said. “I had a lot of people raise their eyebrows, but nobody would take me up on it. I said, ‘You know, it isn't going to be gluttony that gets you to sell all these donut burgers. It's going to be pride.’”
Undeterred by his failures in 2003, Phillips brought his burger idea to Y-D’s committee ahead of the 2004 season. He proposed to have each burger upgrade customer wear a sticker to have fans ask them what they ate, have signage on the field and for him to wear a burger hat. Additionally, an insurance policy ensured fans a “bun-back guarantee” after trying the burger — returning the donut for a burger bun if they pleased.
The burger officially hit the market for the first time in July 2004.
Originally, the menu featured only one burger: the “sinker,” named after a type of fastball. It had three versions: the “outside sinker” with a plain cake donut, the “inside sinker” with a cinnamon sugar donut, and the “down-the-middle sinker” with a powdered sugar donut. This evolved into the “triple play,” which now uses a glazed donut and includes cheese and bacon.
Two weeks after creating the sinkers, Phillips said he came up with the “hurler,” which was the same concept as a sinker but with the patty served between a jelly donut and a squirt of canned cheddar cheese.
“Ball games are supposed to be fun places, and I'm not the most serious guy on the planet,” Phillips joked. “So, I said, we're gonna need a sideshow. We need something because not everybody's here for the game…. So, we're gonna have something for them.”
As the burger officially hit the Red Sox’s menu, each offered as a free burger upgrade, Phillips said fans still had drawbacks because they were concerned about consuming fats and red meat. Others weren’t willing to try it because of the public shame they thought would come with eating the burger.
Yet, the burger sparked unprecedented curiosity. Attracting eyes by wearing his burger hat, Phillips says fans would gather near the burger cooking station to watch him and his burger partner, Dave McGlone, do their thing.
Curiosity gradually transitioned from the brain to the stomach. Phillips says 253 burgers were sold in its debut season. As newspapers and TV stations began publishing and broadcasting stories about it in 2005, Phillips knew he was “in” with the burger and saw its success rapidly increase over the next few years.
Then, a revolutionary addition was made to the menu in 2009.
Tyler Duff, who Phillips estimated was about 12 years old, suggested adding a Boston cream burger to the menu. Following the suggestion, Phillips tasked Duff with doing market research for the product.
Shortly after, Duff brought six Boston cream donuts and five relatives to Red Wilson Field. Naturally, Phillips said Duff’s five relatives approved the Boston cream burger. Still, there was one remaining. As a college-aged fan approached the burger cooking station, Phillips remembers Duff persuading him to try his creation.
“Tyler was ear to ear. He was grinning like crazy, and the guy says, ‘Well, it's kind of messy.’ (Duff) said, ‘Well, we got a faucet over there with a little bubbler on it. You get five seconds under that to get yourself clean when it's over.’ And so, it became the fifth and final piece of the puzzle.”
Over the years, Philips’ crazy idea quickly became revolutionary. In his decade working on Y-D’s board, Phillips said he sold over 8,000 burgers. Only 12 people ever asked him for their bun back.
“Every franchise needs its character,” Phillips said. “It needs its ambiance or needs some little catch… Every franchise needs something to keep their fans interested. And we struck lightning with the donut burger.”
Finding The One
When Izzo brought the burger back to Red Wilson Field in 2023, part of the equation was finding a sponsor for the donuts. He successfully did so en route to bringing the popular item back, but they didn’t re-up for 2024. When Hole in One Donuts expanded to Yarmouth, it became an obvious choice when Izzo looked for a new sponsor.
“This organization has always been a supporter of the Cape Cod Baseball League,” said Damian Grozier, Hole in One’s general manager. “And because our store is in Orleans, it's mostly been Orleans-focused. But now with the new store in Yarmouth, we were kind of like, ‘Oh, what do we do to try to get some presence there?’ And this just happened to fall into our lap perfectly.”
Each morning throughout the year, Hole in One hand-cuts donuts between 10 a.m. and noon. To start the process, Grozier says they prepare and combine the mixes beforehand, cutting each donut and cooking them, ensuring each donut is fresh.
For the donuts intended for the burger, Grozier explained Hole in One primarily uses a yeast donut to create a lighter and fluffier mixture. For the finishing touches, the jelly donuts are filled with jelly while the Boston cream is applied to the top. On game days, Hole in One supplies 20 glazed, six jelly and six Boston cream Donuts.
“It takes the savory taste of a donut and mixes it with a good, high-quality burger,” Grozier said. “And it's a unique flavor that has a great profile that you're going to love.”
Fan Experience
Y-D picks up the donuts from Hole in One’s Yarmouth location around 2:00 p.m. on game days. From there, they get transported to a table outside the team’s concession stand and in front of the grill.
There, you’re greeted by Don Kelley, who has been on Y-D’s board of directors since 2019. This season, Kelley stepped into a new role: distributing the burgers. Around the time Izzo became Y-D’s president, Kelley said he was among the people advocating for the burger’s return.
“No good deed goes unpunished, so they said, ‘You like them so much, why don’t you put them together?”” he joked.
Before lucky fans buy the exclusive burger, they wait in line at the concession stand to order. Once fans place their order, customers are pointed in Kelley’s direction and prompted to share which variation of the burger they ordered.
As customers reserve their orders, Kelley grabs a donut from a bin on the right side of his table and places it in a small brown box. From there, he places the patty between the donut halves and adds cheese whiz or bacon on top.
Kelley said his favorite part of the job is interacting and learning the stories of the countless people to whom he’s had the pleasure of serving a burger.
One of the families he met this summer was the Charettes. Jean-Francois Charette, a native of Montreal, explained that he and his children, Arthur and Lili-Rose, vacation on the Cape every summer.
Jean-Francois said having the burger has become part of his family’s experience on the Cape despite his kids not being baseball fans. Lili-Rose said the burger is one of her favorite meals because it’s the perfect combination of dessert and meat in the middle. Arthur added its uniqueness and his love for donuts separate it from other foods.
“It’s part of a whole vacation treat that you get,” Jean-Francois said. “You get the lobster, you get the baseball and you get the donut burger.”
A Meal Fit for an All-Star
Beyond fans, players also share a deep love for the burger. Around its initial launch, Phillips recalled a day when the entire Cotuit Kettleers team tried it. Fast forward to 2024, it’s still a hit for Cotuit players.
Trying the burger for the first time, right-handed pitcher Joey Volchko (Stanford) agreed he’d seen nothing like it in any other ballpark in his life.
“It’s pretty good,” Volchko said with a smirk on his face after taking a bite of the burger for the first time.
Meanwhile, Red Sox players also enjoy the burger. When 2024 Cape League All-Star pitchers Braden Osbolt (Kennesaw State) and Sean Youngerman (Westmont) tried it for the first time, they both liked it.
“It’s worth it,” Youngerman said.
“This is above the Phillies’ Philly cheesesteak,” Osbolt said with a huge grin.
Between its extravagant uniqueness, flavor, and prestige, the donut burger is the most novel food item across the Cape League. Since its return, it has proven its worth and is set to continue delighting future generations of fans and players at Red Wilson Field.
(Photo by Kyndall Williams)
