kl1191 wrote:

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.

But the reverse, tacos stuffed with lobster, doesn't sound so bad to me.

Reluctantly waited in line at the Vault yesterday per my wife's request. Parked right in front and waited in the car as long as I could due to the miserable weather.



Bought the following:
1 Ginger Stack (3 small doughnuts)
2 Old Fashioned
1 Chestnut
1 Chocolate
1 Vanilla
1 Coffee



The coffee was terrible and it was very thin & harsh tasting. Perhaps the batch was brewed too quick in anticipation of opening due to the long line. I had the Ginger, Old Fashioned and Vanilla. Loved the Ginger and actually thought there may have been a little "heat" from the spices. Old Fashioned was good but the Vanilla was fantastic. Wife said the Chestnut was "eh" and like the Vanilla better. We gave away our remaining selections to friends and are waiting to hear their verdicts.

Doing some on-the-ground research about both Daley & Chase Plazas this morning, I found myself hiking up and down Clark Street at a pretty brisk pace. And then I saw the Rise & Roll Amish Market across from Chase Plaza with a blinking (and not so Amish) OPEN sign. This is the same family/crew/coop that sells butter, cheese and lots of sweets at the Daley Plaza Farmer's Market. I ducked in and bought some peanut butter granola bars and one "Yeasted Doughnut" topped with a thin chocolate glaze. It cost me $1.49. I purchased it at about 9:45 am and shoved the clamshell (also not so Amish to me, whatever that means in terms of packaging-- my problem) in my backpack, with the very noble intention of giving it to my sons as a treat after supper. There it resided all day and I am sad to admit, all evening long, being bounced and banged around until about 15 minutes ago. The glaze had mostly been smacked off the top, it looked pretty worse for the wear. My kids are fast asleep. So I did what one must do to a tired doughnut that hasn't been treated with much respect. I ate it.

And it was divine. Yeasty, light, not too yicky sweet. Enough chocolate to round it out but it didn't cake it all up or overpower it. It was the doughnut I used to get at the little bakery growing up. Just a little more beat up. Keep in mind, this doughnut had to be made on Wednesday if it made it all the way to downtown Chicago from the Shipshewana area. So I was eating a day old totally abused doughnut. Next time, I will take a non-throttled doughnut across the street to the east end of the Chase Plaza and eat it while gazing at the gorgeous mosaic by Marc Chagall filled with amazing creatures and colors. That's my idea of heaven and how to respect a properly made yeasted doughnut!

They sell doughnut holes too, in what appear to be powdered sugar flavor-by the dozen. No secret code or twitter feed required. And apple fritters and pie. And pickles and bacon. And football sized loaves of sweet butter.

bjt

Rise and Roll Amish Market
42 S. Clark St.
Chicago

One of my work colleagues brought in some kind of tasty bready pastry (honestly I'm not sure what) from the Rise N Roll and it was delicious.

FWIW, the business I run with Hellodali, Fork and the Road, will be offering a one-time international doughnut tour as part of Time Out's biking issue scheduled for early June. The tour will celebrate delicious fried goodies that existed in Chicago long before the arrival of the "scene." No Doughnut Vault. I'll post tour details on the Events board when the issue is published, or just look for us in the magazine.

If Dat Doughnut's on the ride, I am on it!

Dig this - they have a website. And AMISH NOODLES! You have no idea how happy you've made me. Thanks, bjt!

Oh yeah, thick, eggy totally slow-food (25 minutes to cook) Amish noodles are worth the wait. And when you slather them with a bunch of creamy Amish butter, it all makes sense.

bjt

teatpuller wrote: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

Does anyone else have any info about this place? I've been going to Mike's for years and didn't realize that there might be a potential gem right there.

Thanks,

john

We had to visit Mike's Market yesterday for some grilling food so we stopped by Kuppie's for a little after lunch dessert. At 2pm, I'm sure much of the stuff was gone but, they still had a good number of donuts, inc. the twist donut with Chocolate for my wife and the chocolate covered custard filled donut, which I had. I'm certainly not a donut expert, but even at 2pm, they had a nice flavor and a good consistency. We enjoyed them quite a bit.

