It feels weird to be writing about New York Donuts again after all those exhausting California posts. But let’s jump right back into it…Ronnybrook Dairy is now serving Donut Pub Donuts! I’ve been meaning to report this epic event in NYC Donutage for a few months now, mainly because it’s nice to see a shop besides the Doughnut Plant get some distribution around this city. I’m not sure exactly what varieties the Chelsea Market milk bar is peddling but stay tuned for an extensive investigation in the coming weeks - most likely with a chaser at the new 9th Street Espresso across the way.

Next up, Morandi. Overall, Keith McNally’s knack for cultural co-option is better focused on the Parisian brasserie than rustic Italian. The overly accented lady on Morandi’s answering machine seems contrived, and like Bruni, I wasn’t buying the rows and rows of thatched Chianti bottles. But in general, like at Balthazar and Pastis, I thought the food was straightforward and almost worth the price. The fried artichokes with lemon were flavorful with a delicate tempura-like crispy-ness, while my dinosau…I mean pork chop with roasted figs and vinegar was rich and tasty. But as is often the case with me, the Donuts were the highlight.

Morandi actually has two Donuts on the menu – the bomboloni (Italian sugar Donuts), which I didn’t try because they’re only available at breakfast – and the ricotta fritters with cinnamon and sugar, which I ate lots of. They were kind of cube shaped – or actually more like that big die in Scattergories – and had a thin, super-crisp outer layer covered in mounds of cinnamon-sugar. Deeper down was soft and creamy ricotta-tinged dough interspersed with crunch thanks to the secret ingredient – don’t even try and guess: PINE NUTS! Really a great touch giving a bit of texture and a slight nutty aftertaste to cut the sugar. And much like a Beignet, the whole thing was completely hollow and weighed almost nothing.

As I was sneaking a fritter picture the overly attentive Italian waiter – who I’m pretty sure thought Mrs. B was Julia Stiles – came running over and joked, “You trying to steal our secrets, ehhh?!!!” Embarrassed to admit I was yet another NYC food blogger snapping pics for my stupid Donut blog I said, “No no no. They’re just so good I want to remember them, you know?” Which they were, so it wasn’t even like I was lying.

Morandi
211 Waverly Place
New York, NY
212-627-7575

Top photo courtesy of NYMag

Some of you may remember last year around this time Mrs. B and I were in Portland getting our vows renewed at Voodoo. Doughnut maker and ordained minister Tres Shannon re-hitched us beneath a velvet portrait of Isaac Hayes, threw lots of Fruit Loops in the air (Get it? Like small Doughnuts!) and presented us with a customized buttermilk Doughnut-representation of our cat Dominic. We felt worst about eating his head. But along with all the weird, perverted and twisted Donutage we consumed at Voodoo – highlights of which included Tang, bacon, powdered iced tea, Captain Crunch, and Cocoa Puffs - we also went home with a monstrous Tex-ass glazed. We brought it back to Brooklyn and froze it wedding-cake style until our second anniversary, which was yesterday. So last night we ceremoniously pulled the thing from the freezer and thawed it. Mrs. B said it looked like a diseased brain. We dug in to its soggy, stale-glaze saturated, freezer burned dough and somehow made it through two whole bites. We washed it down with a fine champagne.

Mrs. B holding original smooth normal Doughnut.

2nd Anniversary Brain Doughnut.

After Big Sur – which is hands-down the coolest place on earth – Mrs. B and I headed to Sonoma. The only Donut shop we found was closed but we did glug lots of wine and enjoy a super-good three-course breakfast at the Gaige House. Then it was on to San Francisco. On the way I convinced Mrs. B to drive an hour out of our way to stop in Petaluma at the Lagunitis Brewery, which I’d envisioned a serene Northern Californian brewing utopia filled with glassy eyed environmentalists sipping artisanal IPAs and talking about hops. Instead I found a keg-filled garage in a drab office park behind some company that publishes dental books. But it doesn’t really matter since they still make some of the best US beer around. To make up for my blundered side-trip we stopped in See’s Candy and Mrs. B spent the next hour carefully customizing a 45 pound box of chocolates.

