I've only been for the donuts...........and the donuts are good!!…read more
I'm a traveling businessman and I like to bring donuts to my clients when I visit them. But, admittedly, I am a donut snob. Having had a donut shop in my family while growing up, it was burned into my brain that "Big Donut" chains are garbage. You know what? They are. Do yourself a favor sometime, if you don't believe me. Use YELP! to seek out a good locally owned donut shop in your area. Stop in and buy a few. Then to to a "Big Donut" chain and buy a few comparable donuts for a taste test. You will notice the difference.
As I do my research for the regions best donut shops, I found that this area of Wisconsin has little to nothing to offer by way of good local donut shops. Having discussed this with my customers over dinner, the night before our site meeting, they directed me, specifically, to the Mayville Piggly Wiggly. So, first thing in the morning, I found myself in Mayville.
If you're not familiar, Piggly Wiggly is a grocery chain. Once I walked in to the Mayville location, I looked right and was staring down the appetizing end of a double barrel donut/pastry case. I walked over and with each step, I found that these donuts are larger than they appear. Very large donuts, overall. Big and delicious looking apple fritters. Dozens of donut goodness to choose from.
I had them load up two boxes of a dozen each to take back to the plant. But, of course, I had to make my own personal assessment. I mean, what kind of guy would I be bringing in untested, unverified, undocumented donuts? I'd still be me but I would be proud of it, that's who!
I tried a Cruller and a Fried Croissant. Both were delicious. Now the Cruller was different than I'm used to. I've always enjoyed a good French Cruller. This is a round donut, but almost braided looking. Like a tractor tire, almost. The Piggly Wiggly Cruller was straight and, slightly, banana shaped. It wasn't as light an airy as the French Cruller's that I'm used to but it was good in it's own right. The Fried Croissant, though good, wasn't as flaky as I'm used to from other places, but none of it was wasted. Please keep in mind that I am making comparisons. If you've been to enough donut shops, you know that certain donuts can vary from place to place and that's okay. So the differences that I've pointed out are not bad, but rather they are simply differences, that's all.
My actual go-to litmus test for donuts are yellow cake (or vanilla cake) chocolate frosted round donuts. A very traditional staple that any donut shop should normally have. If you can get this right, you've automatically got more than half of my vote. Piggly Wiggly didn't have this kind of donut. Instead they had chocolate frosted chocolate cake donuts. Looked good but not the same.
I cannot speak of the rest of this store. I went in on a mission. Spotted my target. Gathered the goods. Mission executed. I didn't really even notice anyone else in the store. Except........there was a sweetheart of a young lady working the Customer Service counter. As it was early and there were only one or two checkout lanes open, with people checking out, she called me over as she saw I didn't have much to check out. She didn't have to do that, but she did and she was extremely nice.
Would I go back? I would. Not because it's really the only place to get some good donuts in the area, but it's because they are good donuts. The ladies at the counter were about as sweet as the donuts they're slinging and you'd be hard pressed to find a group of such delightful ladies at that time in the morning. Now get out and go get you some donuts!
