The Gist: http://www.goglazed.com/
The Why: It is a Scott Harris spot. It sells unique donuts. They serve Intelligentsia Coffee. It is next door to Publican Quality Meats.
The Service/Setting: Aside from having to walk down a flight of stairs and almost through the kitchen (actually, that part is kind of cool as the bakers are working diligently in a spotless kitchen making dough from scratch while jamming to the White Stripes) to get to the restroom there isn’t much to quibble about at Glazed and Infused – the service is great, the seating is comfortable and plentiful (try that at Doughnut Vault or Do-Rite,) and they have free Wi-Fi.
The food and drink: 1 Coffee, 2 Samples, and 6+1 Donuts. $19 total if my memory serves me.
German Chocolate and Salted Caramel Peanut Samples: Yeah, they freshly cut up samples while you’re there – warm, straight from the racks. For some, this might be a selling point for a particular special, but for me it was a way to try more and buy different ones…though both were good as the Cracker Jack tasting Caramel Peanut was intensely salty and more subdued in sweetness while the German Chocolate almost swayed me to buy a whole one as the cake was dense and moist, the topping impressively rich.
Pumpkin Bull’s-eye with Pumpkin Cream filling: Raised and topped with sweet frosting this yeasty creation was a daily special and with only two left we snagged one – the donut itself good, the filling intensely creamy and loaded with flavor…a veritable liquid cheesecake.
Oatmeal Raisin: Take the cookie, add raisins, craisins, granola, and deep fry it – that is exactly what this tastes like and if you love Oatmeal Raisin cookies this should be on your list. I actually went back to buy this one after trying one of the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough versions because…well…
Apple Fitter, Carrot Cake, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough: Generally favoring cake donuts to those that are raised and glazed the majority of our order went that way with each selection impressive while two others held up the other end of the sampling. With the carrot cake the least impressive of the quintet largely because it was a bit too much sweet and not enough carrot (particularly compared to that at Do-Rite) the fritter was very impressive, still warm, and much more subtle than the incredible hubcap of sugar at Old Fashioned while the Chocolate Chip Cookie dough made a pitch for my favorite cake based donut of all time – a cake doughnut that tasted precisely like a warm chocolate chip cookie…the only thing better would have been having it warm…or with Ice Cream.
Maple Bacon Long John, Crème Brulee: Having already mentioned my predilection for cake doughnuts over raised or filled I’ll start off my saying these two were certainly impressive specimens for their genre, though neither rivaled the light and airy versions at Doughnut Vault (or butter bombs at Brooklyn’s Dough.) Beginning first with the Creme Brulee – a flavor I’d tried before at New York’s Doughnut Plant this custard filled creation with a crackling shell was good, but much like that in NYC the shell tasted ‘off’ – a little too caramelized and though not burnt, a bit ‘charred.’ Moving next to the Maple Bacon…a new classic seemingly ubiquitous on donut menus these days…well you’d really have to try to fail with savory pork and intense pure maple frosting and Glazed and Infused certainly didn’t fail with this enormous offering, particularly in the quality of the bacon which was clearly baked, not oily, and plenty smoky.
The Verdict: An eclectic collection of donuts with superior ingredients, great location, top notch service, Intelligentsia, free Wi-Fi, and free samples I can’t say I liked the raised options as much as Doughnut Vault but without a doubt the overall quality of the cake doughnuts is comparable to the best in the country – now, if only Scott and the Francesca’s Restaurants group could send one out to the Valley…