Sunday, November 26, 2006

Blue Suede Donut

This will be my final report on Donuts of the Deep South.

Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee is probably most famous for helping introduce Elvis Presley to the world. At the corner of Union and Marshall sits the legendary Sun Studios where Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis all recorded their early hits. But what the guide books don’t tell you, is that a mile or so down Union from Sun, sits Donald’s Donuts, a simple, plain-front Donut shop quietly pleasing patrons in the shadow of their attention-hogging neighbor.

There’s really not much to say about Donald’s, other than it’s a great local Donut shop with friendly service and quality fare. On my recent visit to Donald’s I ordered four Don
uts: a Bear Claw, a Frosted Peanut, a Cinnamon Roll and a Cream Cheese-filled.

The Bear Claw was made of light and refreshing yeast dough, not unlike Dunkin’s yeasty varieties. But the best part was the shape – the “bear claw-ness” came from five rectangular subunits all linked together to loosely resemble a bear’s foot. Given the size, it most likely belonged to a young brown bear, but I know nothing about bears so don’t hold me to that.

The Frosted Peanut was made from the same yeast dough as the Bear Claw. It was covered in vanilla frosting and topped with crushed peanuts. Now Blognut enjoys the occasional peanut Donut, but this version was way too PEANUT. All I could taste was nuts. The highlight my meal was course three, the Cinnamon Roll. It was big, airy and had just the right amount of cinnamon kick. The Cream Cheese-filled was interesting in theory, but I wasn't a fan of the sugary cheese flavor that came from mixing glaze and Philadelphia. Plus, aren’t Donuts already bad enough for our health that we probably shouldn't make them any worse?

Vein of cinnamon in Cinnamon Roll.


Cream cheese inside a Donut.

All in all, Donald’s is a solid Donut Shop worth checking out if you’re in the Memphis area in need of a Donut. But wash your hands before heading to Sun Studios - they seemed to get annoyed when I got glaze residue on Elvis’s antique microphone.

Tomorrow Blognut heads to Vienna, Austria for a six-day sausage, pastry and coffee excursion. Now we all know the Viennese can bake like a dog can lick its ass – but can they fry dough? That’s what I intend to find out.

Donut Scores:

Bear Claw -


Frosted Peanut -


Cinnamon Roll-


Cream Cheese-filled -


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

No such thing as too much peanut!!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Dave's Donutes may be "the place" to go on your way to Graceland but when you come to Tennessee, the best, freshest, warmest donut going is "Krispy Kream Donuts"! I grew up on these bad boys & there isn't anything better.
Ya gotta try one...or a dozen. Great energy food too.

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