Phoenix Area - March, 2019

Peoria Donut Cafe 

Web Site: None

Address: 7539 W Peoria Ave Unit B101, Peoria, AZ 85345

Phone: 480-231-5710

              

Rating: 

On our way to a Chicago Cubs Spring Training Game (one of our other passions), we dropped by the Peoria Donut Café. Run by a very friendly Cambodian gentleman, Roeun, it features traditional cake and yeast donuts in a mom and pop strip mall atmosphere. I tried a chocolate glazed old fashioned.  It was good and worth multiple bites! If you’re not looking for a particularly elite donut tasting experience, this one’s worth a trip if you are in the neighborhood.

Daily Donut 

Web Site: None

Address: 9133 W Thunderbird Rd #107, Peoria, AZ 85381

Phone: 602-327-1990

              

Rating: 

Next stop was Daily Donut. The décor was lovely and appropriately donut-themed. But by the time we arrived (we are learning that when donut hunting, the earlier in the morning the better!), the pickings were rather slim.  One bite of a coconut-glazed cake donut was sufficient.  Good, but not great.  Daily Donut is probably worth visiting but was not a worthy visit on this particular day.

  

Donutsville 

Web Site: donutsville.com

Address: 8275 W Lake Pleasant Pkwy, Peoria, AZ 85382

Phone: 623-825-4406

              

Rating: 

If you like the Local Donut in Scottsdale, you will also like Donutsville, in Peoria. The donuts are fresh, with a great variety—including multiple flavors of old-fashioneds and many many more innovative flavors.  They even have a drive through!  Absolutely worth a visit if you are in the neighborhood and want predictably wonderful donuts (and who doesn’t!).

Golden Donuts 

Web Site: golden-donuts-donut-shop

Address: 1818 W Baseline Rd, Mesa, AZ 85202

Phone: 480-350-7566

              

Rating: 

On the way to yet another Cubs Spring Training Game, we visited Golden Donuts (a stone's throw from Sloan Park) - another in a series of Cambodian or Vietnamese-owned donut shops. The proprietor, Millie, was very friendly and the plain old fashioned donut was divine.  Sometimes, you just need to stick with the old basics.  The other glazed old fashioneds looked just as wonderful.  Traditional, clean, welcoming, and delicious—which is not always the case. I would definitely go back!  

 Hard to beat this combination!!!!

France - March, 2019

Bayeux - March 11

Brigitte-Sabine Patisserie 

Web Site: boulangeriespatisseries.fr/boulangerie-sabine-brigitte-bayeux.html

Address: 55 RUE SAINT PATRICE  14400  BAYEUX

            

Rating: 

In the quest for donuts, sometimes you need to leave the continental US.  When visiting Normandy and Mt St Michel, my dear friend Yuval Ben-Ami (originally from Israel, now from Provence, France)—made clear that I needed to locate some authentic French beignets. Little did I know that, when located, these would bear no resemblance to the delicious and memorable beignets from Café du Monde in New Orleans. Our wonderful guide, Valerie Coupel, made several stops during our tours of the beaches and D-Day sites to no avail.  Finally, just as we were about to pull up to our hotel and leave for Paris, she pointed us toward Brigittee-Sabine Patisserie in Bayeux.  Ordinarily, we do not include donuts from mere bakeries in our consideration of donuts worldwide.  But, here we made an exception and we were glad we did.

These beignets were gigantic!  And each was chock full of a different type of filling (we purchased hazel nut, chocolate, and raspberry).  I tasted the chocolate.  Quite delicious and the front desk team at the Villa Lara Hotel were pleased to be gifted with several others.  

Ooh la la! Try to taste the beignets in France but be sure you are hungry first.



Paris - March 14

Boneshaker Doughnets 

Web Site: boneshakerparis.com/

Address: 77 Rue d'Aboukir, 75002 Paris, France

            

Rating: 

When in Paris (my choir was performing there), we just had to visit Boneshaker Doughnuts (thank you, Alan Kitey, for the referral). While the donuts were truly beautiful (and the chocolate glazed with meringue on which I nibbled was notable), most notable was the marketing shtick.  Boneshaker’s colors are chic Parisian black and fuschia and their logo is a rather maudlin skeleton clutching a fuschia doughnut.  Best of all is their tagline (proudly displayed on the back of the T-shirt I purchased):

Not your typical French patisserie.  No macarons or eclairs in sight—but Boneshaker Doughnuts (on the outskirts of the Marais) is worth a visit. 