Finally we made it to SF where the last leg of our California Donut Tour could begin. I really had only one pre-planned Donut destination in mind – Bob’s Donuts.

Bob’s is in a rickety section of Nob Hill and is pretty much the only Donut shop in the Bay area with a major following. It’s a simple, understated space with a handful of tables and the customary Formica counter-swivel stool combo. We talked with the cashier for a bit about her favorite Donuts as a steady stream of Vietnam vet-looking dudes cycled in and out to get their morning coffee. Just like in LA, it seemed like raised was the way to go. I don’t know what it is about California, but whether north or south the raised Donuts just taste better in general. They’re fatter than back east and tend to have a more complex yeasty flavor.

Bob’s

Crumb on Top of Plain Glazed

After Randy’s, the plain glazed at Bob’s was my favorite of the trip. It was plump and light and had sort of an indescribable freshness to it. And like most Donuts west of KK territory it wasn’t too sweet thanks to minimal glaze. The jelly filled and crumb had a similar fresh quality to them and were accented with tart raspberry filling and a generous coating of lumpy bread-like crumble with lots of sugar but no cinnamon flavor (a common finding out west), respectively. The maple cake was decent but any appreciation was lost in my revel for the first three Donuts.

Plain Glazed

Maple Cake

Later that day we hit the mission for some INSANE carne asada and carnitas tacos at Pancho Villa and a cup of black at Ritual Roasters (who C & E had informed us was the best coffee in SF). At this point I was so full I was almost disappointed when I noticed the tray of Donuts beneath the glass counter because I knew I had to eat them. Blognut doesn’t pass up Donuts under any circumstances you know? So I came to my senses and found room for a Butterfinger and coconut frosted. Then things started to suck: They were vegan!

Vegan Buttefinger

Vegan Coconut

I don’t know what your opinion is on vegan baked goods, but pretty much everything I’ve tried has tasted either like an oily wad of lead or one of those super-absorbent towels that expands when it gets wet. And these were no different. So much so that even chunks of delicious Butterfinger and loads of coconut shavings couldn’t salvage these dense/chewy/dry rings. But the coffee at RR was killer! I think we had the Guatemalan.

Now I should mention that I forgot to taste Voodoo’s vegan Donuts last year in Portland which I hear are pretty good. So there might be exceptions.

Chinese Donut!

Next we hit Chinatown where I landed this Chinese Donut at a Chinese Bakery. It was crispy fried on the outside but really chewy underneath and filled with a red bean paste (a common Chinese Donut filling). The sesame seed coating gave it a nice grainy flavor and altogether it tasted like a fried, Chinese food-y hamburger bun with a sweet, bean-y aftertaste. If that makes sense.

This is getting exhaustive…I think I have to wrap up. So really quick, the next day we stopped by the Ferry Building Marketplace where the fresh west coast produce puts our eastern Jersey-born veggies to shame. We split a Nutella-filled Bombolone which was soft, lightly fried and filled with creamy hazelnutty/chocolatey/Euro flavor. I washed it down with a plump Pacific oyster on the half-shell which Mrs. B said was a disgusting flavor to pair with a Donut. But I don’t know, the salty ocean brine chased the sweetness pretty well.

Bombolone at Ferry Marketplace

We spent our last SF afternoon milling around the Haight. We drank lots of wine in Golden Gate Park, spent entirely too much drunken money at Amoebas, turned down nugs at least 39 times, and ate two mediocre-to-OK Donuts at Happy Donuts. And that was it for California Donuts.

