LA Donuts Found! [Wheeling Donuts]

I'm a known donut fetishist. I even swoon over the nearly leaden circles offered each week at my beloved Oak Park Farmer's Market. Imagine my grand surprise when I showed up in LA on a food oriented vacation to learn that LA was not just a donut town, but a donut town.

What makes LA such a wondrous place to eat donuts is the simple fact that they are everywhere. There are a few temples of fry, stance, Primo's, but these really special places are not what makes LA the donut town. It is a donut shop seemingly on every corner. All with the same shapes and flavors and all tasting just great. How can you not like a city where whenever you need a fix of food crack, you have a dealer waiting.

In Chicago and surrounding suburbs, we have a few donuts shops, which makes nearly everyone special, but nothing approaching the vastness of LA. And it turns out that of our few donut shops, one is a LA donut shop.

A bit stressed the other day, I peaked up just by the site of the sign, "Wheeling Donuts." I entered and saw it. A slab of fried, glazed dough seen often in LA known as the buttermilk bar. I felt transported and slightly hankering for a fatburger. I awoke from my day dream to a giggling Khmer woman behind the counter. Seems her family runs some stands out there. My instantly recognizing the LA donut really cracked her up. A LA buttermilk bar made me pretty happy too.

yes, the california donut culture is a wonderful, if totally unhealthy thing. to some degree, i just do not do donuts here unless i know there is a good place, while in california i will routinely just stop in a place i see.

dicksond wrote:yes, the california donut culture is a wonderful, if totally unhealthy thing. to some degree, i just do not do donuts here unless i know there is a good place, while in california i will routinely just stop in a place i see.

I'm going to be finding myself in LA in a couple of weeks and plan on testing out this theory of a donut on every corner. Are you saying that one donut shop is a good as another, or are there some specific "don't miss" kind of places?

stevez wrote:

dicksond wrote:yes, the california donut culture is a wonderful, if totally unhealthy thing. to some degree, i just do not do donuts here unless i know there is a good place, while in california i will routinely just stop in a place i see.

I'm going to be finding myself in LA in a couple of weeks and plan on testing out this theory of a donut on every corner. Are you saying that one donut shop is a good as another, or are there some specific "don't miss" kind of places?

Both. In my sampling of all the no name corner LA shops, I never found an outlier. I never found one shop with distinct differences. They all tasted the same. Very good. Thus, based on the my data, I would be happy walking into any of these places.

Still, there are several "name" places in LA too. To a certain extent some of these are better, at least one is different too. Most of Stan's, in Westwood, look the same as any neighborhood shop, but Stan's also makes some stuff that are unique. Ultra delux donuts like his famous reeses peanut butter. Stan's are better, but it is just slightly. When I am near Stan's, I would rather go there, but I would not necessarily race across town just for Stan's (note Stan's is just down the street from the ultra-superior Falafel King).

Primo's is another name place that grabs a ton of accolades. A lot of LA chowhounds will say it is the best donut shop in LA. When I got to Primo's, they were sold out of most of their daily fare, so I cannot fairly assess the place. Primo's is on Sawtelle in West LA. The area is heavy with Japanese restaurants and it may be a great tag-team to combine Primo's with sushi.

Bob's is in the LA Farmer's Market, and their donuts do not, pretty much at all, follow the shapes and styles of other LA places. They are much more like the donuts found in Chicago. Very, very good, just not typical of the LA donut.

Randy's is famous for its stands with big donut models on the roof, but I found their donuts to be a notch below all the no name places. It is near the Airport and especially convinient to most rental car places, so you can at least get a fix when taking care of that kind of stuff.

Rob

A couple of LA standouts:

Daily Donut on Hillhurst is good. I recently was turned on to a long, chocolate glazed, whipped-cream filled specimen. That'll clog your arteries good. Reminiscent(sp?) of the brioche with panna and nutella Seth once ate in Perugia.

Also there is a little place on Washington Blvd in the minimall west of the Outdoor Grill. Good thing I moved away from there.

Just don't go to Yum-Yum.

-Mike Z

Made a stop today at Wheeling Donuts. Ordered 1/2 a dozen to try out a number of varieties.

I spoke with the owner Leslie for a bit, he mentioned he also owns a bakery in Park Ridge.
All donuts are made on premise, and Leslie was very proud to show me the back where the
fryer magic happens.

I tried:
red velvet
pumpkin
apple
apple w/cinnamon
buttermilk (in bar form)
old fashioned (made w/sour cream)

Some of the best donuts I've had in awhile. All were moist w/slight crisp on the exterior edge from frying.
I should have tried the plain cake donut but did not. Next time.

Wheeling Donuts
729-31 W Dundee Road
Wheeling IL 60090
847-419-9619

Leslie seems to be a very nice man who makes a great product.

I love that they are close, but I would drive from anywhere for their buttermilk donut.

Vital Information wrote:http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=12&hilit=wheeling+donuts

thanks Rob, thread title threw me off, so I didn't look further w/my search.

saluki9 wrote:... but I would drive from anywhere for their buttermilk donut.

I was smitten with the buttermilk, I also really enjoyed the old fashioned (less glaze & it would have been terrific)

Hi,

Louisa Chu told me about Wheeling Donuts within the last year. The impression I had from her, there was a new owner there. What Rob experienced may or may not be different than Sweet Willie's.

