The boys were especially good today at Mass. It probably had something to do with their
lingering exhaustion brought on by the previous day's long and extremely hot afternoon
spent at our neighborhood pool. Whatever
the case, they were good little boys and that could only mean one thing regarding
our plans after Mass: doughnuts!
Fortunately, we have a few options regarding doughnuts.
If we are lucky, it's a certain Sunday of the month and doughnuts
are provided at church at a Parish Social after Mass in St. Anne's Hall. We just have to wander over there, grab a doughnut,
a cup of coffee, chocolate milk, or orange juice, drop a donation in the jar,
and enjoy some time chatting with friends.
On mornings when doughnuts are not available at church, we
normally head a few blocks north to our standby doughnut place, Cafe Donuts. Located at 6333 East Mockingbird Lane in
Dallas, there's not much in the way of fancy when describing the interior of
Cafe Donuts. There's a couple of tables,
a refrigerated display of drinks, a display case full of doughnuts, a Vietnamese
Catholic church calendar on the wall, and a bunch of smiles on the faces of the
friendly family that runs the place.
Yep, it's a doughnut shop.
The doughnuts at Cafe Dounts are excellent! My boys know exactly what they want, and they inevitably
choose sprinkled doughnuts with vanilla icing.
My ironclad choice is a chocolate-covered éclair filled with vanilla
pudding. And as for Jessica, she's a
sure bet to pick a maple bar. Finally, if we are feeling hungry, we'll grab a
few pig in a blankets.
Cafe Donuts advertises their pig in a blankets as
kolaches. As we eat them, Jessica almost
always reminds me that kolaches are a traditional Czech treat that is more akin
to a fruit pastry than a sausage wrapped in a dinner roll. Nevertheless, the Cafe Donuts version are
just the thing to fill a growling stomach that has just gone through Mass on
only one cup of coffee.
This morning, besides the delicious doughnuts and three kolaches,
we bought two small containers of chocolate milk for the boys and Jessica and I
shared a sixteen ounce bottle of Coca-Cola.
The grand total for all of this was $10.50.
Another option we've pursued in search of after-Mass
doughnuts is at 9007 Garland Road in Dallas: Hypnotic Donuts.
Years ago, while watching a food show---probably Man v. Food,
I became aware of a doughnut shop in Portland, Oregon, called Voodoo Doughnut. Voodoo Doughnut serves wild doughnut
creations with nontraditional toppings like bacon and Cap'n Crunch cereal. To top it all off, the doughnuts are created
by people who look like they would be really cool to hang out with. And of course, with Voodoo Doughnut's winning
combination getting worldwide attention, it was only a matter of time before
Dallas got its own version.
Enter Hypnotic Donuts.
Hypnotic Donuts has been around for a few years. They are what I call Hipster Donuts----and I
use that term with all due affection.
The shop is furnished with a few tables as well as an old
couch and comfortable chair next to a coffee table. There's a painting along one wall featuring
famous hippie icons like Jerry Garcia and Bob Marley and another wall is
dominated by a large blackboard menu creatively written in multicolored
chalk. Music in the shop is provided in
old-school fashion: from an old turntable---on one visit, we rocked-out to the
Rolling Stones album "Sympathy for the Devil."
The employees at Hypnotic Donuts are friendly enough, and
boy do they look cool. In fact, if
you're curious enough, the Hypnotic Donuts website even informs you of each
employee's favorite rock bands.
As for their doughnuts, on our most recent visit I tried Jenny's
Evil Elvis, and it is a must-have. It's
a glazed doughnut loaded up with peanut butter, bacon, banana slices, and
honey. It's delicious and messy. It's also, at $4.00, the priciest doughnut on
their menu. I was unfortunately underwhelmed
by the Zoo Ropa, which is a vanilla cake doughnut with way too much icing, a
few mini-marshmallows, and a couple of iced animal crackers---I took one bite and
put it back in the box. Jessica was more
than impressed with their Turtle doughnut, which is a chocolate cake doughnut
with half chocolate and half caramel icing and a pecan in the center. And finally,
my kids were satisfied with the Hypnotic Donuts' basic glazed doughnut and
chocolate long john. The box of five
doughnuts ran us $12 and some change.
Besides doughnuts, Hypnotic Donuts sells tasty Chicken
Biscuits. For our first visit in May of
2012, we ordered Amy's Chicken Biscuit,
which came with a deliciously marinated and fried hunk of chicken, bacon,
pickles, honey, a spicy southwestern mustard, and cheddar cheese. You get all of this for $6.00 and it's worth
every penny.
The line at Hypnotic Donuts is almost always to the door, so
a visit is a steep investment in time as well as money. Consequently,
we'll keep Cafe Donuts as our regular doughnut place. Still, it's nice to know that Dallas has a
cool place that sells cool doughnuts created by cool people who listen to bands
like Queens of the Stone Age and Attica----bands I'm not anywhere cool enough
to know anything about.
Cafe Donuts and Hypnotic Donuts are cool places to eat. I recommend you give them a try!
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