Over at 7010 W 21st street, you would think it was Black Friday and big screen TV’s were being sold for $200. You’re wrong, donuts are being sold for about $2 a piece and they have been moving like ht cakes.
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| Open for Business! |
Monday morning marked the long awaited grand opening of Hurts Donut. The following they have formed since the announcement of their arrival to Wichita has been cult like. They have amassed over 17,000 likes on Facebook before even opening their doors. People camped out Sunday, doors opened in the morning, lines started and never stopped. People waited over 30 minutes just to get a sample of their creative donuts, tons of donuts sold out, lines continued, even up until 11 pm there were lines 30-40 people deep.
Hurts Donut does not close, they are always open. I’m not sure when the popularity will die down; probably not anytime soon.
Early Monday evening, my friend Nicole was able to go wait in line to get a box full of donuts for a few of us to try. We’ve heard all the hype and were excited to see what they tasted like. By the time Nicole arrived, the line was probably 50 people deep. By the time she was able to purchase donuts, so many great options were gone so she was able to get five different kinds.
I was told, inside there was a beautiful aroma of donuts in the air. I know certain readers care about smells so if you love the smell of donuts, you’ll love walking into the building.
Many of the donuts are displayed in a glass case right in front for the customers to see but also many of the donuts are held behind the counter. It’s probably best they are behind there. With Ariana Grande coming to Wichita in a few months, we don’t need another case of her licking donuts.
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| Hurts Donut Menu |
The prices are pretty straight forward for the donuts. It’s $1 for a glazed donut, $1.50 for a classic donut and $2 for a special donuts. Many of the donuts you will want to try will likely run you around $2 if you get them individually.
As for the dozens, a dozen glaze will run you $8. You can get a Hurts Dozen for $12 which is any 12 donuts they pick out for you. If you get the Hurts Little, it’s six donuts they choose for $7.
Then it’s $15 for a dozen donuts or $10 for six donuts, difference being you get to choose the donuts instead of them.
Other specialties include Maple Bacon donuts for $3, Cinnamon Rolls for $3, Donut Milk Shake for $5, $3 Apple Fritters, Donut Holes are $2 for a dozen.
While we were unable to get some of the donuts that we wanted, we were still glad to get at least six donuts just to sample on day one.
The six donuts we got were two glazed, a Reese’s Pieces donut, Fruity Pebbles covered donut, an animal cracker donut with sprinkles and another donut with sprinkles that tasted like chocolate cake.
One thing to note: Hurts Donut was working hard to keep up with orders that day. They sold over 485 dozen donuts as of the afternoon. They wrote on their Facebook that “due to the extreme lines and demand, all product is being decorated HOT straight out of the fryer. Most donuts will be gooey.”
Unfortunately this made some of the donuts we had somewhat soggy. For example, the Fruity Pebbles on the donut were almost melted and very soggy; there was a similar experience with the animal cracker donut.
Another friend, Kim, joined us in sampling the donuts and the runaway favorite of the five flavors everybody liked was the Reese’s Pieces donut. Between the peanut butter cream and the actual Reese’s Pieces, it was a major hit between everybody and just delicious. The mixture of flavors had perfect synergy and tasted great. The “birthday cake” donut as we called it (in the lower right hand corner of the picture was also very tasty, followed by the glazed donut which was done very well. There wasn’t too much of a glaze on it which sometimes you find on donuts at Krispy Kreme.
The donuts were very well crafted and I’m sure if they weren’t soggy due to the temps, it would have been much better.
I drove by later that night and there was still a line. Nicole plans on going back this week hopefully in the morning to get a different batch and I have plans on doing a real full review in the future once things settle down.
……………this blog doesn’t end there yet. My friend Nicole lives out West and decided she would drive by on her way to work in the morning to see how busy it was. Around 5:07 am Tuesday, she didn’t see many cars so she peeped in. No line. She managed to get a big assortment of a dozen different donuts and graciously picked up an extra dozen which I picked up from her on my way to work.
The above twelve you see in order are:
Row 1: Smore, Cookies and Cream, Peanut Butter Reese’s, Dirt and Worms
Row 2: Oreo Cheesecake, Lucky Charms, Cotton Candy, Salted Caramel
Row 3: PB&J, Sprinkles, Cookie Monster, Andes Mint
A handful of colleagues tried them out with me one by one, all cut up in pieces.
The top contenders for the favorite donuts were:
Salted Caramel. Comments like “Really rich but great”, “That’s a winner”, a “True Dessert Donut”
PB&J. You have to try this and make sure you get plenty of jelly with it. It was an awesome experience especially if you like Peanut Butter. First a PB&J Sandwich at Spangles, now they have PB&J donuts!
Oreo Cheesecake. One person went as far as to say it was the best of them all. The cream cheese icing really made it.
There were some other notable good ones in there such as the:
Andes Mint. Comments were made such as “Refreshing on a hot summer day.”, “Don’t have to brush your teeth cause it’s has a nice minty aftertaste.” and “Aquafresh”. Personally, I thought it was pretty good as well. It had a high mint aftertaste if you like that.
Lucky Charms. I was looking forward to this one the most. I love Lucky Charms marshmallows and it made the donuts magically delicious.
Cotton Candy. Does indeed taste like Cotton Candy.
Cookies and Creme. Very good and favored well by some that tried it.
Cookie Monster. Really rich and good but a high frosting content if you’re ok with that. Just too much sugar for me.
Some that didn’t fare as well….
Dirt and Worms. Pretty bland and not as exciting. Only one worm which one girl took for herself leaving us stranded with just a regular donut.
Sprinkles. Your basic donut with sprinkles.
But if you want my co-workers opinions, Salted Caramel, PB&J and Oreo Cheesecake are the way to go.
If you plan on going, expect lines and expect shortages of some of the donuts you may want. So far so good on actual taste. Can’t wait to try it again and get a real feel for everything.
Thanks to Nicole and Kim for joining me in this First Look along with colleagues who risked their lives and health sampling a dozen with me, and extra thanks to Nicole for braving the lines for me not just once but twice!
Happy Dining,
Eddy
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| The aftermath |
Thanks for your wonderful review. After all it will really help the restaurant to improve the things they are missing out and obviously, make better donuts!