Dollars to Donuts, by Arthur Tebbel – Pop Art #227 | @MDWorld

October 2, 2013 Arthur Tebbel 0 Comments

Dear Art,

I’m in LA for a little bit and I was wondering if you could recommend a place to eat breakfast.  I’m not looking for bacon and eggs or even a breakfast burrito I want something a little offbeat.  What can you recommend?

-Hungry in LA

Hungry,

Ok, go to Highland Park and go to Donut Friend.  If you’re within driving distance of Highland Park you should stop reading and just go.  You can come back and nod along to the rest of this with your stomach full but go right now, they might be getting crowded.

I have a deep family history with donuts.  Growing up my family had a donut party every year to celebrate Hanukah so searching for better donuts has always been important.  Before throwing my first donut party out in LA I tested donuts from four shops before finding one that met my standards.  Do I think my guests cared or were even dimly aware that I had sought out the finest donuts in the city rather than going to the literally dozens of closer donut shops?  I do not but I knew and dammit that’s important.

Donut Friend is a place that makes custom donuts.  You start with one of four bases and add fillings or toppings until you are satisfied.  It’s like Subway or Chipotle except if they made things you wanted to eat instead of disgusting vague approximations of food you’ve had before.  This morning my dining companions and I challenged the staff to make us a donut inspired by Thai flavors and one inspired by barbecue flavors.  The Thai donut was filled with lime custard, pepper jam, and raspberry habanero jelly topped with peanuts, candied limes, balsamic vinegar, and sriracha sauce.  Not all of those ingredients sound like they would fit but the result was absolutely perfect.  I don’t remember as much about the barbecue one but it had bacon in it.  These people aren’t messing around.

It’s stuff like this that makes it so hard to leave LA despite the overwhelming evidence that it’s just the worst place to live.  I’m going for dinner tonight 10 miles from my front door and I had to push it back to 8:15 to soothe my concerns about traffic.  I still expect to spend at least 45 minutes getting there.  That’s an average speed of a blistering 13 miles per hour.  It will also be 90 degrees later this week.  This week in October.  But there are delicious donuts, and some cool museums, and winter doesn’t get too bad.    Oh, and some badass tacos.  It all pretty much evens out.