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Dunkin' Donuts and Krispey Kreme are the McDonald's of the donut industry.
In Austin and Central Texas, the best donuts I have found are Shipley's.
I like Shipley's better than Round Rock Donuts, which I find to be good donuts, but way over hyped. They use to sell them at a couple of places around South Austin, but I haven't seen them in probably at least a year or longer.
LOL, my tiny, small town doesn't need or have Dunkin' Donuts. It does just fine with not just one but two Daylight Donuts places. I don't need to put on more weight, so seldom go to them.
I remember googling Daylight Donuts in the past, and they seem to more locate in small towns in the middle of the country. The funny thing is that I remember noticing one in La Junta, CO, which is a smoke stop(basically, that's an extended brief break where you can smoke/stretch, since the train does a crew change at that point for something like 5-10 minutes) for the Southwest Chief train(Chicago-LA, with some intermediate stops like Kansas City, Albuquerque, Gallup, Flagstaff, etc). And Daylight is only like a block or 2 south of the La Junta station, so theoretically IF you were very quick, you could get back to the train in time before the train leaves. And this may also be possible IF the train arrived earlier than usual into La Junta, since the train never leaves until a certain scheduled time. Of course if you're taking Amtrak, ALWAYS ask the train crew for sure how long the train will be there, and how long it will be dwelling at a station for a smoke stop. So that there's no chance you're accidentally left behind, if you think about trying doing that.
To each their own, about Chicago's donut scene. I have no doubt the donut scene is better in other cities, vs. in Chicago. I'm sorry to hear Stan's closed their location in LA, since they were a long time landmark there. It's just after trying their donuts numerous times after they opened in Chicago(didn't make it to the LA Stan's before it closed, so don't know how that one compares to the Stan's locations here), that I've started to realize that while they aren't bad, to me I think they're a little overrated and overpriced. I will say kudos to them offering an egg nog donut, since I don't see many donut places offering such a donut other than Stan's.
I did weirdly forget Dat Donut and Old Fashioned Donuts in my earlier comment, so not sure how I forgot those 2. I LOVE the apple fritter at Old Fashioned, myself. Dat Donut also is good, but I prefer Old Fashioned. That said when you look back to the 90s and 2000s(before the rise of Donut Vault, Stan's, Do Rite, etc), our donut scene ABSOLUTELY was lacking as heck. It is a little better now, but don't kid yourself that we're ahead of a lot of other cities. Since to me, I still think Chicago is a little behind vs. other cities, as to how decent the local donut scene is. I think it'd help Chicago a lot, if(theoretical here, I know) Dunkin Donuts were to totally go away. I know they won't, so nothing I can do on that. I just HATE their dominance and percentage share in the Chicago area for donut sales, since their donuts started to become garbage years ago.
It's like to me, I really like the mom and pop donut places I've found in other cities. And just my honest opinion(and okay if you disagree), Chicago doesn't have as many home grown mom and pop donut places as do other cities. I guess to me for example, I wish Chicago had as many homegrown donut places(devoted to primarily donuts) as I see in St. Louis. But to each their own.
Some of the local donut chains I've vaguely heard a little about(i.e. Duck Donuts, Voodoo Donuts), I'd like to try one day when I travel to an area with one of their locations. I just hope they aren't only relying on gimmicky toppings, for their interesting donuts. I sometimes wonder if Voodoo relies a lot on gimmicky toppings for their donuts, but who knows. I am DEFINITELY NOT going to write any of these places off(including Voodoo), until the day I have a chance to try these places for myself.
I agree with you that having a Dunkin Donuts on every corner in Chicagoland hurts the availability of good mom and pops in Chicago, and that you have to travel a bit to get a great donut in the six or seven really good brands. When I see those who praise DD on here, they are missing out. As I said earlier, there is one DD who gets their apple fritters from their bakery that are outstanding, and they are huuge, almost a meal in itself. Add a cup of coffee to that, and that is a treat. But to me, most of DD is so cardboard like and tasteless for most of the donuts. I will have to try St. Louis donuts when I am there, I love the custard ice cream there and some of the other specialties that that city has to offer. I was surprised when Stan's closed in Westwood in LA, but I think the royalties that they probably got from sales in Chicago from the guy who took the concept and planted it there made it easy for them to close up.
Any city where DD is the market share leader can be removed from this discussion.
DD has tried several times to break into the LA market and they opened a few here over the last several years. I have been several times and found them to be terrible at everything - donuts, coffee, and breakfast sandwiches. I wouldn't ever go back even if their food was free.
Any city where DD is the market share leader can be removed from this discussion.
DD has tried several times to break into the LA market and they opened a few here over the last several years. I have been several times and found them to be terrible at everything - donuts, coffee, and breakfast sandwiches. I wouldn't ever go back even if their food was free.
Last edited by elchevere; 01-07-2022 at 10:29 AM..
Any city where DD is the market share leader can be removed from this discussion.
DD has tried several times to break into the LA market and they opened a few here over the last several years. I have been several times and found them to be terrible at everything - donuts, coffee, and breakfast sandwiches. I wouldn't ever go back even if their food was free.
Lol that's what I was thinking. It's not a coincidence that the cities that are repeatedly getting listed in this thread (Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland) have pretty much zero Dunkin' Donuts presence.
All their stuff isn't good, but the breakfast food in particular is offensively bad.
elchevere: Tim Hortons was all over the Midwest when I lived there and, in my experience, it wasn't much better than DD. I'm not sure if the Canadian version is any different.
Lol that's what I was thinking. It's not a coincidence that the cities that are repeatedly getting listed in this thread (Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland) have pretty much zero Dunkin' Donuts presence.
All their stuff isn't good, but the breakfast food in particular is offensively bad.
elchevere: Tim Hortons was all over the Midwest when I lived there and, in my experience, it wasn't much better than DD. I'm not sure if the Canadian version is any different.
I will say for DD that the only breakfast sandwich they once served that I really liked, was the Smoked Sausage sandwich. Sadly they didn't make that a permanent menu item, and it only seems to come back on their menu once a year or once every other year. I forget how often they bring this back, myself. And I don't think this sandwich has come back since COVID began, but correct me if I'm wrong.
My favorite donut in the entire world is the creme brulee donut at Rise: a small local chain in the Research Triangle area of NC. As far as national chains go, I gotta go with Krispy Kreme.
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