A quick astro trip on the rise of the infamous fried circular dough - DONUT!
TaurusxFoodie ASMR … donuts anyone 👀
Growing up when I wanted a donut, my dad would get it for me from one of three spots:
Entenmann’s Bakery Outlet (RIP)
The local coffee shop
Krispy Kreme* Back in the day, you could only find them if you left NYC but now we have 3-4 locations in the city 👀 .
Donuts in the 90s
Dyabe S. eating a vanilla doughnut (Original Photo)
In the mid-90s, having fewer locations also meant I had fewer flavors available for my grubby fingertips to savor. These flavors included the flavored sprinkled donut (vanilla sprinkled is my all time favorite), glazed donuts, boring, dry, plain donuts (who bought these?) and the highly popular jelly donuts, which I despised then and still cringe at to this day, but there's something for everyone, I guess.
The Rising Popularity of Donuts
Fast forward to today and one can't walk a mile in the city without spotting a donut shop (exaggeration but you get the point). These insta-worthy donuts are an explosion of mish-mashed flavors, like matcha glazed pistachio cake donut or a berry blast donut filled with a cardamom compote (I made up these flavors by the way they sound kind of yummy).
How exactly did we shift from a handful of donut shops with limited options to an explosion of artisanal and niche donut flavors and storefronts? This donut phenomen didn't happen overnight.
A recent visit to FanFan Doughnuts, got the stars in my head twirling and led me to do a little research about the NYC donut culture. So while at this moment in time I'm not claiming to be a food historian, I am observant so let's get into it.
Doughnut Plant
The story actually begins with Doughnut Plant. My donut intuition told me this was the starting place. Confirming my suspicions, Doughnut Plant is considered the “pioneer of the artisanal doughnut”.
Mark’s Lower East Side apartment
Starting in 1994, Mark Israel started selling doughnuts out of a basement kitchen on the Lower East Side. Then in 2000, he opened his first shop which I'm going to dub the flagship location for Doughnut Plant also in the Lower East Side.
My proverbial boy, Mark, also got some other firsts under his belt over the last 20 YEARS, that include:
🍩 Inventing world’s first Creme Brûlée doughnut
🍩Creating a square-shaped filled doughnut that allows you to get every drop of jam or cream per bite
🍩 Crafting Vegan Sourdoughnuts
Social Media + Donuts
My phone full of doughnut flicks lol.
An interesting cultural shift happened around 2009/2010, social media changed the game. I’m going to dub this a cultural turning point of sorts because people were using social media to share information and a lot of the photos and updates on our walls, timelines, and grids were foodie related.
As more food photos were shared, I noticed more doughnut shops opening up in NYC, one of the food capitals of the world. Once again my intuition is spot on because in 2010, another popular doughnut shop emerged but this time in Brooklyn, Dough.
According to my Yelp, I discovered Dough in 2013. I was driving home one day and noticed a spot selling donuts on Franklin Ave and Lafayette. I pull over and at the time didnt walk out with my doughnuts because they didn’t take card, only cash, at the time. My stubborn self returned the next day, cash in hand and tried 3 flavors that still exist till this day. This particular location of Dough no longer exists. Dough has since expanded to locations in the city and just opened up a location in Astoria. Surprisingly enough though, the location on Lafayette now houses a new donut spot called Fan Fan Doughnuts.
2022 Donut Culture & Beyond
This astro foodie is predicting that donut shops are here to stay for the foreseeable future. In fact, just in October 2022, Cloudy Donuts a black owned vegan donut shop opened up their first NYC location in Brooklyn Heights. The shop is only open 3 days a week and sells out every weekend. I mean this is a healthy indicator of a thriving donut culture in NYC!
Thank you for taking this astro foodie tour on the NYC doughnut revolution.
Here is a list of my favorite donut spots
Moes Dougs Donut Shop
Fan Fan Doughnut
Cloudy Donuts ( I didnt try it yet but the IG worthy factor on this high and I need to try it ASAP)
🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩
We clearly love us some doughnuts in NYC. Whether its donut or doughnut - we all have a favorite! What’s your favorite? Share with me in the comments or under my post on Instagram @Taurusxfoodie !