Lagunitas Brewing Company
1280 North McDowell Boulevard
Petaluma, CA 94954

Bob’s Donut & Pastry Shop
1621 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA 94109

Ritual Roasters
1026 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

Preferiti Do Boriana
Ferry Building Marketplace
Marketplace Shop #33
San Francisco, California 94111

Happy Doughnuts
1794 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA 94117

Donut With Big Sur

Donut With Yurt

We’ve finally reached the finale of Blognut’s first LA Donut excursion – Randy’s Donuts. I’ve seriously been waiting to feast my eyes on Randy’s 22-foot ring for years now and standing beneath it is almost unreal. It’s like I’ve reached my final destination. Like if all the naked children on the cover of Houses of the Holy finally scaled that mountain – only better because there’s a giant Donut involved.

Randy’s itself was founded in 1952 as part of the bygone Big Donut Drive-In chain; the structural masterpiece on top was no doubt inspired by the mid-century boom in novelty architecture in which buildings looked like what they sold (giant hot dogs, coffee pots, etc) which was popular in SoCal at the time. Since then the giant Donut has become a fixture of the LA skyline as well as a verifiable pop-star. Check the resume:

Music Videos:

- “I Love LA” by Randy Newman

- “Californication” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers

- Something by Snoop Dogg (can’t remember which video, but he’s looking down from the roof)

Album art:

- Pictured on the vinyl of J Dilla’s Dilla Donuts

Television:

- Arrested Development

- Futurama

- The Simpsons

- Food Network’s Top 5: Fab Food Architecture

- History Channel’s Modern Marvels

- In the early 90s was part of the Tonight Show’s opening credits

- Some English show called BO! in the USA where an actor depicting Chris Martin from Coldplay visits Randy’s.

Movies:

- Mars Attacks (blown up by flying saucer)

- Earth Girls Are Easy

Video Games:

- Grand Theft Auto (name perversly changed to Glory Hole Donuts)

Crazy right? And a better career than most human actors can claim. Now I honestly wasn’t expecting Randy’s to have good Donuts. I thought for sure they’d serve useless blobs of bland, doughy dribble while riding on their show-biz reputation and the acclaim that comes from having a giant Donut on your back. But I’ll say it right now – of the five shops I visited in LA, Randy’s had by far the best raised Donuts. Fritelli’s were amazing but in the Donut world “gourmet” rarely wins out over simplicity. Stan’s were decent, but despite lots of interesting toppings fell short in terms of overall flavor. And the Gumbo Pot serves Beignets, which on principle are never as good as quality American Donuts.

Walk-up window

Now the one caveat here is that I wasn’t able to try a fresh Bob’s raised, which I’ve heard are pretty euphoric. And I haven’t had the chance yet to try The Donut Man, or Primo’s or The Donut Hole. So I’m sure many of you Los Angelinos with more extensive local Donut experience will take qualm with my praise for Randy’s. But in my experience I’d go so far as to put Randy’s glazed in my top 10 Donuts of all time (a list that constantly fluctuates depending on the day so don’t ask for the other nine). It’s really a perfect specimen of what I look for in a glazed. Plump but light. Perfectly fried for a firm, light brown exterior. Soft, barely-there doughy innards with a bold yeasty pop and hints of cinnamon. And coated with a thin layer of not-too-moist, not-too-dry glaze.

The perfect Glazed

Fat Glazed Side-view

And mostly thanks to the dough, the rest of Randy’s raised varieties came through as well. The Jelly Filled was deliciously fat like a softball and stuffed with tart but sweet raspberry filling, while the Chocolate Glazed was equally plus-sized and topped with a rich, creamy frosting.

Chocolate Glazed

The cakes were solid too, but not as impressive as the yeasty rings. The Wheat and Honey was rich, super moist and cakey and like the raised glazed had a subtle coat of glaze. The honey came through nicely and the wheat made me feel healthy. The plain cake was the same deal without the glaze and had I bought coffee would’ve been the perfect dunker. But it was like 90 degrees out so no dunking went down. Lastly, the Devil’s food was made of rich, only slightly sweet chocolate dough and topped with the same almost coal-black frosting as the chocolate glazed.

