On Thursdays, we’d get donuts. Before work from home became our consistent reality, every Thursday was donut day in the office. On my way to work, I’d stop by Doughnut Plant’s Chelsea location to grab donuts for Jason and I to share. I started off getting one of our favorites and one of the flavors of the month for us to try. We’d rate and discuss the limited edition specials and indulge in our long-time favorites. Over time, this evolved into me grabbing enough for a morning bite in addition to an afternoon pick-me-up (paired with a coffee run), plus more for Jason to take home to his family. In the Fall, Jason’s brought me incredible Apple Cider donuts from Stew Leonards which rank as an all-time favorite. Once a quarter, we’d meet before a company-wide meeting either at that Doughnut Plant location or our old school favorite, Donut Pub on 14th Street, where we’d both enjoy more of our classic obsessions (red velvet and cinnamon sugar) as well as black iced coffees. We even took things up a notch and planned a weekend where I went up to Westchester so Jason could show me MAD Donuts, his local spot and others to Danbury, CT to try local chain Donut Delight. We’d also go all out for our teams at work on holidays and special occasions, always outdoing ourselves with bigger and better orders. In fact, the last day we were in the office was Employee Appreciation Day and we managed to cater donuts from multiple sources around New York City as a thank you for our colleagues.
By now it’s clear that a craving has turned into a passion, a full blown hobby, and a new dietary lifestyle. However, even before we committed our adventures to this blog, our fondness was there and we’d both share updates on our latest weekend treats, out of state finds that we’d discover on various vacations, and share our love of supporting so many local spots. I also spent two months traveling through Australia, South Korea, and Japan and would send pictures and detailed updates to Jason along the way (Seoul wins in overall presentation and service, but Sydney wins for overall taste). So, while our infatuation for donuts was in existence long before we worked together or started writing about them here, sharing these moments with others has been a lot of fun and brought a whole new level of enjoyment to finding new favorites. I also never imagined someone else would be onboard to write a whole blog entirely dedicated to donuts!
Supporting community shops has always been part of the experience and it’s only grown over these past months. Since today is National Donut Day, naturally I’m participating by ordering from my favorite NYC shop and am happy to be supporting them in a time of need. However, it also means it has been a year since we’ve started Donut Club NYC. In the past, we’ve both written about our traditions growing up with donuts and now I’m excited to have this as an added part of the story. Thanks to everyone who has read this for the past year and thanks to all the donut shops for making this a never ending quest.
Score:
Donuts: 11/10
Marc collects vinyl, is obsessed with music, donuts, and has picked up a passion for great service from Jason. His current favorite donut is Carrot Cake from Doughnut Plant.