WESTPORT - "Word of mouth" is given new meaning to those who've discovered Butler's Colonial Donuts on Sanford Road. "We're off the beaten path," said Chris Kogler, who's owned Butler's with her husband, Alex, for nearly 25 years. "This is no means a main road."

Yet, people coming from Fall River "pass by six donut shops to come here," she said.

The hole-in-the-wall donut shop doesn't stand out especially and could easily be missed, but it has been discovered by food writers at Gourmet magazine Fine Cooking. It all started when Gourmet was writing an article about family-owned donut shops and asked George Germon of Al Forno in Providence for suggestions. He immediately turned them on to Butler's Donuts.

With the onslaught of Dunkin' Donuts popping up everywhere, Mr. Kogler said, "We're one of the last of the kind. Now it's all chains. There's very few independents left."

Instead, the trend is toward even more chains. Mr. Kogler joked that maybe Krispy Kreme could give Dunkin' Donuts a few headaches.

"A human doesn't even touch the donut," Mr. Kogler said of the baking operations at the chains. "It's all machines. You don't even know who's doing it. Here, you can see everyone in back."

The Koglers bought the business from Bill and Jeanne Butler in 1979, who'd owned it since 1955 when it was built. The Butlers spent six weeks training the Koglers.

Alex Kogler does most of the baking. He learned the art of baking from his father, who was originally from Austria but moved in 1951 to Alberta, Canada. Chris met Alex on the Cape one summer when she was working to earn money for college. Alex was on the Cape because he was playing ice hockey for the New York Rangers farm team.

The Kogler's still use the recipes left behind by the Butlers, but they have added a few of their own. One in particular, the Long John, has become their most popular offering. The cruller-shaped Long John is filled with real whipped cream and raspberry jelly and topped with sprinkled sugar.

Other specialties they've added include round cream puffs with powdered sugar, a mocha cream donut and a chocolate cream donut, which is only available on Sundays. They also sell an assortment of better-known donuts, such as honey dip, Boston cream and apple and blueberry. What sets even the standard fare apart from the chains is that all have a homemade taste. And real cream!

Owning a donut shop is definitely not a 9-5 job. Mr. Kogler comes to work at 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. He typically bakes 800 to 900 dozen donuts a day, occasionally even 1,000 dozen, for a total of nearly 10,000 donuts each weekend. Because of the workload, Butler's is only open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

"My alarm goes off at 11," Mr. Kogler said. "By the time I get the cobwebs off and crawl in here, it's 11:30 p.m." He conceded, "My sleeping pattern is very messed up."

Chris Kogler fills all the cream donuts and makes cake donuts. "I don't leave this table," she said of her work station.

While some day they might want to retire, right now they're putting their son, Justin, through college and saving up for their daughter Nicole's wedding next summer. Nicole, who graduated from Northeastern, works as an engineer for a company in Boston. Both worked at Butler's during high school and Justin comes back to pinch in if they're short on staff.

Because of the competition from big drive-through chains, Mr. Kogler said, "Places like this couldn't survive anymore," if they had to compete head-to-head with a chain. This scenario often happens, too, with big chains moving in right next to family-run donut shops.

Because profit margins are so small, Mr. Kogler said that losing 10 percent of one's business to a chain can make a family run donut shop unprofitable.

Luckily, Butler's Donuts is so far off the beaten track, it's unlikely that a chain will move into the neighborhood. Sanford Road was once the main road to Horseneck Beach, but that distinction now goes to Route 88.

Being off the beaten track hasn't hurt the Butler's business one bit. Along with the loyal locals, there are always people who will drive the extra mile, or maybe uncountable miles, for the sake of taste.

In fact, now that Butler's is featured in a guide called Road Food, the donut shop attracts visitors from just about every state. Travelers to the area use the guide to avoid the chains and find "little places to go," Mrs. Kogler said.

It might be a "little place to go," but the mouth-watering donuts are worth the trip.

By Peggy Aulisio

paulisio@eastbaynewspapers.com