Wheat and Honey

Devil’s Food

For a shop consisting of no more than a drive-thru window, a walk-up counter and an enormous non-functional plaster Donut, Randy’s somehow fries massive Donuts with massive flavor. It’s really the perfect way to end my Donut tour of LA, the undisputed Donut capital of the world. The only thing I’d do differently next time is fly into LAX instead of Bob Hope International - word on the Web is you can see Randy’s sugary megalith from the sky while landing.

Randy’s Donuts
805 W Manchester Blvd
Inglewood, CA 90301

Stay tuned for Part 5 of Blognut’s CA Donut Tour when we head to Big Sur, SF and points north.

Continued from previous post.

It was now 8:30 in the morning and I was full on Frittelli’s. Mrs. B was like, “Let’s go to the Hollywood farmer’s market. Let’s go vintage shopping. Let’s go to Robertson.” I was like, “Ok. Yeah. Let’s go to Stan’s and get more Donuts.” (Later that day we decided that Mrs. B would be in charge of planning when we got to San Francisco since we wasted all our time in LA going to Donut shops).

Stan’s Corner Donuts Shoppe (aka, Stan’s Donuts) is pretty famous. Forbes claims they have the best Donuts in the country and they’ve earned a lofty reputation as an LA staple known for fattening up locals, cops and UCLA students. One time on a plane I watched a show about Donuts on the Travel Channel featuring Stan’s. For some reason I watched it like six times so when we walked in the shop I recognized owner Stan Berman right away. He was lurking in a closet, periodically peaking around the door and muttering something about a new kind of Windex. Seemed like a nice guy.

The shop is tiny with a deli in one corner and a Donut display in another. It’s on a clean commercial block in Westwood Village, which early this Sunday morning was nearly barren, save a few Nicole Ritchie-types in giant sunglasses. Like Frittelli’s, Stan’s pushes the limits of Donut experimentation, only without crossing over into high-concept gourmet territory. Instead the shop uses simple, down-to-earth ingredients to create decadent, inventive Donuts.

Peanut Butter Fresh Banana and Chocolate Chip

I started out with a bomb – the Peanut Butter Fresh Banana and Chocolate Chip. The banana glaze was a hair artificial but together with the almost-crumbly paste-like peanut butter filling resulted in a classic Elvis taste. It was hard to evaluate the dough with all the accessories but it seemed soft and simple and a perfect vehicle for the mix of bold flavors it supported. For those who’ve enjoyed the pleasures of Voodoo, think Memphis Mafia. The Reeses Peanut Butter Pocket was similar. Same yeast dough. Same peanut butter filling. But with a heavier chocolate punch thanks to lots of chips and rich frosting.

Reeses Peanut Butter Pocket

Weird But Delicious Peanut Butter Paste

Moving on, the Orange Crisp Buttermilk had that classic buttermilk Donut shape – lots ridges and chasms and a flattened circumference – but any semblance of dough was lost beneath gobs of dried glaze speckled with bright orange bits. But it worked - probably because I’m a sucker for orange-flavored baked goods. Unlike the OCB, the Banana Cake was questionable. It was bland up front with only vague hints of banana. But thanks to the frosting, a rich chocolate finish fended off disappointment.

Orange Crisp Buttermilk

Banana Cake

And lastly, the Raised Crumb. Finally a raised simple enough to appreciate the dough. It wasn’t overly complex but it had a nice yeasty flavor and a hearty-but-enjoyable chew requirement – definitely not the kind of light raised dough that melts in the mouth. My only complaint is that the crumbs were bland and bread crumby. Stan needs to hi-jack an Entenmann’s and swipe some sugary crumb flavor.

Raised Crumb With Assorted Bits of Coconut and a Red Sprinkle

Overall I was impressed with Stan’s showy-yet-simple creations. And I can’t stop thinking about that peanut butter paste. I have no idea what it is but I’m fascinated with the stuff and kind of want a barrel of it to eat straight up with a spoon. After Donuts we headed to Hollywood and spent the rest of the day signing over our bank account to the best record store in the world and treading the walk of fame.

