Hot and sweet, one plump little doughnut tastes like more. And at a buck a bag for a baker`s dozen, people buy bunches of them at Sonia and Ed Overstreet`s chuck wagon in Montana Charlie`s Little America Flea Market, near Bolingbrook. Customers of Harris Bank Hinsdale sample the mini-treats free with coffee on Saturdays, when Sonia brings them in fresh from Will County.
The Overstreets` business began as an outgrowth of their own flea market visits some 10 years ago.
”We had moved to a condo, so we didn`t have a lawn or gardens to tend, but we needed to get outside. I suggested to Ed we try outdoor flea markets, where we could get exercise walking and entertain ourselves by looking at the stuff for sale,” she said.
It wasn`t long before Ed decided he and Sonia might just as well be part of the market action, not with figurines, but with food. After reading a story in Entrepreneur magazine about how to make dough out of doughnuts, he traveled to Minnesota to check out the Little Orbit, an electric doughnut-making machine, and bought one.
”The first year we hauled an 8-by-10-foot trailer from one location to another, making doughnuts out in the open,” Sonia said. ”But after that, we were able to lease a permanent location at Montana Charlie`s. Now we have a big concession trailer, our own electric line and a shed, where we store a freezer and two refrigerators. Ed goes out to the site every Friday to set up for the weekend.”
Along the fairground`s front fence, halfway between the entrance and exit, the Overstreets offer doughnuts and other items they`ve added to their menu-hot dogs, corn dogs, Polish sausage, egg rolls and French fries, coffee, soda and lemonade.
”We`ve built up quite a following at Montana Charlie`s,” Sonia said.
”In fact, some of our regulars say they come to the flea market as much for our food as for browsing and bargain-hunting.”
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Montana Charlie`s Little America Flea Market, open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, is on Joliet Road south of Interstate 55. General admission is $1.50.
