FOR THE LOVE OF ST. LOUIS St. Louis was once called the City of Tomorrow. It was the Gateway to the West: the shining city on a hill. Then the things that happened between then and now, well, they happened. And now St. Louis is a city rarely mentioned alongside words like “tomorrow” or “shining,” if it’s mentioned at all. However, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have anything left to give. The people of St. Louis, the ones whose families have been around since the first red bricks were laid, keep the city alive. They’re the blue collar Americans who grind day in and day out to do what they do, simply because they have to do it. Tradition is all they are. On the other end of the spectrum, younger people growing up in and moving to St. Louis are bringing new blood to the old school city. New ideas and opportunities just might be pushing the City of Tomorrow into the tomorrow it was promised long ago. When Wade and I set out to find what there is to love about St. Louis, these thoughts crossed my mind. What’s happening in St. Louis that makes it interesting? What in the city’s history makes its present worth conversation? How do I bring that to an audience? Wade and I pondered this question deeply for several days, turning it around in our heads. And then we went and ate a whole lot of donuts.
WADE JOHNSON AND ALEX NGO...
DOWN THE DONUT HOLE
WHY DONUTS? All we wanted to do was have an excuse to drive around and eat something. Donuts were just a means to our slacking end. It was the perfect ruse, and you fell for it. More seriously, St. Louis has a rich history of mom and pop donut shops, many of which are beloved by local residents. There’s also a wave of new, artisanal donut shops with hip, trendy attitudes and flavors. Wade and I had but the faintest clue of the complexities of all these donut shops, so we decided to find out more. Like detectives working a case, we did our research, chased leads, and ate donuts. Get it? Cops eat donuts. You get it. We took to the streets of St. Louis in Wade’s tiny blue Kia with one question in our minds: what do donuts mean to St. Louis? Here’s what we found.
DISCLAIMER: Wade and I know nothing about donuts. We are in no way experts on dough, fryers, or anything else involved in the process. Wade’s favorite donut shop is Krispy Kreme. I prefer bagels. In our journey, we chose not to focus on the donuts themselves. Rather, we wanted to learn about the shops: their history and the areas of St. Louis they call home.
WORLD’S FAIR DONUTS The first stop in our odyssey has been a St. Louis staple for over thirty years. Located close to the traditionally Italian neighborhood of The Hill, World’s Fair Donuts has been called the best donut shop in St. Louis by several news sources, including The Riverfront Times. I would put it high on the list, taste–wise. The chocolate long john is fire. Wade agrees. Wade also agrees that World’s Fair does not practice “service with a smile,” and it doesn’t care. Here’s what happened: We walked in, bought a couple of donuts, and asked the elderly woman at the register if she could chat. She told us she was busy with customers. Wade and I were the only ones in the store. We promptly left. We knew from prior research that this woman and her husband started World’s fair in 1979. They’ve been running it close to singlehandedly for that whole time, and it shows. They are so, so old. They are so old and so mean. The abrasive attitude and excellent donuts are emblematic of an older, harder kind of St. Louis native. They don’t have time to be nice. They’re too busy doing their job.
DONUT DRIVE–IN The people at Donut Drive–In were considerably nicer than the World’s Fair lady. However, that didn’t mean they gave any better answers. The employees were genuinely confused as to why Wade and I had any interest in the history of the shop, much less what donuts mean to St. Louis. At Donut Drive–In, donuts are just a job to do. Working from 5AM to 10PM on weekdays and to 11:59PM Friday through Saturday doesn’t give one much time to muse on the greater metaphors surrounding donuts. The shop is a family business, and until very recently was owned by the same family since the start. As is the case with many family businesses, it was passed down from generation to generation, regardless of what the younger generation thought. Your parents made donuts, so you’ll make donuts, and you won’t complain, because what else are you going to do? Donut Drive–In is a real old–school, denim jeans, runs on coffee and diesel fuel kind of establishment. I recommend the classic glazed. Having visited two of the most well–established donut shops in the city, Wade and I decided to venture into younger territory. What new insights could we glean? What new tastes could we taste? We hopped in the Kia and went to find out.
VINCENT VAN DOUGHNUT If Donut Drive–In and World’s Fair represent the blue–collar St. Louis, Vincent Van Doughnut is the white–collar county. Sitting among a nice row of hip and trendy shops in the Clayton area, Vincent Van Doughnut is the new kid on the block. Before it settled down in brick and mortar three years ago, the square shaped donuts were sold through a food truck. You might infer from its food truck beginnings that the shop defines itself as a kind of “traditional meets modern” establishment. Its trendy branding and hip coffee shop aesthetic are far removed from the absolutely practical look of World’s Fair and Donut Drive–In. The bakers (fryers?) at Vincent focus on crafting delicious donuts with well–considered ingredients. Unsurprisingly, a donut shop with a clear vision of what kind of donuts it wants to sell is better at articulating what it thinks of donuts in St. Louis. Candice, the pastry chef/cashier we talked to, believes that people are returning to a want for fresh, natural foods crafted with expertise. To them, donuts are art. At Vincent Van Doughnut they spell “doughnut” like the kinds of people who buy Red Wing boots and never work in construction, but they live up to the extra three letters.
STRANGE DONUTS Vincent Van Doughnut prides itself in well–made donuts crafted with true culinary knowledge: a respect for the past and an eye for the future. Strange Donuts does not give a shit. They’re, well, strange. The shop, located in the popular Maplewood area, makes what Candice of Vincent Van Doughnut calls “voodoo.” Opening around the same time as Vincent, Strange Donuts is all about radical innovation in every direction. The shop is known to put foodstuffs such as Fruit Loops on its donuts. There’s a flavor of the month and gluten free Thursdays. Exciting, energetic branding adorns the store even more aggressively than at Vincent, and there’s even branded merchandise. It’s honestly really cool. I want a sweatshirt pretty badly. There isn’t even a hint of the working class tiredness we found at Donut Drive–In. The cashier, a friendly young woman named Hannah, was more than happy to share what she thought of donuts. At Strange Donuts, donuts are considered “the new cupcake,” and making them is treated with irreverent, joyful exuberance. Donuts are the new trend, and the trend will be milked with the youthfulness of people who can afford to open a store that puts fruit loops on its artisanal foods. And they are so good at it.
St. Louis is a city that was once considered among the greatest of American metropolises, before it was touched by the realities of time and human frailty. Despite being almost forgotten by the rest of the nation, St. Louis has soldiered on. Old–school St. Louis natives work day in and day out to get by, because the only good work is hard work. Now, a younger, brighter eyed and more optimistic generation is coming into the city. They see opportunities to make something of themselves and to make people’s lives better. Does this perfectly translate to donut shops and the people who run them? Probably not. But through our adventure Wade and I saw something pretty close. Older shops like World’s Fair and donut Drive–In have no need for well designed branding or new flavors. They’ve stood through decades on not much more than damn good donuts and elbow grease. Vincent and Strange, on the other hand, are thriving in a younger environment where new ideas are what bring success. All of these shops paint a picture of a St. Louis with one foot steeped in tradition and the other stepping into a new day. What’s next for the Gateway City? I don’t know. Wade doesn’t know. What we do know is that St. Louis has some damn good donuts.
WE VISITED FOUR DONUT SHOPS. ST. LOUIS IS FILLED WITH MANY, MANY MORE. GO! EAT DONUTS! SHARE YOUR STORIES!
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