What seperates "golden era" from "midcentury"?

[dh66]

Not to hijack this thread (though if you're going to hijack a thread, there are no better reasons than rasslin' and donuts), but I don't really care for Dunkin Donuts. Around here we have Shipley Do-Nuts, which predates Dunkin and Krispy Kreme. They are heaven. They also serve what they call "kolaches", but are really klobasniky.

Now you've opened one......
We have a Shipley here, but only one location...which sadly for me is on the other side of the county, but a jalapeño sausage kolache is well worth the drive on a weekend morning.
Otherwise I prefer Krispy Kreme, I guess because they've been here the longest and it's what I grew up with. Years ago they tore down the KK by the bowling alley, and it was a sad day indeed. Since then, they've torn down the bowling alley, for a walmart parking lot. What a shame.

KK can still be found in a few working class neighborhoods, but all the DDs around here are in suburban hells.


And just so it doesn't get too far hijacked...

Here's the old bowling alley, with the roto-sphere sign on top. Mid-century at it's finest. Although not it's finest hour, as you can see from the picture. Damn you walmart!!!

 

[HudsonHawk]

Now you've opened one......
We have a Shipley here, but only one location...which sadly for me is on the other side of the county, but a jalapeño sausage kolache is well worth the drive on a weekend morning.
Otherwise I prefer Krispy Kreme, I guess because they've been here the longest and it's what I grew up with. Years ago they tore down the KK by the bowling alley, and it was a sad day indeed. Since then, they've torn down the bowling alley, for a walmart parking lot. What a shame.

KK can still be found in a few working class neighborhoods, but all the DDs around here are in suburban hells.


And just so it doesn't get too far hijacked...

Here's the old bowling alley, with the roto-sphere sign on top. Mid-century at it's finest. Although not it's finest hour, as you can see from the picture. Damn you walmart!!!

Tearing down the bowling alley is another example of the world gone to hell in a handbasket. And does that qualify as "googie architecture"?

 

[Fading Fast]

Not to hijack this thread (though if you're going to hijack a thread, there are no better reasons than rasslin' and donuts), but I don't really care for Dunkin Donuts. Around here we have Shipley Do-Nuts, which predates Dunkin and Krispy Kreme. They are heaven. They also serve what they call "kolaches", but are really klobasniky.

I'm always up for a detour to a doughnut discussion. I put Dunkin at about a B- (but, in truth, they have so many types and kind, that they really run from D to A- with B- being an average), Krispy Kreme is a B+ overall (I really like their cream filled ones). The problem is the few A doughnut places are one-offs (which makes sense), but they aren't near me.

Also, and this could almost be a new thread - there are certain foods you grew up with that you still enjoy as an adult that you would probably not eat as an adult if you hadn't started eating them as a kid. I am sure, as an adult, I would eat doughnuts, but doubt I would eat Dunkin Doughnuts if I hadn't had them as a kid.

Two other quick items that fall into this category are Entenmann's baked goods - as a kid, that was one of our main sources of baked items (my mother hated to cook and bought prepared stuff like this all the time) and I devoured them and still do - but doubt I would if I hadn't grown up on them as I don't like the competitors that I've tried as an adult as they all taste "junky" to me (realizing that is how Entenmann's would probably taste to me if I hadn't begun eating it as a kid).

The second one is Stouffer's French Bread Pizzas - which my Mom used to leave for me when I had to "fend for yourself" for dinner. I will still eat them today (doctored up with jar tomato sauce and extra cheese, just like as a kid), but recognize that they are not really good.

I looked Shipley's up on line and I'm jealous - the nearest one looks to be about five states away.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Dunkin's was better when they served real crullers, but too many transplants didn't know what they were. The chain is a New England institution on the level of the Red Sox and bean suppers, and until all the twee coffeehouses and their Triple Americano Breves and such started infesting our towns, DD was frequented by everyone from bankers to street cleaners.

You'll still find at least one Dunkins in just about every New England town that hasn't completely sold its soul to the yuppies, and often more than one. I don't like all the fancy-pants stuff they've added in recent years, but they still make an excellent plain donut. I don't like glazed, I don't like jelly, I don't like yeast-risen, I don't like frosting, I don't like a donut that looks like a third-grader's art project, and I don't order anything in Italian. Just give me a good plain donut in a paper bag, and I'm happy.

There's very little that I ate as a kid that I wouldn't willingly eat as an adult. My favorite food as a child was a sandwich made from a sliced-up sheep's heart.

