While cruising the streets with a buddy the other day looking for a hot cup of coffee (which we did get and from our hands-down favorite shop Ohori's), the topic of donuts came up.
"Damn, I could go for a donut," they said. "WHERE DO WE GET AN APPLE CIDER DONUT?!"
"Take it easy, dang!" we replied. "We can get you your precious donut!"
Let us first admit that La Forkette has tried to get us to sample apple cider donuts every fall dating as far back as we can remember. But we're a diehard toasted coconut donut lover, so we've resisted and saved up all our love for them coconut shreds. But when we entered Whoo's Donuts on Cerrillos Road that day, the coconut baddies were tragically gone already, so we sucked it up and accepted. our apple cider gate.
Why did we wait so long? That thing was incredible! And yeah, yeah—y'all love Craft Donuts, but we don't. We love Whoo's. Not only is every worker we've ever met super-duper-nice, we've been known to demolish one of those lavender blue corn donuts in, like two seconds. But now you may consider us fully converted to the ol' apple cider, at least when it's brisk out.
First off, Whoo's has somehow managed to create an almost fizzy texture with the cakey donut interior. How this works in a donut, we'll never know, but we're on board. Second, the lightly be-sugar'd and cinnamon-y exterior hit that perfect sweetness you want—not lacking in sweetness, but not dominated by it. Third, they let us bring our off-campus coffees inside, though the worker told us they serve Ohori's coffee, so that's a bonus. Ultimately, though, it all boils down to that all-time great human pleasure of wanting something, not quite getting it but finding something better. Oh, and let us give an honorable mention to the vanilla sprinkle cake donut at Whoo's. This fall is gonna be alllllllright.
Oh, and also Happy Halloween. Word.
We have no actual evidence, but we assume that donut workers are all exactly like this guy from this old Dunkin' Donuts commercial.
Also
- Here's a little reminder for the upcoming James Beard Foundation Taste America dinner at Santa Fe's Escondido at 7:30 pm. As we might have mentioned before, tickets run $165, which is a bit steep, honestly, but for a dinner carefully crafted by chefs Fernando Ruiz (of Escondido itself) and David Sellers (of Horno Restaurant), it might just be worth the splurge. Get more details through this link.
- A few readers have reached out to tell us Piccolino Italian Restaurant is currently renovating something or other within their Agua Fría Street eatery, and we think that's aces, baby. Ring-a-ding-ding, daddio! Naw, but for real, we know that place is popular and we can't wait to see what they...COOK UP! BANG! BOOM! Did it. Lived it. What's next?
- Downtown steak 'n' seafood joint Palace Prime is offering up a number of fall-coded cocktails, including the apple buttered rum with brandy and apple butter, the Maiz Runner with corn whiskey, allspice and honey and the We Got the Beet with beet-infused vodka, spices and cacao. We just think everyone should know that, because they sound GOOD.
- Speaking of tasty drinks, if you hurry, you might be able to make it to restaurant/wine shop Arroyo Vino's forthcoming fortified wine tasting with expert J Henahan on Nov. 2. At $25 per person, it sounds like a steal, especially since they'll credit those bucks back to you if you buy $75 or more worth of wine while there. Visit the website by clicking that link above, or call (505) 983-2100 to ask Qs and/or make rezzies.
Sorry to share another SNL clip, just...this is PRECISELY how we picture Dunkin' Donuts patrons.
More Tidbits
- Good news, McDonald's fans! Following a real intense E, coli situation linked to onions on the Quarter Pounder burger—that found the popular item off the menu—the sammie is back.
- A cheese shop in London found itself in one of those classic missing-tons-of-cheddar situation, but questions remain. Who stole $400,000 worth of cheese from Neals Yard Cheese Shop, and what can they possibly do with all of that stuff? What a world.
- We once had a friend who works in pizza tell us that no one is going to discover a better way to make a pizza than we have already, but that didn't stop Wisconsin's Famous Yeti Pizza from unwittingly infusing their product with THC, which then reportedly made a bunch of people sick. Pshshshst. Bunch of lightweights. Let this be a lesson to all: Do bong rips all the time in case you wind up accidentally ingesting THC. Then you'll just be pumped about it.
A totally scientific breakdown of The Fork's correspondence
In this week's print edition of SFR, behold—TerraCotta Wine Bistro kicks serious ass under Zacatlán chef Eduardo Rodriguez.
Number of Letters Received: 39
*We got a couple letters about how we were too mean to Joe's Dining last week, but the vast majority of letters agree—it's a totally cute restaurant with killer staff that just plain doesn't have very good food.
Most Helpful Tip of the Week (a barely edited letter from a reader):
"Why has the Reporter become a negative (sic) in dining places? Snobbishness or ignorance??? Everyone is different and everyone has a right to that difference. Why are you complaining? Why are you pointing out what you don't like?"
*With the gloriousness of reader Bright D admonishing us for pointing out what we didn't like about Joe's Dining by pointing out what they don't like about The Fork aside, we write about food—good or bad. That's the whole thing we do here in this newsletter. Just saying.
Actually Helpful Tip(s):
"Please dunk on the Santa Fe Foodies [Facebook] group!"
*Since we always count a good dunk prompt as helpful, reader David H gets his wish with this dunk: All them Santa Fe Foodies people need to caaaaaalm down a bit. If you loved a place, you loved it wrong, and if you had a bad experience and mention it, it's because you want small business owners to die. Here's the thing, though—it's impressive what they've been able to build in terms of sheer numbers, but posting there seems scary a lot of the time. When it comes to sheer number of food lovers, though? The group is huge! For whatever reason, our computer won't let us sign into Facebook right now to score a link, but if you steer your FB to "Santa Fe Foodies," you'll find it.
"I so want Joe's Dining food to be better. The atmosphere is great, but everything I've tried there is so bad. I just don't understand."
Reader Sasha M is not wrong. As we said last week, the Joe's ambiance is top-notch, as is the service. The food, however, could use some work.
Gone nuts for donuts,
The Fork
