Article: Chicago's Doughnut "Scene"

Thanks to Ronnie_S I noticed this blurb in Time Out Chicago about the "emerging" doughnut scene here.

http://timeoutchicago.com/restaurants-b ... hnut-scene

Of the four places mentioned, three have doughnuts one day/week. The other doesn't exist yet, but when it opens, "Doughnuts will be made in small batches, though there will be no set schedule in the beginning: the Vault will use Twitter and Facebook to alert the public when batches are ready."

I take comfort in the fact that even after the "scene" emerges, blows up, sharkjumps and crashes, I will still be able to get great donuts at numerous places on the south side and in NWI.

"Finally arrived" my ass

Don't know about a donut scene, per se, but in my own little world the donut dessert at Longman and Eagle and the donuts to order at the Depot constitute something above and beyond the usual. Then again, my usual - Oak Park Farmer's Market donuts - are pretty awesome.

Yessir, Chicago is becoming a real donut town! I enjoyed the Time Out pictures, especially the one of Bristol's donut—they jam the donut hole back in the donut's hole. In more downscale donut news, I noticed Dat Donut has a relatively new location in the Morgan Park neighborhood.





This truly excellent cake donut came from the Cottage Grove store (at approximately one-fourth the cost of City Provisions' version).

Dat Donut
"Too Good to Dunk"
1979 W 111th St (new location)
Chicago
773-298-1001

also
8249 S Cottage Grove Av
Chicago
773-723-1002

The oaxacan chocolate filled donut at Nightwood is the best donut I have had. it is rediculously good!

If I can't stroll in at 4:45 on a Monday morning and buy a doughnut, it doesn't count in my book!

At $3.50 to $4.00 per donut, bringing a dozen into the office would not be a casual decision.

The donuts at Deerfield's Bakery are pretty excellent!

While I find the donuts in the link somewhat ridiculous in price, I would like to see a donut bakery that features gourmet and unique flavors. I would pay a premium price for a donut that was special and interesting, but for a cake donut? Meh. Why anyone would do that when the classic donut is so well-represented here is a mystery.

Donut Factory in New York was worth the long-line and high-prices. I treated it the same way I treat, say, Hot Doug's - the product's generally familiar on paper, but different in execution. I'm hoping the Donut Vault offers up something comparable.

teatpuller wrote:If I can't stroll in at 4:45 on a Monday morning and buy a doughnut, it doesn't count in my book!

Yeah that is one weak "article" of donuts in Chicago.
Who the hell makes donuts one day a week? (OK, the OP farmers market - but it's only open one day a week so that doesn't count)

Vitesse98 wrote:Donut Factory in New York was worth the long-line and high-prices. I treated it the same way I treat, say, Hot Doug's - the product's generally familiar on paper, but different in execution. I'm hoping the Donut Vault offers up something comparable.

I haven't been to Donut Factory, but I did try Donut Plant last week. Of the four donuts I tried, the only really fantastic one was a small, creme brulee donut - filled with vanilla custard, covered with glaze that was then burned to a crisp shell. Funny thing, as it wasn't a donut I had ordered (they put the wrong filled donut in my bag).

The other donuts I had (orange-glazed yeast, raspberry filled, and... something else) were all quite weak. The actual doughnut was chewy/tough - not an attribute I look for in a yeast doughnut.

I'd love to see Old Fashioned Donuts offer more interesting flavors, or use higher quality ingredients (really good jam/jelly), but given the choice, I'll take OFD's current lineup over poorly-executed, high-concept donuts.

-Dan

Oops, I meant Donut Plant. Plant, factory, kraftwerk ...

Wow, really, $3.50 for a donut? My donut business is done at Dinkel's. For 1/3 the cost you can grab some of the best donuts around.

I tried the Doughnut Vault today. A co-worker passed by, saw a line outside, and decided to wait and pick up some samples. There are no pictures, since we devoured the half dozen before we thought of taking them. A half dozen is the most one person can buy, since they make em in small batches and want to spread the love.

We tried:

Old Fashioned Buttermilk: Was my favorite type in college (from eek, Dunkin Donuts). Definitely a good dense cake donut style. Not amazing, but solid.

Gingerbread Stack: Actually 3 small donuts. A lighter cake donut with a cinnamon sugar dusting. I liked the flavor of the spices in the cake, and the freshness really showed through.

Chocolate Glazed: The glazed donuts here had an amazing texture, and were the best of the bunch in my opinion. They were $3.00 a piece, but absolutely huge, the size of 2 donuts really. We cut them into 4ths. The chocolate was perfect, not too sweet or too hard/soft. They were less fluffy than Krispy Kreme, but way less dense than a cake donut. A nice chewy consistency.

Chestnut Glazed: Same donut as the other glazed, but with a maple/chestnut frosting. Delicious, although the chestnut was pretty subtle.

Just tried going to Doughnut Vault today, and they were sold out and closed by noon.

They probably just got too tired to make more. Making donuts is very strenuous.

teatpuller wrote:They probably just got too tired to make more. Making donuts is very strenuous.

What ever happened to the Donut Work Ethic?

snap203 wrote:Just tried going to Doughnut Vault today, and they were sold out and closed by noon.

Seems like this all could have easily been avoided with a few obvious measures:

1. Six months before you want a doughnut, you register on the website and sign up for the email list.

2. Within a certain, usually finite, period of time, you will receive a login and password that you can use to purchase a ticket.

3. After you have ten tickets, you can exchange them for a gold token.

4. Gold tokens can be exchanged for power-ups. Twenty tokens allow you one chance to bid for a doughnut.

5. If you decide to bid for doughnuts and you are not successful, go back to Step 1. Remember, more tokens = more chances!

