Pink Box Doughnuts
Blueberry Cake, Cherry Cake, Sweet Potato Cake, Maple Bacon, Cookies n’ Cream, Campfire Smores, Apple Fritter, Fat Elvis, Strawberry Shortcake, Salted Caramel Twist, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Date with a Nutty Pig
Happy to see the cupcake fad come and go yet still sustain with some of the better places I have to admit that even as a child I’d always take a doughnut over a cupcake, pie, or cookie…I mean honestly, is there anything more American than deep fried dough? Taking this fact into account and having been to many of the nation’s best doughnutteries I was surprised when I heard about an artisan doughnut shop in Las Vegas called Pink Box, quickly doing my research and sending an e-mail to the shop in order to reserve a dozen for a meeting with some friends. Answered promptly by a man named Rodney who I would also meet me at the store after an elderly greeter said hello and opened the door for my entry I was happy to find my order all boxed up and ready to go, particularly with a price tag less than 1/2 of what one would spend at Doughnut Plant, Dynamo, Voodoo, or Top Pot. Chatting with the staff for a bit before making my way to the car and to my awaiting friends it was our mutual agreement that not only did the doughnuts benefit from being very fresh but also that while some places do one ‘style’ better than the others Pink Box actually does a very admirable job with cake and raised, filled and fritter alike. With classics like the blueberry cake crisp and minimally oily juxtaposing a truly inspired sweet potato cake doughnut that resembled the namesake pie in flavor my friends were most taken by the Peanut Butter/Banana Fat Elvis and the Campfire S’mores while I was personally wowed by the Nutty Pig – a yeasty bavarian with maple icing, dates, bacon, almond, and blue cheese – as well as the crispy salted caramel twist, the texture somewhat akin to a cruller meets a buttery pretzel thick with sticky caramel visibly flecked with coarse sea salt.
