Time to move the donuts across Cleveland Circle

The owner of the Dunkin' Donuts franchise in Cleveland Circle hopes to move the outlet to space on the other side of Beacon Street, where it would share space with a convenience store.

At a meeting with neighbors tonight, franchisee Alex DiPietro said the new outlet, on Beacon Street at Ayr Road, would be for take-out customers only - and would include a window for people who had put in their orders via the Dunks app in advance.

Unlike the current outlet, the new one would have no dedicated parking spaces, but DiPietro said that and the lack of tables is fine because most of his customers are T workers and nearby residents, who walk to get their morning cup or donuts. In fact, he said, he's long had a problem with people using the current store's parking lot for appointments at nearby offices, rather than to get a coffee.

Also, since most of Cleveland Circle's shops are on that side of the street, he said the move would make it easier on people who maybe get something at one of the other stores now and then have to decide whether or not to cross all those lanes of traffic and the trolley tracks to get what Dunkin' has to offer.

The main bone of contention tonight seemed to be how an 18-wheeler Dunks truck would make its weekly or semi-weekly drop off of coffee, foodstuffs and other supplies. DiPietro said having the trucks pull alongside the shop on Ayr Road would be ideal, because there's a door there leading to where the store's refrigerators will go. But residents who already watch smaller moving trucks get stuck on the narrow Ayr and Orkney roads worried what would happen with 18-wheelers. DiPietro said he would be fine with the truck pulling in front on Beacon Street - like the delivery trucks for the Starbucks and other stores along that block. And he said the drivers are well used to the urban environment and would move their truck if doing so blocked in any of the cars parked along Beacon.

"As you know, being a New Englander, we're on every street, on every corner in every neighborhood so [the drivers] see it all," and are used to making adjustments at each location they stop at.

One resident, Eva Webster, said she was particularly concerned about the condition of the rear of the building, which she called an unspeakable horror show of trash, graffiti and rats, some of them dead.

"It would be an insult to a Third World country if I said it's like a Third World country," she said of the space. DiPietro said he would talk to the landlord about the space, which he is not renting.