The inspiration to do a donut crawl came recently when I spied a write-up on one that was done in New York.
And really. When the topic is donuts, it’s not hard to get on board.
A date was picked. A kid-free Saturday afternoon. Research began. How to find places to include in our crawl? Yelp, information from Jersey’s own Munchmobile, and Google were my friends. There are a handful of really good donut shops down the shore, but for the purpose of our first donut crawl, I eliminated South Jersey completely, figuring that when the kids and I head down the shore over the summer, we can hit those up. And since some of those are “made to order” joints with very positive feedback, you can bet we won’t be missing them. We also excluded any shops that were near other places we planned to visit in the future. And I eliminated any that were in a bad area. Even if they were said to have the best jelly donut in the state. Because. You know. Safety first.
So all that research left us with 7 donut shops. Which seemed pretty perfect.
Because, a girl’s gotta have some limits.
Our first stop was Francesca’s, a cute little bakery in a strip mall in Pequannock. When I asked the shop keeper which donut was their number one seller, he responded, “The Boston Cream is pretty popular. And so is the chocolate frosted. And oh, the jelly too.” And we, of course, bought all three. And that’s when we knew we were in trouble.
Because, realistically, a donut crawl is a pretty cheap endeavor, with most donuts at around a buck a piece.
Until we get swayed by many different kinds. And then get distracted by crumb cake and stuffed croissants and custard cups and sprinkle cookies and mouse shaped Madeleines and a million other things.
#firstclassproblems
So we paid the nice man for our donuts and headed next door to the pizza place. We hadn’t had lunch yet, so we ordered a slice and sat down to devour the donuts.
And I may have moaned slightly when I bit into the jelly. And momentarily wondered how we were going to fare for the rest of the afternoon. Because three donuts at the first stop…
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