Sweet assignment is messy – expensive, too

Katherine Wilcox | USFSP As photographer James Borchuck looks on, Griffin prepares to sample the unusual ice cream cone.
Katherine Wilcox | USFSP
As photographer James Borchuck looks on, Griffin prepares to sample the unusual ice cream cone.

By KATHERINE WILCOX
USFSP Student Reporter

TAMPA — As a business reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, Justine Griffin often writes on weighty topics: An analysis of what a Donald Trump presidency might mean for local tourism. Profiles of prominent business leaders. A tour of Amazon’s grand new warehouse in Ruskin.

But on a recent Monday, Griffin had a much sweeter assignment: Try a doughnut ice cream cone at a shop in south Tampa.

Her assessment? “It’s sweet, and filling, and within a matter of minutes it becomes a sticky, melted mess,” she wrote. “But it’s just so Instagram-worthy.”

Griffin, 28, was born and raised in Pasco County and graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2010 with a bachelor’s in journalism and humanities.

She has been a reporter for six years.  She started in 2010 at the St. Augustine Record on the breaking news and police beat, then spent time at the South Florida Sun Sentinel and the Sarasota Harold-Tribune before arriving at the Times in May 2015.

When she’s not covering her beat, Griffin enjoys riding her horse, Belinda, and writing for several blogs, including “Horse Junkies United” and “Deal Divas,” the Times’ blog on fashion and shopping.

She is also vice president of the Journalism and Women Symposium, a national nonprofit that works to empower women in the field.

Griffin was at the Herald-Tribune in 2014 when she tackled the most ambitious project of her career: a 32-page narrative of her experience as a first-time egg donor.

“I had a friend pass when I was young,” she said. “After she died, her mom had trouble conceiving.”

That’s when Griffin became interested in donating to help other families having trouble getting pregnant.

Her report, titled “The Cost of Life,” ran as a long-form narrative in print with no ads and as a multimedia project online – exposure that any 25-year-old journalist would welcome.

Now, two years later, Griffin was waiting in Datz Dough, a doughnut and ice cream shop at 2602 S MacDill Ave. in Tampa that features the newest viral sensation – an ice cream cone made out of a doughnut.

Her day had started early in the nearly empty St. Petersburg office of the Times, where she met with her editor, Chris Tisch, and got advice from food critic Laura Riley, who gave her some pointers on evaluating the odd dish.

On her way out, Griffin ran into food editor Michelle Stark, who asked her to post photos of the cone to the paper’s food Instagram account.

Katherine Wilcox | USFSP Borchuck records video as Griffin recaps the taste test.
Katherine Wilcox | USFSP
Borchuck records video as Griffin recaps the taste test.

Upon arrival, Griffin interviewed Tony Pullaro and Gina Moccio, the communications and public relations coordinators for the bakery. She asked some basic questions about the background of the shop and how they came up with the idea for the unusual cone.

According to Pullaro, the idea was based on a viral image on an Instagram from a bakery in Prague that invented the special cone.

Soon Times photographer James Borchuck arrived and Tina Contes, the lead confectionist and general manager of Datz Dough, invited them into the kitchen to see where the magic happens.

Contes, who created the recipe used at the shop, takes pride in the different forms of the creation that she invents every week.

This week it’s a cinnamon sugar doughnut cone lined with chocolate ganache, stuffed with Boston cream ice cream and topped with chocolate whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, and a homemade potato chip dipped in chocolate.  Last week, it was topped with cotton candy.

After Contes finished her creation, she passed it to Griffin to taste on camera for the Times’ website, tampabay.com. After one bite, the creation was melting down the sides and falling apart, something Griffin said she would have to mention in her story.

Griffin explained that although the ice cream doughnut cone was tasty, she still had to note the negatives and the whopping $10 price.

Those drawbacks didn’t seem to faze a group of women who saw Griffin eating the cone. They each ordered one.

After the questions were over and the videos were shot, Griffin went to the Times newsroom in Tampa to write her story.

Griffin pulled quotes from her memory, notes, and an email correspondence she had with a representative at a food research company based in Chicago. After about 30 minutes, she had finished the story and sent it to Tisch, her editor in St. Petersburg.

Then it was time to meet with the photographer to record some sound bites for the video feature that would accompany her story online.

Griffin said she doesn’t do this as often as she used to at the Herald-Tribune, but she feels comfortable in front of a camera or on a recording.

Within an hour, the story was up on the Times’ website. The next day it was in the paper and on the front page of tbt*, the paper’s free tabloid.

Not too shabby for four hours’ work.

Read the story here:  http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/retail/datz-dough-in-tampa-now-features-a-doughnut-ice-cream-cone-thats-big-messy/2271855

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