Announcing the Donut King!

We came, we saw, we donutted. And it was awesome. A huge thank you, from me and from all of us here at Metblogs, to everyone, who came out to the Donut Summit today! We had an fifty entries – so basically, a heck of a lot of donuts – and a great crowd, and a beautiful afternoon! I’m sure you’re all dying to know the voting results, and who reigns supreme as DONUT KING (!!!) but first, there are a few people who need lots of thanking:

To our readers, old and new, for coming out and supporting us!

To all of the writers here at Metblogs who helped out in all kinds of ways but most especially the following people:

Kevin Ott, for writing a hilarious voting guide (which I’m going to ask him to post here for everyone to read), for helping scout locations, and for hanging out with me in Griffith Park for three hours this morning so that nobody would steal our picnic tables;

Our intrepid captain Lucinda, for her publicity know-how, her event-running smarts, her megaphone, her fantastic donut hats, for making last-minute trips to Smart and Final, and for thinking this event was a good idea in the first place;

Julia Frey, our coffee maven;

Queequeg, who drove all the way to Glendora to make sure that we would have those fresh strawberry Donut Man donuts;

The minds who came up with the idea of the Donut Summit – ,as I recall, it was hatched over pastrami sandwiches during the Classic Eats visit to Langer’s – I was there, Julia was there, Robnoxious was there, I think maybe Will Campbell was there, and I don’t remember who else – and I think it was Robnoxious who first suggested we bring all of LA’s donuts to one central location.  And thus the Donut Summit was born!

I also want to thank some of my non-Metblogger friends who drove me around to get Donut Summit supplies, and stayed up late with me spraypainting silver and gold donut medals. And special thanks to my friend Nikki who put her stage managerial skills to work and ran Donut Registration for us today.   I’m sure I’ve forgotten other people who deserve a huge thank you, but please know that we appreciate all your help and support!

I was so excited at the number of donut shops represented today – we had very little overlap, and later this week I’ll post a full list of the donut shops who were represented. I want to give a nod to what I thought were some of the highlights of the competition: DK’s Donuts, from Santa Monica absolutely floored me with their blueberry apple fritters (I think they were robbed of the Best Fritter title!) and fresh whipped cream donuts; Babycakes’ vegan donuts were delicious and light and tasty; and Frygirl’s homemade mini donuts were totally to die for (and she does catering!) and I will admit to personally saving all of the leftover Frygirl donuts for myself.

And now the results!

BEST YEAST-RAISED DONUT: (a four-way tie) Moon Donuts, Redondo Beach; Frygirl; Huckleberry Donuts, Santa Monica; Spudnuts, Mar Vista/Canoga Park

BEST CAKE DONUT: Tasty Donuts, West Hollywood

BEST DONUT FILLING: Donut Man, Glendora

BEST FRITTER: Randy’s, Westchester

BEST FROSTING OR GLAZE: (yet another four-way tie!) Moon Donuts, Redondo Beach; Bob’s Donuts, 3^rd and Fairfax; Donut Man, Glendora; Granny’s Donuts, San Pedro

BEST CHOCOLATE DONUT: DK’s Donuts, Santa Monica

BEST HERTZ DONUT: Our very own Robnoxious

MOST VISUALLY APPEALING DONUT: Frygirl

MOST UNCONVENTIONAL DONUT: Frygirl

ROUNDEST DONUT: Spudnuts, Mar Vista/Canoga Park

BEST VEGAN DONUT: Babycakes

WORST OVERALL DONUT: Dubious Donuts, Culver City? (these donuts were of mysterious origin, possibly homemade?)

BEST OVERALL DONUT and DONUT KING: The Donut Man!

Congrats to everyone who brought winning donuts and thanks again!  Stay tuned as more of our writers post their reports and pictures from the Donut Summit!

Donut Summit: TOMORROW!

Hope you’re all stocked up with antacids, because the Donut Summit is almost upon us!

We’ll see you there tomorrow, in Griffith Park (find us near the Vermont entrance), at 1pm, with your donuts!  I’m super excited – word on the street is that there will be strawberry donuts from the Donut Man, and I’m bringing blueberry donuts from my own beloved little Tasty Donuts, and all kinds of general donut-themed foolishness is planned!  You can find more information about what’s in store here.

And big thanks to the fine folks over at Brand X and at Flavorpill for the shout outs!

Donut Summit FAQ!

Less than one week until the Donut Summit!  Yay!  There have been some questions floating around about how things will run, so I’ve tried to answer them all below:

1.  What will happen at the Donut Summit?
It’s going to work a little something like this:

- The festivities kick off at 1pm. So, from about 1-1:30, we’ll have Donut Registration. Just show up with your Donuts, check in with our illustrious Metbloggers, and we’ll make sure your donut box is clearly labeled with the name of your donut shop.

- Once everyone’s donuts are registered (so, by about 1:30), donut tasting will begin and will last until about 2:30. We’ll have donut tasting stations set up, and we’ll provide you with a ballot for voting on your top donuts. We’ll have Donut Marshalls on hand cutting up donuts for sharing, so that everyone can taste lots of different donuts from all over the city.