Dallas - Feb, 2019

Top Pot Doughnuts and Coffee 

Web Site: http://www.toppotdoughnuts.com/
Address: 8611 Hillcrest Ave Suite 195  Dallas, Texas 75225
469-232-9911              
Rating: 


An upscale dough-nuttery in North Dallas, Top Pot provides delicious coffee drinks and hand crafted doughnuts— both amazing. Their doughnuts are mega-sized (after all, everything is bigger in Texas). Everything about this shoppe is lovely and upscale— including the prices. The dark chocolate glaze on my old fashioned doughnut was sublime— rich and heavily frosted. The doughnut was a bit on the “too cakey” side.  Dallas is so big and so spread out— if you are near this neighborhood, definitely stop by or you may miss an opportunity for delicious upscale doughnuts.

Johnson Donuts 

Web Site: On Facebook
Address: 2350 Hall - Johnson Rd # 135, Grapevine, TX 76051
              
Rating: 

Donut Palace 

Web Site: None
Address: 101 West Glade Road # 107, Euless, TX
              
Rating: 

Donut Palace (a different one!) 

Web Site: None
Address: 2100 W Northwest Hwy, Grapevine, TX 76051
              
Rating: 

Donut Land 

Web Site: None
Address: 2030 W. Glade Road, Grapevine, TX 76051
              

Rating: 

Laura Soloman, me, Kerry Leaf, Eddie

These four donut shops in Grapevine share several characteristics— they are all Vietnamese owned and operated. They all are situated in strip malls off major thoroughfares.They all carry kolachkes and sausage rolls along with conventional-flavored donuts, including a nice variety of old fashioneds. They all also offer beautiful sprinkle yeast donuts with pastel frostings and, oftentimes, trendy rings—Disney princesses, for instance. They are all fairly typical small scale neighborhood donut shops.

There are several points of differentiation.

Johnson Donuts has a great cinnamon old fashioned donut and an equally splendid regular glaze old fashioned.   

Donut Land’s sprinkled donuts are particularly beautiful as are their twisted and long john sprinkled doughnuts.

Donut Palace on Glade has a great tagline “where the customer is king”— but the goods didn’t exactly deliver on the tagline.

Donut Palace (no relation) on W Northwest Highway has an amazing dark chocolate icing on its old fashioned donut.

Donut safaris, like African safaris, often yield wonderful stories.  Whenever I have embarked on a donut mission, I get to know interesting people--some of those are my fellow donut connoisseurs (or those desiring to become donut connoisseurs), donut entrepreneurs, and donut drivers.  In our Grapevine, Texas, donut safari; we met a wonderful gentleman--Eddie.  (I have omitted his last name for confidentiality purposes.) 

Eddie picked us up in his black pick up truck. He is a rough and rugged guy and told us right away he is a football coach who will be moving to Oklahoma soon.  Now, donut safaris are not a time for politics and we assumed (early on) that Eddie was on a different political "team" from us.  But, we were having fun on our donut safari and he was being a good sport--so politics was not germane to the experience.  That said, while driving us back to the hotel, Eddie let drop that he did vote for Donald Trump but that Trump was not his first choice then or now.  We kidded Eddie that we could have had a lively political discussion if only we had known. 

Fast forward an hour later.  Eddie texted me his photos from the safari with this text: "Who would have thought Democrats and Republicans could have so much fun together...the miracle of donuts." Enough said. 

Kountry Donuts 

Web Site: None
Address: 102 S. Main Street, Grapevine, TX 76051
              

Rating: 

Our last donut stop in Grapevine was Kountry Donuts--a charming drive through (small counter service) with the largest donuts in Texas (and that is saying something).  They feature yeast donuts with various glazes and they are (best) served warm.  Even this cake donut aficionado couldn't help but enjoy Kountry Donuts' fare.  Yum.  Delicious.  Melt in your mouth.  Light and airy.  I didn't have a chance to taste the apple fritter but, suffice it to say, it was gigantic and looked scrumptious. 

Emma Silver, Kerry Leaf, Robin Kosberg, Roberta Glick, me