Stan’s Corner Donut Shoppe
10948 Weyburn Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90024

Beverly Hills is filled with pretty things. Like people. And palm trees. And mansions. And at 7:30 Sunday morning – we were still on NYC time – BH looks like a deserted movie set with its well-manicured empty streets and sidewalks. It was actually nice to know as we drove past Meatloaf’s house (#79 on our starmap) that the operatic rocker was most likely inside greedily devouring greasy breakfast sausage and thinking about bats and fire and motorcylces and whatever else he’s into - you know, a much-needed bit of mess in this polished paradise. But like most of 90210, the Doughnuts at Fritelli’s Doughnuts and Coffee are perfect.

They’re perfectly round. Perfectly arranged in their glass display. And the modest application of their perfectly applied glazes allows for clean eating - by which I mean you don’t get stuff on your fingers. But most importantly, Fritelli’s Doughnuts are perfect in taste.

Now it’s easy to rail against a place like this with their Doughnut and coffee pairings, fancy Tiffany style Doughnut boxes and gourmet ingredients (Meyer lemon, Tahitian vanilla, Ceylon cinnamon). Especially when LA is full of so many great unpretentious, old-school mom-and-pops. And if I had a large enough truck I’d definitely drag Fritelli’s from its marbled home in a high-end shopping complex to much grungier confines. But despite the shop’s too-clean appearance, if I were still using the Doughnut rating scale I’d be passing out 5’s to Fritelli’s left and right. The place is like The Doughnut Plant in its artisanal inventiveness and addictive menu but without the sensation that you’ve just eaten a 15lb sugar-coated bowling ball.

Now Fritelli’s raised dough isn’t quite as texturally complex as the Plant’s, but it’s close. It’s slightly chewy, but not bagel-y, and it springs back to original form if given the chance. Their cake dough’s not as impressive, but considering Fritelli’s fare is all trans-fat-free, it’s surprisingly moist and satisfying. But really where Fritelli’s shines are its glazes and fillings.

Key Lime

Meyer Lemon

The raised Key Lime is topped with an authentically puckering glaze and loaded with smooth, equally tart filling made from the real fruit. It tastes just like the Floridian pie of the same name, but with a dose of yeasty fried-ness where the graham cracker crust should be. The Meyer lemon was nearly identical so just replace all the lime flavors I just described with freshly squeezed lemon. And the Raspberry glazed tasted like it was just plucked from a bush – sort of a fresh, wild berry flavor. Out last raised Doughnut was the Peanut Butter and Jelly which was filled with sweet and natural-tasting strawberry jelly and creamy peanut butter. And if you can imagine how awesome this would be, it tasted like a fried PB&J.

Raspberry Glazed

PB&J (kind of a gross pic I know)

And now the cake Doughnuts. The Lemon Poppy Cake was Mrs. B’s favorite of the bunch. And later that night in a flurry of wine-infused babble she claimed it might be her favorite Doughnut of all time. And it really was super-good. The cake dough tasted like moist poppy cake and the Meyer lemon glaze was dead on with its tartness.

Lemon Poppy Cake

The Vanilla Latte on the otherhand didn’t quite work. It had a solid, natural vanilla kick but the coffee-ness tasted a little too much like day-old Folger’s grinds. Although the specks of java bean in the glaze looked pretty cool.

Vanilla Latte

When it comes down to it, Fritelli’s is one of my new favorite Doughnut shops. Really the only major complaint I have – other that the Folger’s thing and the weird-swanky-shopping-complex thing - is that the restrained application of glaze, while in perfect proportion on the plump raised Doughnuts, didn’t go over as well on the cakes. The dough flavor was a little too prominent and drowned out the flavors and sugariness of the glaze. But this is really not a big deal - I’m nitpicking. All the Doughnuts were awesome.

Frittelli’s Doughnuts and Coffee
350 N. Canon Drive, #6
Beverly Hills, California 90210