That all being said, I can certainly see where the one guy, who owns the one negative review I could find (twas on UrbanSpoon), was coming from about the place not being the cleanest and the workers not wearing the most appropriate clothing. They could use some improvement in this area.

For $1.92 - for BOTH donuts - though I would rate it a 4 out of 5.

John

I'm still waiting for that ultra-creative doughnut spot to open up in Chicago. In the meantime, I just discovered the doughnuts at Swedish Bakery. I was especially impressed with their caramel glazed cake doughnut, which was really fantastic. The cake doughnut itself was about as good a cake doughnut I've ever tasted - still warm, not dry, not too dense . . . perfect really.

Suzy Creamcheese wrote: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.

Max wrote: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.

On weekends (I guess I've only seen them Saturdays, now that I think about it), Dinkel's carries a possibly gourmet, fairly unique, though certainly not original flavor: maple bacon.



Granted I haven't tried any other versions in the area, but I have a guess this one beats them all. I know the bacon thing can get a little played out, but these make so much sense. So delicious. I really like that it has big crumbles of bacon, instead of the full strips, and just a glaze, instead of a thicker frosting. $2.09, limited quantities--they sell out early in my experience. Not sure if it is an every weekend deal or just happens sporadically. I kind of like not knowing so that if they are there, I feel like I've won the Saturday morning lottery.

skess wrote:On weekends (I guess I've only seen them Saturdays, now that I think about it), Dinkel's carries a possibly gourmet, fairly unique, though certainly not original flavor: maple bacon...
Granted I haven't tried any other, but I have a guess this one beats them all. I know the bacon thing can get a little played out, but these make so much sense. So delicious.

I saw these when I was there the day before Easter. Was tempted, but demurred.

Not two weeks before that (but for the life of me now I can't remember where) I read a little story about these, and the current-generation Dinkel who is making them. He seemed somewhat bemused, as in, "Someone suggested I make these, and I have to charge $2 for them because of the ingredients, but beats me why anybody would pay $2 for a donut! Well, people are, so I'm making them."

Swedish Bakery's Cake Doughnuts with Caramel Icing are our very most favorite! Magic simple good, cakey and sweet but not too sweet. Note that they are not available on Tuesdays and Thursdays as those are the days when the gentleman who makes the doughnuts for Swedish Bakery is off the days before. I love that detail. It comes down to the guy. I bet he has to there crazy early to get the doughnuts going.


bjt

riddlemay wrote:Not two weeks before that (but for the life of me now I can't remember where) I read a little story about these, and the current-generation Dinkel who is making them. He seemed somewhat bemused, as in, "Someone suggested I make these, and I have to charge $2 for them because of the ingredients, but beats me why anybody would pay $2 for a donut! Well, people are, so I'm making them."

My stomach is very grateful for supply and demand.

bjt wrote:They sell doughnut holes too, in what appear to be powdered sugar flavor-by the dozen. No secret code or twitter feed required. And apple fritters and pie. And pickles and bacon. And football sized loaves of sweet butter.

bjt

Rise and Roll Amish Market
42 S. Clark St.
Chicago

Their donut holes are like crack and potato chips, you are addicted after the first try and you can't just eat one!
Really try to just eat one, I dare you.
I can vouch for the fritters and the chocolate covered stuff, plus there is no lines to speak of. Just go!

I finally tried Doughnut Vault and thankfully didn't wait in the 90 minute line as the CEO of my company did it for me and brought back a dozen variety of doughnuts. I got to say...overrated. The doughnuts are $3 because they are huge. Their glazed doughnut is about the size of my face, but texture-wise, misses the mark. Glazed doughnuts are supposed to soft, fluffy, and particularly when they're fresh, they stay squished when your nose pushes it down after you take a huge bite. I found the glazed doughnuts to be very bready, almost like a sweet bun. Their cakey doughnuts fared better. I got the swishy/crunchy sound when I chewed on it, but the outside should be a little harder than the inside. It was kind of mushy.

