Since Boston cream pie doughnuts are my 5th-grade son’s favorites, for the latest quarterly round-up of Bend’s best doughnuts, nepotism led me to use his friends as judges and jury the morning after his birthday sleepover-party. I assure you, dear readers, they executed with Gordon Ramsey-like brutal honesty. So much so one of the owners got up in the comments of this one (for the first time that I know of).
When presented perfectly, the glazed craggy ring is one of the most perfect doughnuts.The fact that one of Bend’s four brick’n’mortar doughnut shops only makes them intermittently makes me realize that such a bakery without old-fashioneds would be like a brewery without an old-school classic pale ale. Given that I’ve awakened to the simple, ecumenical beauty of old-fashioneds, I collected both the quintessential glazed version as well as chocolate-frosted, and even a few others such as cinnamon-sugar, maple-iced and true O.G. plain (like an unglazed cake doughnut, these are only intended for dunking in coffee or hot cocoa), If you’re jonesing for any sort of old-fashioned in Bend, heed our grueling research.
Look, it’s a matter of fortuitousness that I became both a beer writer and a doughnut writer. But if I’m being honest, I think Canada’s antiheroes, the McKenzie Bros. had something to do with it. Which is also why I can’t even THINK the words “jelly douhnut” without hearing Rick Moranis sheepishly offer, “It’s a jelly.”
So I was elated to drive all over Bend and Sisters in search of Bend’s best jellies!
Many months ago, someone mentioned hearing about a new brewery in the works. I had no details other than it would be opening in Sisters, about a half hour outside of Bend, and that it was from someone who’d briefly worked at Spider City Brewing, which does a good job of brewing beer styles from around the world. Except, from what I’ve seen, Belgian saisons. So imagine my delight, as a devout saison lover who has precious little in the way of locally brewed examples of the style to choose from, that Funky Fauna Artisan Ales would be a saison-centric brewery. Here’s my profile on ’em in Bend Source Weekly.
Brian Yaeger: Beer Writer 