It was a rainy Saturday afternoon in September, and I once again found myself in Connecticut on the hunt for donuts (although the main reason I was in New Haven was to catch Martin Sexton performing at the CT Folk Fest). While doing my donut due diligence, I discovered that Donut Crazy had another location in New Haven. Having been to the Westport location, where I was slightly underwhelmed, I thought I might as well see if a different location could excite me more.
The exterior is easy to spot, with a giant neon donut positioned on an artificial turf wall over the door. A large neon sign in the window demanded that you "Eat Donuts!" and you know what, I wasn't going to argue with that.
It was 3:30pm afternoon on a Saturday. I assumed I'd be the only person walking into the location on York Street and the only customer at that time. Guess what - I was wrong. The line stretched around the counter and back to the door. All the tables were filled with, what I assume were, college students, sipping coffee and working on laptops. The shop was decorated industrial style, with exposed beams and brick, metal and wood accents, and giant portraits of people like Salvador Dali, Albert Einstein, Beaker from the Muppets, and, of course, Handsome Dan (Yale's mascot) adorned the walls.
The employees were super friendly and efficiently filled orders to keep the line moving. When it was my turn to order, the cashier asked if I wanted to let him choose my donuts. I declined, picking the first five of my half dozen, but I conceded to letting him choose the last one. The selection I ended up with was one Nutella, a fluffernutter, the Hostess, french toast, one known as the Blackhawk, and the monster red velvet.
While in line, I also noticed a selection of Donut Crazy t-shirts hanging around the walls. One that had a cartoon bulldog with the words "Dan loves donuts" across the back caught my eye. While in New Haven, my internal Gilmore Girls fangirl kept replaying the episode where Rory goes to her first Yale football game and Dan the Bulldog is referenced several times, so the t-shirt had a particular appeal for me. I asked if they had my size available, and while they didn't think they did, two employees went to double check their stock. After confirming they no longer had my size, they asked if I wanted to buy the one on the wall, which was just one size bigger. Next thing I knew, they got out a ladder, climbed up to remove the shirt from the wall, folded it, and handed it to me. I definitely give the New Haven Donut Crazy an A+ for customer service.
When it came time to sample each of the flavors, I decided to really take my time and thoroughly analyze what was going on taste-wise.
I started with Nutella. I guess I first must confess, I never had Nutella before sampling this donut, and I wasn't expecting to like it. The donut was somehow both a ring and hole-less donut, what I could probably best describe as a "donut bowl". After analyzing it, it didn't look like the Nutella hole was cut out post frying, so I'm guessing they some how cut out only half the hole while still in raw dough form. Anyway, the donut is coated in cinnamon sugar, and the hole/bowl is filled with a big glob of Nutella. It’s incredibly delicious. The Nutella oozes out when you bite it. I initially thought it was going to be way to Nutella heavy, but apparently you can't have too much of the stuff!
I next moved on to the fluffernutter - a dark chocolate cake ring donut, cut in half like a bagel, spread with peanut butter and marshmallow frosting, then sprinkled with powdered sugar and a chocolate drizzle. The hole is stuffed with peanut butter chips and Reese’s pieces. I got this donut expecting it to taste like the fluffernutter sandwiches from my childhood (and let's be honest, my adulthood as well), but the base donut definitely dominated the flavor. There was a lot of chocolate cake, but very little peanut butter or marshmallow. I think maybe if it had a little more filling, it might more resemble that true fluffernutter experience.
The french toast donut had me excited. Maybe it was the simplicity I was craving, or maybe it was the fact that next to donuts, french toast is one of my favorite foods. The donut was a glazed ring dusted with cinnamon powdered sugar, and topped with maple and vanilla drizzle. As a fan of both simple glazed and cinnamon sugar donuts, this one was one of my favorites. I know its not the crazier of the donuts, but I had a hard time not consuming it all in a few bites. Had I not had three more to sample, it would have quickly disappeared.
It's called the Hostess so it definitely comes with a certain level of expectation. The donut itself resembles the classic cupcake. It's a lighter chocolate donut, coated in a chocolate icing and filled with a sweet vanilla marshmallow cream filling. The donut doesn’t taste as chocolatey as you might expect it to, but the use of marshmallow in the filling is a nice subtle twist on the original idea. If I was ranking the six I tasted, this one would fall into the number three position (behind french toast and nutella).
The glazed dark chocolate cake donut, coated in chocolate icing with crushed chocolate cookie pieces and topped with a chocolate drizzle was named the Blackhawk and is definitely one for a chocolate lover. It tastes like a chocolate cake donut (big surprise), and I'm actually not a huge fan of chocolate cake donuts, so that may be why I felt rather indifferent towards this one.
Finally, I had the monster red velvet. This was the donut the Donut Crazy employee selected for me, and I saved it for last because I was actually a little scared of it. It has a-lot going on, so try to keep up - it's a glazed red velvet ring donut, topped with a ring of thick cake like chocolate frosting, marshmallow drizzle, mini m&ms, sprinkles, and the hole is stuffed with cookie dough with a fresh marshmallow square on top. Some, including me, might say it's a little too much and it was definitely a confusing donut to taste. I think my brain kept trying to categorize it, but with every bite the category changed. I will say the best part was the chocolate frosting/brownie batter...so good that I ate all of it off the top, but left the rest. The frosting reminded me of the donut I loved from my childhood (I wrote about it here), so I did have a weird nostalgia experience while eating/dissecting the monster red velvet. What I would love is if they took chocolate frosting, spread it over a bulldog shaped donut, and maybe threw on a few sprinkles. I know it's probably not crazy enough for the Donut Crazy lineup, but it would be delicious. **scrrreeeeeeech** Pump the brakes! I just visited Donut Crazy's website and according to their description of the monster red velvet, the cake like frosting I described is actually brownie batter! That changes nothing from my deliciousness standpoint, but I didn't want to be reporting falsities.
Having been underwhelmed by a few donuts in my selection, I was wishing I would have tried the Twixster, brownie explosion, and/or coffee cake. But I guess now I have something else to try next time I'm in Connecticut.
And to tie into my Westport Donut Crazy post, if you're in Westport about to board the train and kind of hungry, the Westport location is fine, but if you want better selection, better atmosphere, and are actively seeking out donuts, definitely check out the New Haven location.
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