My co-worker highly recommended Dinkel's as an alternative to the cake doughnut at Doughnut Vault. Much better texture with the crispier outside. Flavor wise, probably on-par with Doughnut Vault. I'm not a huge fan of cake doughnuts, I'm guessing cider mills do this type best. Dinkel's also had a maple doughnut with bacon sprinkled on top. Liked the idea a lot, didn't deliver on execution. Bacon was dry, salty, and of supermarket quality while the maple was way too sweet. Not a very balanced blend of salty and sweet.

I'm going to stick with the south side variety of glazed doughnuts. Also liked the versions by the Dunkin Donut wannabe shops like Spunky Dunkers or Munster Donuts.

I have not made it down to the Doughnut Vault yet, despite plenty of opportunities; mostly, I think, because I am so annoyed at the artificial scarcity they have created. I respect restaurateurs who moderate their hours in search of a good work-life balance, but for some reason with the Doughnut Vault it just strikes me as a gimmick.

I am curious about the gingerbread stack, though.

I tried The Doughnut Vault today and thought the doughnuts were SOOOOOOO good! I got in line at 10am and walked out with my purchase at 11:30am. They have 6 flavors available on Saturdays (5 regular flavors + 1 special flavor). The Ginger Stack sold out around 10:45am and the Glazed Vanilla sold out around 11:15am. I snagged the last Toasted Pistachio (today's special). My friend got the last Glazed Chestnut. There were only Glazed Chocolate and Old Fashioned Buttermilk (and not many) for those behind us. The Old Fashioned Buttermilk and Glazed Chestnut were my favorites, but I would eat any of them again. The Glazed Chocolate is reallyyy rich and sweet. It was smart of them not to enrobe the entire doughnut with the chocolate glaze. I had read these doughnuts were big, but I underestimated their size. The glazed doughnuts are massive! 1.5 hours seems like a long time to wait for doughnuts, but the time passed quicker than I realized. People wait 90 minutes to ride a roller coaster at Six Flags Great America. I can wait for doughnuts if they're this awesome. Bring a friend to keep you company, or chat it up with the others in line


Doughnuts.


Old Fashioned Buttermilk.


Glazed chestnut.


Glazed chocolate.


Toasted pistachio.

I managed to have some day old but plastic-wrapped Doughnut Vault offerings recently, and thought them perfectly fine. That is, until I finally found an excuse to stop at the Dat Donut on 111th. I picked up two dozen of various sorts--cake donuts, all of them--and brought them into work. I only managed to score a plain cake donut myself, but it was well executed and looked just like Rene G's picture. Co-workers enjoyed the others a great deal, and at about 17 bucks for two dozen, a really fine price. Varieties included chocolate frosted, chocolate cake with glazed frosting, maple, coconut, toasted coconut, blueberry, and a few others. I passed on the lighter, Dunkin varieties as being boring. I refrained from ordering an apple fritter, as I try not to eat things that are bigger than my head. I was tempted to break that rule....

happy_stomach wrote:FWIW, the business I run with Hellodali, Fork and the Road, will be offering a one-time international doughnut tour as part of Time Out's biking issue scheduled for early June.

Sorry, bjt, no Dat Donuts on this ride, but we'll be eating a few excellent ones.

http://timeoutchicago.com/arts-culture/ ... -doughnuts

Also, Time Out editor Laura Baginski will be talking about what it's like to eat doughnuts with me (and other bike adventures) on Windy City Live this morning.

http://windycitylive.com/index

I happened to be downtown today, so I passed by the Doughnut Vault in hopes of scoring a few - there was only one person in line, so I figured it was worth a try. They were out of the old fashioned, but I got one each of the vanilla, chocolate, chestnut, and gingerbread stack. Out of all of them I liked the vanilla best; the frosting tasted of real butter instead of chemicals a la Dunkin. The chocolate frosting had good flavor, but I find their application disappointing: a ribbon over the top of vanilla frosting. The gingerbread stack warranted only a nibble, they were less "ginger" and more "cinnamon sugar," which would have been fine if that's what I had been expecting.

All in all, pretty good, not worth waiting for.

