Donutsville
Nutella Cronut
Red Velvet Cake
Glazed Cruller
Glazed Old Fashioned
Raised Rice Krispy Treat
Apple Nut Bear Claw
Blueberry Old Fashioned
Apple Fritter
Raised Cinnamon Crumb
Blueberry Cake
Raised Oreo
Buttermilk Bar
Maple Longjohn
Drawn back by The Buckeyes to a city most memorable for how unhappy I was during my 15 months living in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, it was with high hopes for better times that dining plans were coordinated around the 2016 Battlefrog Fiesta Bowl, and making an early morning stop at Donutsville on New Year’s Day I have to say the trip from Las Vegas started off very well.
Locally owned and operated, a call to make sure they’d be open on 1/1/16 humorously answered “same time as always, this family doesn’t party much,” it was true to their word that my 6am arrival was met by a wide array of baked and fried goods – the $15.17 bill nabbing a Bakers’ Dozen including several specialties while service couldn’t have been more friendly, no hangovers to be found just smiles a pleasant environment all around.
Playing Top-40 tunes with holiday décor ranging from Nutcrackers to Darth Vader still speckled around the store it was with items boxed carefully that my order was taken to a seat, free Wi-Fi allowing me to catch up on news from New Year’s Eve while first bites of a Nutella-smeared Cronut proved as crisp and oilless as can be.
Running the gamut from raised-and-glazed or cake classics to novelties including the aformentioned cronut and cereal topped treats it was with a feathery light cruller that the tasting continued and impressed by its texture an equal degree of old-world craftsmanship was found in each yeasted ring, the cinnamon crumb and longjohn both reference standard while the Oreo cookie crumble and rice topped options were both quite delicious, the latter something not seen in all my travels with a marshmallow glaze and Snap-Crackle-Pop texture equally prone to please.
Moving next to cake based options, the buttermilk bar an unfortunate failure as it lacked any tang amidst a crumb that came across quite dry, improvement was quickly found in a duo of lumpy old-fashioned circles, the glazed standard creamy and delicious while the blueberry one-upped the standard blueberry cake in texture and taste, a strong statement as the more commonly found version was itself quite good.
Moving to the heavier options, a red velvet cake predictably tinged with cocoa but also fruity-fragrant from what seemed to be a half-blueberry base, it was in two favorites that the tasting would conclude; the Apple Fritter competent and crisp, if not a showstopper, while the Bearclaw stuffed with Fruit and Nuts was perhaps the best version sampled to date, each bite as good as the last with textural variance negating any sort of palate fatigue.
Http://donutsville.com
