Monuts Donuts
Americano
Apple Cider
Red Velvet
Coconut Dream
Chocolate Sea Salt
Lemon Pistachio
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie
Buttermilk Biscuit with Jam
Again waking early, with lots of ground to cover, it was back to Durham that we traveled and as the expected storm from the night prior had fizzled with businesses now back in full swing the first stop of the day was at recently relocated Monuts, a hip donut and bagel spot located on 9th Street already hopping as college students and kids off for a ‘snowday’ gathered around the bar of the sparsely decorated space.
Previously confined to a much smaller location in downtown Durham, but apparently gathering steam with recent national acclaim bestowed on the work of owners Robert Gillespie and Lindsay Moriarty by a number of online ‘lists,’ it was just after 8am that we traversed the hardwood floor en route to the counter and far larger than it appears from the outside it was after a short wait in line that tough choices were made, a sizable order totaling five donuts and a cookie while biscuits were baked fresh by the kitchen in back.
Priced at $1-$2, with the menu unveiled each morning by social media as nothing but the “Plain Glazed” is offered every day, it was in both yeasted as well cake options that the donut tasting was comprised and although the first taste of an Cider donut coated in cinnamon sugar proved dry and nearly devoid of apple flavor the quality of subsequent bites improved dramatically, the yeasted Lemon Pistachio and Coconut Dream Cake competing for top billing as neither was excessively sweet – the focus more on natural flavors with the latter tasting much like buttermilk strewn chess pie featured at Allen & Son, and all the better for it.
Largely underwhelmed by the cookie, as chocolate chips proved far too sweet amidst already sugary dough, it was with a smooth Americano in hand that the biscuit finally arrived and although not quite as fluffy as those found at Rise, Sunrise, or Beasley’s the golden brown squares still proved admirable – the addition of strawberry preserves and locally churned butter gilding the proverbial lily and well worth the fifty-cent charge.
http://www.monutsdonuts.com/