A coworker brought one back for me this morning. The Chestnut one... I am beginning to think that the Vault is losing some of the novelty factor. The fact that they now sell out around lunchtime and the lack of long lines seem to support that theory. The doughnut was ok. It was good, but I would not wait in line or go out of my way for it. An apple fritter from Old Fashioned on the other hand totally merits the long drive down there and back!

CrazyC wrote:I am beginning to think that the Vault is losing some of the novelty factor. The fact that they now sell out around lunchtime and the lack of long lines seem to support that theory.

Let me know when the novelty wears off a little more. I'm dying to try their doughnuts, but I'm not going to wait in line for them...at least not more than 5 minutes or so.

stevez wrote:

CrazyC wrote:I am beginning to think that the Vault is losing some of the novelty factor. The fact that they now sell out around lunchtime and the lack of long lines seem to support that theory.

Let me know when the novelty wears off a little more. I'm dying to try their doughnuts, but I'm not going to wait in line for them...at least not more than 5 minutes or so.

Ditto. I've waited 10 mins or so at Old Fashioned, for their Apple Fritter (because they were out of it, and a fresh-out-of-fryer one would be ready in 10 mins)... that was totally worth it, because it was one of the greatest things ever, and I snagged a few extra for later too.

But having had donuts and fritters of high-quality from Old Fashioned (and even Abundance Bakery), Id never wait in line for these Vault things myself... nor would I really want to pay 3 bucks for them (the fantastic Apple Fritter thats bigger than your head costs only 2.50 at Old Fashioned.. their awesome donuts are 6 for 5 bucks IIRC). But if the novelty has really worn off and there is no line at Vault anymore, I'll stop in and try one - just to see what all the hype was about..

c8w

Though I'm loathe to admit it, I was disappointed on one visit to find that Old Fashioned Donuts was completely out of fritters. I sat there, waiting, until a fresh batch could be made. Yes... including standing at the window, watching the fritters proof in the big proofing box. Totally worth it.

-Dan

dansch wrote:Though I'm loathe to admit it, I was disappointed on one visit to find that Old Fashioned Donuts was completely out of fritters. I sat there, waiting, until a fresh batch could be made. Yes... including standing at the window, watching the fritters proof in the big proofing box. Totally worth it.

-Dan

In the future, call in advance and they'll reserve them. I always call the day before my visit.

dansch wrote:Though I'm loathe to admit it, I was disappointed on one visit to find that Old Fashioned Donuts was completely out of fritters. I sat there, waiting, until a fresh batch could be made. Yes... including standing at the window, watching the fritters proof in the big proofing box. Totally worth it.

-Dan

I don't have any more problem waiting for fresh fritters to come out of the grease at Old Fashioned* than I do waiting for my fries to get brown and crispy at Edzo's. I wouldn't have a problem waiting at the Vault under those circumstances, either. It's waiting in a 60 minute line to order an overpriced donut that's already sitting in a display case that I find out of the question.

* I now call ahead with my fritter order and rarely have to wait, unless traffic on the Kennedy and the Ryan is abnormally light.

BR wrote:In the future, call in advance and they'll reserve them. I always call the day before my visit.

Good call - I didn't know that was an option.

stevez wrote:It's waiting in a 60 minute line to order an overpriced donut that's already sitting in a display case that I find out of the question.

Agreed.

As long as we're exchanging OFD tips, I usually make a one-two punch with a fritter and some fish from Calumet Fisheries. I recently stumbled on Calumet State Park, which is an awesome place to hop off your bicycle (or park your car), sit by the lake, and nosh on fish and donuts. Check out the 1-2-3 map

-Dan

dansch wrote:As long as we're exchanging OFD tips, I usually make a one-two punch with a fritter and some fish from Calumet Fisheries. I recently stumbled on Calumet State Park, which is an awesome place to hop off your bicycle (or park your car), sit by the lake, and nosh on fish and donuts. Check out the 1-2-3 map

-Dan

That's a good tip. I rarely make it past eating my "catch" on the 95th Street Bridge next to Calumet (a really great view down the river), but I'll have to check out the park next time.