Regards,

I've been there in the last year and have not noticed any difference in the place that would make me re-consider what I've written before. The style of donuts, including what Willie mentions above, are still very much "LA".

Change in management at Wheeling Donuts:

Leslie, Anamite and Kylie want to say Thank you for your support over the past 16 months. Sadly, Kim Chong and her family have terminated our Management and Lease contract to operate Wheeling Donuts and our last day to serve you will be Saturday October 20th. We will miss everyone. Please come visit us at MrsACupcakes@thePickwick at 6 S.Northwest Highway in Park Ridge IL 60068 on the South side of the PICKWICK theater building. THANK YOU and do come in for one last smile.

Oh no, I was all excited to try this place!

But it sounds like they are closing permanently. What am I missing?

Cathy2 wrote:Change in management at Wheeling Donuts:

Leslie, Anamite and Kylie want to say Thank you for your support over the past 16 months. Sadly, Kim Chong and her family have terminated our Management and Lease contract to operate Wheeling Donuts and our last day to serve you will be Saturday October 20th. We will miss everyone. Please come visit us at MrsACupcakes@thePickwick at 6 S.Northwest Highway in Park Ridge IL 60068 on the South side of the PICKWICK theater building. THANK YOU and do come in for one last smile.

So is this saying just that there will be a change in management, or are they closing their doors at the Wheeling location? Too bad either way. I just discovered this place a couple of weeks ago, despite living fairly close by for 20 years. I don't like donuts that much in general, but these were pretty damned good. This would definitely be my go-to for any future donut needs, assuming the places stays in business and the quality remains.

Hi,

The impression I have the owners hired these people to run the place. I guess there will be a changing of the guard with the place remaining open. It may be a rude surprise to anyone who liked the donuts from this group when they arrive Monday to different people and perhaps differing abilities.

I happened to meet Mrs. A at a luncheon honoring Amy Besa of Memories of Phillipine Kitchens earlier this week. I hope these people from Wheeling Donuts will be happy there.

On the plus side, at least we know what happened and where they went. I wish I knew the same of the people who ran a local Chinese carryout who left quietly 14 months ago. The new managers and cooks are just not at the same level of execution.

Regards,

So I stopped into Wheeling Donuts this morning to get some treats for my mom - only my second visit since first discovering it a few weeks ago. While I was there, an Asian woman (Kim Chong, perhaps) and a guy who I'm pretty sure was the man behind the counter on my first visit, were seated at one of the tables having what seemed to be a serious business discussion. So maybe they're trying to work something out?

In the store, there was no visible sign that anything was about to change, close, etc. Perhaps there's hope after all.

It really doesn't matter. Now that Spunky Dunkers opened their second location about five minutes west of them, there's no worries.

Their apple fritters are to die for!

"A Palatine fixture, the doughnut shop has expanded to its second location at 3441 N. Arlington Heights Road, across the street from Buffalo Grove High School and just east of Plaza Verde."

Is Wheeling Donuts in the strip mall across the street from Wheeling Cemetery, and east of both a Jiffy Lube and whatever the large building that's to the east is? Was trying to tell where this place is via Google Street View, but the scans are old enough that it isn't easy to tell if this place just happened to open after they were taken(and GSV is notorious for being very slow to update their street view scans). I'm not out in the Wheeling area often, but I'll keep this place in mind next time I'm in this area.

dumpstermcnuggets wrote:Is Wheeling Donuts in the strip mall across the street from Wheeling Cemetery, and east of both a Jiffy Lube and whatever the large building that's to the east is?

No, it's on the south side of Dundee, in the strip mall between the Pearle Vision and (if it's still there) the Ace Hardware, directly across from the Chevy dealer.

JoelF wrote:

dumpstermcnuggets wrote:Is Wheeling Donuts in the strip mall across the street from Wheeling Cemetery, and east of both a Jiffy Lube and whatever the large building that's to the east is?

No, it's on the south side of Dundee, in the strip mall between the Pearle Vision and (if it's still there) the Ace Hardware, directly across from the Chevy dealer.

Oh okay, thanks for clarifying where this is(since Google can be a little inaccurate with address numbering in suburbs much more often than I'd like). I probably could find where this is now, when I do another Google search for this place later.

Weird I didn't notice the above post that the ownership of Wheeling Donuts is changing. I guess we'll see from other posters who live closer to here, if the quality remains the same or changes.

Finally tried Wheeling Donuts today with a couple co-workers. It did not disappoint. I am not a sweet eater, and can only handle sweets in limited amounts, so I got 2 donuts - a creme filled (chocolate frosted) and a classic glazed. Both were soft, fresh, and delicious. The creme filled was loaded with yellow bavarian-style creme. Co-worker 1 got a jelly filled and a vanilla long john - loved both. Co-worker 2 got a buttermilk and an apple fritter. He loved the buttermilk, but is too full right to eat the apple fritter! (Not from one donut, but the big lunch he had beforehand ). So we definitely will have it again, great neighborhood mom and pop operation.

buttermilk bars are still spot on, thought after having a couple this morning that I'd have one left for tomorrow morning, nope it was a good afternoon snack