Sometimes I really worry about the state of donuts these days. Most of the local donut places have closed and been replaced by Tim Hortons or Dunkin Donuts. And worse yet, most of those don’t even cook the donuts on site anymore, they truck them in (it’s no longer “time to make the donuts”). So most donuts these days are stale, pale imitations of what a donut should be.
But every once in a while I find a local donut place that shows that some people still care and try and make a good product. One of these is Allie’s Donuts in North Kingstown, RI. I went there several times a kid with my grandpa, but in recent years I’ve either never been around at breakfast time, or it’s been a holiday and Allie’s was closed.
Really, there’s not much to Allie’s but a service counter and several racks of donut, it’s strictly takeout only.. But these are very good donuts indeed. Freshly baked, very crisp on the outside, tender on the inside, and perfectly glazed. And they still have honest crullers, unlike a lot of places that have gone to machine-made “sticks” (The horror! The horror!). And for those that like variety, the have a lot of variety, with honey-dipped, glazed, glazed-and-sprinkled, cinnamon-sugared, jelly-filled, powdered, … The list goes on.
Nothing here but your good old-school donuts.
The only kind I like are the plain fried cakes.
At the farmers markets in Syracuse, there was a guy who went around and made them. You got them the moment they came out of the fryer (though most people waited until he had dipped them in some cinnamon sugar).
Next time you're on 91 passing through Springfield MA, try Donut Dip on Rte 5 – just north of where 91 crosses the river – sounds like the same kind of operation. They had a "hot cross bun" doughnut one year during Lent that was surprisingly tasty!