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June 28, 2007
Stop-in Donuts vs. Starbucks: Sweet showdown
So I've been getting these Top Pot doughnuts at Starbucks off and on. No secret: I like a doughnut every once in awhile. Finding out that the Top Pot doughnut has 480 calories, 23 grams of fat, and 39 grams of sugar, as I learned from Starbucks Gossip, should put the kibosh on this. I'm too old for such cavalier face-stuffing.
Couple that with the sinking feeling that the Top Pot "glazed" doughnut (it's really a glazed "old-fashioned," not just a glazed, but I belabor) just isn't all that top-notch. It's a little dense, not as crispy nor as tasty as say ... a Krispy Kreme. I haven't had a KK (one more 'K' and there's gonna be trouble) doughnut at Coffee Bean, the only place to get one now that the Valley's Krispy Kreme outlets have all closed -- BECAUSE THE WORLD HATES ME AND MY DOUGHNUT-LOVING PSYCHE.
But Top Pot, you're no Krispy Kreme. I've had Krispy Kreme, I've had MANY Krispy Kremes. And Top Pot, you're no Krispy Kreme.
Have I made myself clear?
Anyway, it's no secret that Starbucks serves up a consistent, complex and dense cup of coffee. It's not traditional coffee, and a good, traditionally roasted coffee is not what Starbucks is all about. Nor is "real" espresso, pulled from a machine using real espresso-ground coffee. Instead, S'Bucks uses some kind of concentrate, but it works well enough that I'm complaining but continuing to drink same. As I've written numerous times, knock Starbucks, if you must, but they boldly go where NOBODY ELSE will, where the need for their product is acute, and they clean up big time. F'n good for them, I say (and for my caffeine-addicted bloodstream as well).
But I quibble. We've acquired a taste for what Starbucks is offering. In dispute, that is not. However, the baked goods section -- uniformly dry, seemingly stale and always less than inspiring, mocks me -- MOCKS ME -- with its very mediocrity.
Between a Top Pot doughnut and a "Venti" drip (that's "large" in American, home biscuit), I'm in for something like $4. And for $4, that doughnut better rock my fat/sugar-lovin' socks right the f' off.
So I made it my mission to find, on my drive from Van Nuys to the Daily News offices in Woodland Hills, a better doughnut -- a cheaper one, too -- accompanied by acceptable coffee to go down with it.
Did I say that I've got to stop eating doughnuts? Fat ... sugar ... arterial clogging ... death.
With that in mind, I stopped in at Stop-In Donuts this morning. This family-run shop, across from Birmingham High School at 16851 Victory Blvd., No. 12 -- at the corner of Balboa Boulevard in Van Nuys -- is small but wicked clean, staffed by some very cheerful young ladies. And they've got excellent looking doughnuts packing the case. You can also get a sandwich, croissant, hard-boiled egg, and other stuff, too ... but does other food even exist in the presence of doughnuts? I think we all know the answer.
Truth-bomb time: Starbucks can't compete with this.
At Stop-In, I get an "old-fashioned" (a glazed old-fashinioned, if you must) and a large coffee.
My total: $1.80.
The doughnut is textbook -- the right combo of crunchy and moist, perfect sweetness, absolutely fresh -- the world's best way to blow what little is left of my so-called "health" on double-digit fat grams.
The coffee? There was a row of pump-it-yourself "gourmet" coffee in canisters, but I opted for the basic brew. It's weak. I mean that literally. Starbucks has ruined all of us for "regular" coffee -- but would it kill America's doughnut shops to strengthen it up a bit? I'll try the gourmet varieties later, I'd love to be pleasantly surprised.
But though weak, the coffee is acceptable, and the price is totally right.
Stop-In Donuts: Go for the doughnuts, stay for the doughnuts, tolerate the coffee, save a buck or two, and STICK IT TO THE MAN, if the man is a faceless megacorporation HQ'd in Seattle, that is.
While you're pondering all the knowledge I'm dropping on you, read the Seattle Times story on Starbucks' Top Pot deal. And keep up with Starbucks at Starbucks Gossip (and check out the cool coffee stains covering the entry at the bottom of the screen).
Top Pot doughnut photo from the Seattle Times
Posted by Steven Rosenberg at June 28, 2007 10:15 AM
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Comments
I totally love your foodie style! But how many calories did I burn laughing at your jokes? Enough for a chocolate old-fashioned, I hope!
Posted by: carol rock at June 28, 2007 12:06 PM
I tried the Stop-in donuts and they were the biz. Starbucks are overated and undercleaned.
Posted by: brian at September 9, 2007 5:55 AM
The "old-fashioned" glazed from Stop-In are VERY good.
Posted by: Steven Rosenberg 
at December 17, 2007 3:34 PM