Cloudy Donut is a ray of sunshine for creators of color

NEW YORK -- Among the glass storefronts of Nolita, and a tree-lined block in Brooklyn Heights, through doors becoming increasingly harder to get through, you'll find donuts, and not just any donuts.

Meet Derrick Faulcon and Zewiditu Jewel, co-owners of Cloudy Donut, which offers vegan, small-batch donuts with more than 50 unique flavors like strawberry sage, double chocolate brownie crumble and more.

"The goal for me was to create a classic Americana donut shop, but also with a modern and sophisticated twist," Faulcon said.

He continued; "We wanted to create a donut that didn't have a high flavor memory, meaning, like you can eat one or two or maybe three of the donuts (and) it wouldn't feel really heavy. So we have a very niche product in the sense that our donuts are very light and fluffy, hence the name cloudy."

But this is more than a story about a donut shop. It's also a story about two trailblazers revolutionizing what it means to be Black business owners in America, making history as the first Black-owned food and beverage business in both Brooklyn Heights and Nolita.