6. Otherwise, congratulations! Please select your doughnut. Payment is due at this time.

7. Payment is nonrefundable and selections are not guaranteed.

8. Thanks for making your selection! Your doughnut will be made and set aside for you at this time.

9. Two months before coming to collect your doughnut, you will be sent a courtesy email reminder. Please respond within 15 minutes or else your reservation will be forfeit.

10. One day before coming to collect your doughnut, please shave off both of your eyebrows. No, it doesn't have anything to do with anything, but just do it. Look, do you want the doughnut or not? It's sitting on the edge of the counter where it could easily fall into the trash. Do you want it or not??? Then DO IT! That's it... and now the other one. See, was that so hard? Asshole.

11. On the day of your appointment, please arrive on time with two references and the results of a current physical.

12. Sorry, we sold out and had to close at noon.

Perhaps they had a plumbing problem...

Kuppie's Bakery - Villa Park

Somebody just brought some donuts into the office. Really good. Right up there with Dunk Donuts as best I've had in the area. They have croissants covered in chocolate frosting! Awesome.

No website, but here's the Yelp page:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/kuppies-bakery-villa-park

Can the mods establish a policy whereby Cilantro has to post something in every thread every day? As brilliant as your above donut thing was, Cilantro, the comment in the Hackneys/closing/coming/going thread was, well, the reason I made this request of the mods.

cilantro wrote:

snap203 wrote:Just tried going to Doughnut Vault today, and they were sold out and closed by noon.

Seems like this all could have easily been avoided with a few obvious measures:

1. Six months before you want a doughnut, you register on the website and sign up for the email list.

2. Within a certain, usually finite, period of time, you will receive a login and password that you can use to purchase a ticket.

3. After you have ten tickets, you can exchange them for a gold token.

4. Gold tokens can be exchanged for power-ups. Twenty tokens allow you one chance to bid for a doughnut.

5. If you decide to bid for doughnuts and you are not successful, go back to Step 1. Remember, more tokens = more chances!

6. Otherwise, congratulations! Please select your doughnut. Payment is due at this time.

7. Payment is nonrefundable and selections are not guaranteed.

8. Thanks for making your selection! Your doughnut will be made and set aside for you at this time.

9. Two months before coming to collect your doughnut, you will be sent a courtesy email reminder. Please respond within 15 minutes or else your reservation will be forfeit.

10. One day before coming to collect your doughnut, please shave off both of your eyebrows. No, it doesn't have anything to do with anything, but just do it. Look, do you want the doughnut or not? It's sitting on the edge of the counter where it could easily fall into the trash. Do you want it or not??? Then DO IT! That's it... and now the other one. See, was that so hard? Asshole.

11. On the day of your appointment, please arrive on time with two references and the results of a current physical.

12. Sorry, we sold out and had to close at noon.

This is too long for the masthead. Please condense.

I tried the Doughnut Vault this morning for the first time and felt like a complete moron standing in line for an hour to pay $20 for a box of six doughnuts ($3.00 a piece) and two coffees. Yes, the doughnuts were excellent, particularly the Gingerbread Stack, which may have been the best cake doughnut I've ever had. The Chocolate and Chestnut Glazed were both really good too. Even though I was maybe the 50th person in line when they opened, they sold out of the $2.00 Old-fashioned Buttermilk just as I made my way in out of the cold.

Were they fantastic? Absolutely. But c'mon, its a Doughnut for Chrissakes! I remember the frenzy that surrounded the opening of the first Krispy Kreme's in the area which, in retrospect, was completely insane and misplaced. I appreciate the small batch, high quality concept, and I think its a great addition to the River North area, but I have a job I need to get back to. If I were independently wealthy and didn't need to be anywhere for the better part of my morning, I'd go everyday, or better yet hire someone to go for me. In the real world though, where I have places to go and people to see, the concept isn't feasible for me.

If I'm in the area and there's a small line, I'm in. Otherwise, I'm adding this to my "Food-related things to never do again" list, right next to "Stand in line for 45 minutes at Hot Doug's for a hot dog" and "wait an hour and a half to order a burger at Kuma's." All terrific places, jewels of our City even, but jeez, life's too short.

My sentiments exactly.

Doughnut Vault sells probably the best doughnuts I've ever had (barring one apple fritter), but even though it's a block away from the office, I don't see myself going back in the 90-minute window from opening to selling out. The sad fact is that the demand for high-quality doughnuts far outweighs the supply in Chicago, so pretty much any place with a decent offering (read: not Dunkin) is going to make a killing. So, anyone for a cupcake?

I'm tempted to pick up a few boxes from Wolf's/Old Fashioned/Dat Donut and, with their benisons, re-sell them to the people waiting in line at Doughnut Vault

I look forward to the time when we no longer look to Homer Simpson for the next big food trend.

Mhays wrote:I look forward to the time when we no longer look to Homer Simpson for the next big food trend.

I'm still waiting for lobster stuffed with tacos to make it big.

Yes, I know Moe ordered it.

Fujisan wrote:

Mhays wrote:I look forward to the time when we no longer look to Homer Simpson for the next big food trend.

I'm still waiting for lobster stuffed with tacos to make it big.

Yes, I know Moe ordered it.

I was once served lobster stuffed with tacos in a Hyde Park restaurant...oh, the unbelievable power of being a University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt judge.

ETA: 2003, item 159.

The portion was ample.

Considering that people actually make spaghetti tacos, I can't believe there isn't a restaurant chain devoted to it.

Excuse me while I go post that on the totally unnecessary thread.