- Once all of the ballots are submitted, we’ll tally the votes! While vote tallying is going on, you lucky people get to hang out with Metbloggers, and there will be fun and games!

- At around 3:30, we’ll crown the Donut King!
(Please note that all times listed above are approximate and subject to change!)

2.  Where is the Donut Summit?
In Griffith Park, near the intersection of Vermont and Commonewealth Canyon – see here for a map!

3.  Where should I bring donuts from?
Anywhere! From Winchell’s to Spudnuts to Stan’s to your own kitchen – it’s all fair game. We’ve put together a short list of local donut shops to give you some ideas, but don’t feel restricted to that list.

4.  How many donuts should I bring?
As many as you like – just bring donuts!

5.  What’s going to happen to any leftover donuts?
While we would have liked to donate any leftover donuts to a local food bank or soup kitchen, we haven’t been able to find any local organizations that are willing to deal with perishables (but if any of you, dear readers, do know of a local charity who might be interested, please let us know). So any extra donuts will be sent home with Donut Summit attendees in donut doggie bags, so you’ll have breakfast for the week! And there are lots of tasty things to be done with leftover donuts: you can do donut bread pudding, donut trifle, donut french toast, and I, personally, an an advocate of the refried donut – just throw a stale donut into a non-stick pan and the inside will get soft and the glaze will carmelize and go crispy, and it will become the most delicious thing in the world.

6.  Why did you spell donut wrong?  It’s spelled d-o-u-g-h-n-u-t.

Look, I just spell it the way Randy’s spells it.  And a giant cement donut can’t be wrong.

Where are you bringing your donuts from?

As the Donut Summit approaches (June 13^th!  Super soon!), we are turning to you, dear readers, for help!  We want to make sure that a fairly comprehensive range of LA’s donut shops are represented at the summit, so, if you’re coming, please comment below and let us know where you’re planning to bring your donuts from!

Below the jump is our working list of local donutteries:  those with an asterisk beside them have been claimed by Metrobloggers, but all of the rest are fair game!  And we are well aware that this list is currently far from complete, so if your favorite donut haunt isn’t on the list, that’s a-ok:  just comment below and let us know which local donut purveyor you want to add to the list!

And if you need remindin’, you can find out more about the Donut Summit and how it will work here.  You can also follow@donutsummit on Twitter, join our facebook page, or visit us at home at LA Metblogs!

Our donuts bring all the boys to the yard

What happens when you put three Metblogging ladies in a room with a few dozen donuts and a photographer?  Well, let’s just say that many, many donuts were harmed in the making of this photo:

So, yeah.  The Donut Summit is clearly going to be the social event of the season.  The deets, in case you’ve missed them:

When?  Sunday, June 13, 1pm

Where?  Griffith Park Picnic Area near Vermont, under our GIANT DONUT signs.

Price of admission: Between one to 12 donuts, either sourced at your fave donut shop OR, yes, you CAN make your own. Label box or bag with the name of the donut maker.

Donuts will be labeled by shop of origin and voted on by category, and one lucky donut shop will walk away with the crown and scepter of LOS ANGELES DONUT KING/QUEEN, regardless of whether or not that really is the name of his/her store.

And as if that weren’t enough, there will be games, goodies, limited edition artist t-shirts (for a donation) and more greasy, carby, sugar-coated fun than you can shake a stick at.

All the cool kids are talking about the Donut Summit

Word about the Donut Summit is spreading like wildfire over the interwebs!  They’re talking about it over at the LA Weekly’s Squid Ink; at NBC LA; and over at Food is my Nish, there’s an awesome list of Donut Summit-inspired local gourmet donut options!  So exciting!

And now, dear readers, a challenge for you:  Help me come up with some good categories that we can judge donuts on!  Here’s a few to get us started:

Best old-fashioned

Best filled donut

Best vegan donut

Best apple fritter

Best glaze

Best maple donut

Most unconventional donut

Most visually attractive donut

…and that’s all I’ve got.  I know you can do better than me!

47 days until the Donut Summit!

We are less than two months out from the Donut Summit, and, oh boy, are we getting excited. Or at least I am getting excited because, well, DONUTS! If you haven’t already marked your calendars in indelible ink, the Donut Summit is scheduled to take place Sunday, June 13th at 1pm. The festivities will take place in Griffith Park, at the picnic area near the Vermont entrance. (We will have a big, donutty sign, so we’ll be easy to find!)

If you’ve forgotten (and how could you forget?) admission to the Donut Summit is one dozen donuts from your favorite local donut joint, to add to the donut pool, so that we can share them and try donuts from all across this fair land. And because nothing is fun unless it’s a contest, we’ll vote on LA’s best donut. Stay tuned for an updated list of LA area donut shops that you can choose from later this week!

Meanwhile: the Donut Summit is on twitter, bringing you all manner of donut news (and documenting my donut cravings) at twitter.com/donutsummit.

And I want to give a huge thank you to Noah Caldwell, who put together our awesome Donut Summit logo! Nothing makes me happier than the idea of a giant donut rising like the sun over the Pacific.