Traveling Feast

A month ago I decided to compare the acclaimed maple bar from Countryside Donut in Montlake Terrace (north Seattle) to the bar I consider the national standard: Spokane’s Donut Parade maple bar.  Countryside’s bar was a respectable entry, but not in the same league as those coming out of the fryer at the Donut Parade.

Countryside also loses ambiance points for its suburban strip mall setting that sucks out location character faster than a Dyson vacuum.  I’m happy to go food foraging in strip malls, but I’d always prefer a beat-up downtown cafe to a line of generic storefronts facing a sea of parking.  But I digress.

Donuts are the point; maple bars in particular.  When I originally mentioned my January maple bar hunt, several Facebook connections claimed that the BEST maple bar in the Puget Sound wasn’t Countryside’s at all.  CHUCK’S DONUTS in Renton was the real destination for a serious maple bar pilgrim.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to investigate their claims last month.  Today, though, I did.

Back in Seattle and with a need for a visit to IKEA, I slipped off 405 and headed to Chuck’s first.

Like Countryside, the current location of Chuck’s is a new strip mall.  But this wasn’t always the case.

Chuck’s started in another spot in the mid 1960s by Charlie O’Neil with a closely guarded recipe for his famous maple bar.

Other owners followed O’Neil, but each time the secret recipe was sold with the store and the testimony of faithful patrons is that the bars have remained transcendent through each change of ownership.

I tend to be a dining optimist – hopeful that the next meal or bite on the agenda will turn up something truly wonderful.  In this case, Chuck’s delivered.  The current owners are Vietnamese and probably look nothing like the original Chuck, but they can turn out a donut that should make O’Neil proud his name is still on the sign.

The best maple bars I’ve had before today came with a glaze-style frosting, and Chuck’s secret recipe calls for a whipped frosting that is quite different and quite wonderful.

Once you get past your wonder at the frosting, there is the bar itself to consider.  I found it to be soft and moist with just the right amount of bite.  I’ll certainly be back, but noticed the whipped frosting is unexpectedly rich compared to the more common glaze.

Back home at Donut Parade I can get through two or even three before the threat of a sugar coma becomes real, but Chuck’s bar presents clear and present danger after just one.  This should save me at least a $1.25 a visit.

Is Chuck’s the best maple bar?  Possibly.  It certainly is wonderful,  but I think a hot bar from the Donut Parade might still be my personal standard.   Barely.  And I think I’ll have to stop by Chuck’s almost every time I’m in town just to reconsider.

I claim that Spokane’s Donut Parade has the best maple bars in the Western Hemisphere (possibly the planet since large swaths of the world have no access to this pinnacle of raised donut perfect).  Yet food gurus Jane and Michael Stern have a different opinion in their fun volume entitled 500 Things To Eat Before It’s Too Late.

They claim the best maple bar they’ve had is at Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland where the iconic bar comes topped with strips of bacon.  I’m looking forward to trying a Voodoo bar, but believe a truly classic maple bar needs to stand on its own without a pork assist.

This leads me to their second recommendation: Countryside Donut House in Mountlake Terrace in the Seattle metro area.

Chance would have it that I’m in Seattle today for a family emergency, but I have a break this morning in my duties long enough to head to Countryside.  Who knows?  Maybe a fine maple bar delivered at the right moment could help in the family emergency.  I’m willing to try.  And I’ll get a chance to see how the bars at Countryside compare to Donut Parade.

Last Friday the urge for a maple bar from the Donut Parade overwhelmed any more measured reflection on how to start the day right with fruits and fiber.  It would be a morning for some of the best carbs and sugar on the continent.

I gathered up the three kids in the house at the moment (my daughter, one of my twin sons, and his friend that we affectionately refer to as ‘not my son’) and headed from Hamilton and Illinois just north of Gonzaga to order a dozen maple bars and donuts and four glasses of milk.  The milk is critical for true donut delight.

Yet another part of the Donut Parade perfection is the place.  It is frozen in time (circa 1950) and every hard-to-reach corner is covered by a quarter century of fine fryer grease that should preserve it for all eternity.  Our turquiose vinyl booth has a tear in the seat mended with duct tape.  And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Friday’s visit also reminded me of how much I love the old diner counter and line of chrome stools facing the kitchen.  Invariably, the line is occupied by neighborhood regulars nursing a cup of coffee, reading the paper, and discussing the sad state of the world over a plate of the sacred maple bars.

I’m sure the faces at the counter change depending on when you come during the morning, but the stools are almost always filled and all their occupants appear to have been here before.

Daryl – the iconic figure behind the best maple bars on the planet has not returned to Spokane’s Donut Parade after nearly dying in ICU as a rare disease attacked.  But on my last visit a little over a week ago, Daryl’s maple bars are back on the shelves and the magic is still there.  For forty years he was the maple bar man, but apparently he was able to pass on some of his secrets.  The current bakery crew is turning out fine product that is still far better than anything else available.  I admit, this had me up worrying at night.

Get well Daryl and long live your brilliant bars.

One welcome change: the name “Donut Parade” is now painted on the door in rough letters.  For years there was almost no indication outside that the best maple bars on the market were available inside.  If you drove by on Hamilton, chances are you’d only see what appeared to be an abandoned building.  Of course they still don’t have anything so obvious as a sign.

Recession Blues

I’m expanding my ‘recession restaurant’ list for Spokane while waiting to hear yours for the Inland Northwest or wherever you call home.  Post on your list the five or ten places you absolutely DO NOT want to go out of business if the economy settles at the bottom of the pickle barrel for an extended time.

I was talking with one friend and restaurant owner yesterday who said that they felt very fortunate that their business was only down 5% thus far.  Already he has heard of so many others that have taken much deeper hits.

To my first four (China Garden, Moxie, Luna, and Tacos Tumbras), let me now add three more:

• Donut Parade up on Hamilton.  Though the Parade building has looked like it has been ground zero for a recession for years, Darryl’s maple bars are beyond words.  Try one hot and just frosted with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee and you can see why they don’t need a sign on the building to stay in business (literally there is no sign on the building and hasn’t been for years).
• Chicken-N-More downtown.  Several bites of a chicken dinner at Bob Hemphill’s BBQ spot at “you begin to feel right as rain” (bonus points if you can identify the quote).  The more at Bob’s includes among other things: ribs, catfish, pulled pork, greens, and red beans & rice.
• Mizuna on Howard near Riverfront Park.  Mizuna was the first place I ate in Spokane nine years ago and it has remained near the top of my list of favorites through both ownership changes and a shift from an exclusively vegetarian spot to a bistro with great vegetarian and sustainable carnivore options. Angela Parris puts Mizuna on her list and I agree.