Gourmet Donuts, the name and the product!

The Friday Nut

Suffice to say it has been a very busy month for the Donut Man, but amongst traveling, rehearsing for a new play and the regular day to day, if there is one thing I can always make time for it's donuts! That being said all you donut fans are in for a barrage of new stories, pictures and shop reviews. Let's start with a newly discovered small local chain, Gourmet Donuts.

What's better on a crisp Fall day in New England than taking a drive down a new back road and exploring the country side? Finding out that the new back road your are traveling has a homemade donut shop on it. Like many independent shops that have discovered their product has generated a substantial local following, Gourmet has sprouted to 4 local locations concentrated just northwest of Boston in Fitchburg, Leominster, Townsend and Winchendon. The feel of the shop is just as you would expect from the name; gourmet. I stopped in on the Townsend location and the shop is just as the name suggests, clean cut lines, welcoming interior, with 40 + flavors of gourmet coffee, over 30 varieties of donuts (including holes and seasonal varieties) specialty pastries, and bagels.  

I sampled a jelly, pumpkin spice and a honey dip on this morning, and being that it was around 10:00am I would like to return on an earlier day to get them as fresh as possible. The only complaint I would have, and this is coming from someone who eats donuts almost directly out of the kettle regularly, is that this location does not make the donuts on site. My finely tuned "donut vision" could sense this as soon as I looked at the display case. The friendly young woman at the counter confirmed that they are produced in the Fitchburg location and then distributed amongst their shops. The donuts were still excellent, though the pumpkin spice was a tad bit dry, nothing a dunk in their delicious coffee could not cure. So, if you find yourself in the car enjoying the foliage and in need of your favorite deep fried dough-ball, have confidence that the folks at Gourmet won't let you down. As always, don't forget one for the Donut man.

hendon