 

[dh66]

Raspberry jelly filled from Krispy Kreme for me, please.

http://youtu.be/9DVjMJCv_RA
This is not the one from Birmingham (Memphis, I think) but here is a roto-sphere in action. Yes, Hudson Hawk, I'd call it googie, in it's full glory. Imagine, if you will, a night of bowling under this magnificence, then strolling across the parking lot for late night coffee and doughnuts at the 24 hr Krispy Kreme before heading home.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Dunkin's was better when they served real crullers, but too many transplants didn't know what they were. The chain is a New England institution on the level of the Red Sox and bean suppers, and until all the twee coffeehouses and their Triple Americano Breves and such started infesting our towns, DD was frequented by everyone from bankers to street cleaners.

We have 'em in the Midwest as well. They still make a terrific cup of coffee. I go gourmet on soda pop and hot chocolate, but nothing beats a good cup of regular coffee in the AM.

 

[vitanola]

I'm always up for a detour to a doughnut discussion. I put Dunkin at about a B- (but, in truth, they have so many types and kind, that they really run from D to A- with B- being an average), Krispy Kreme is a B+ overall (I really like their cream filled ones). The problem is the few A doughnut places are one-offs (which makes sense), but they aren't near me.

Also, and this could almost be a new thread - there are certain foods you grew up with that you still enjoy as an adult that you would probably not eat as an adult if you hadn't started eating them as a kid. I am sure, as an adult, I would eat doughnuts, but doubt I would eat Dunkin Doughnuts if I hadn't had them as a kid.

Two other quick items that fall into this category are Entenmann's baked goods - as a kid, that was one of our main sources of baked items (my mother hated to cook and bought prepared stuff like this all the time) and I devoured them and still do - but doubt I would if I hadn't grown up on them as I don't like the competitors that I've tried as an adult as they all taste "junky" to me (realizing that is how Entenmann's would probably taste to me if I hadn't begun eating it as a kid).

The second one is Stouffer's French Bread Pizzas - which my Mom used to leave for me when I had to "fend for yourself" for dinner. I will still eat them today (doctored up with jar tomato sauce and extra cheese, just like as a kid), but recognize that they are not really good.

I looked Shipley's up on line and I'm jealous - the nearest one looks to be about five states away.

When growing up I never particularly cared for any of the "Factory Cakes" as Grandma called them. She was a great home baker herself and there was a really excellent bakery just 150 feet from her front door. As I grew up in Cleveland there was never any reason to eat poor baked goods. There were the Baker Brothers, with two bakeries, Davis and Hough bakeries, with twenty-five stores between them, and little independent bakeries in practically every neighborhood; Samosky's, Carl's, Drupnik's and Meyers on the South Side, Smith's, Esselberger's and the West Park n the west side, Lax and Mandel, Goulga's, Broadway, Sulik's, Alesci's and Napolitano's on the East Side.

Almost all are gone now, save for Baker's, Davis, Lax and Mandel and Samosky's.

Sic transit and all that rot.

 

[HudsonHawk]

As I grew up in Cleveland there was never any reason to eat poor baked goods.

Still no reason...that's why you go to Shipley for donuts!

 

[tonyb]

My dear old mom has very little justification for her pride in some things (her children, for instance) and a great deal for others (her baking, quite notably). It can be amusing to see her response to baked goods that fall short of her standards.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We have an "upscale" bakery next door to us that wouldn't be caught dead selling donuts. Too declasse. But it's pretty funny watching their customers trying to dunk a baguette in a cup of coffee.

 

[vitanola]

We have an "upscale" bakery next door to us that wouldn't be caught dead selling donuts. Too declasse. But it's pretty funny watching their customers trying to dunk a baguette in a cup of coffee.

In our family "Doughnuts" or rather Crullers were a bit exotic, as they were considered to be "American". Grandma never had them around the house. She always kept cake, Kolacky or Vánočka for snacks and desserts, even though Baker's bakery offered really wonderful Crullers. Mom bought crullers in preference to the "Old Country" stuff. That said, our local bakeries made product that was so good and so cheap that folks in our neighborhood seldom bought boxed baked goods, save for Twinkies and Ho-Hos for the youngster's lunch bags.

 

[HudsonHawk]

We have an "upscale" bakery next door to us that wouldn't be caught dead selling donuts. Too declasse. But it's pretty funny watching their customers trying to dunk a baguette in a cup of coffee.

Isn't this what everyone is bemoaning? The lack of local bakeries that make fresh, local one-offs that aren't a product of the big chains and The Boys?

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Upscale" bakeries are just The Boys in another guise -- selling an image of sophistication and "gourmet respectability" and baguettes that poke out of the bag at just the right meet-cute angle, like in a Woody Allen movie. What I want to see are working-class bakeries that sell baked-in-a-tin-can brown bread on Saturday nights, to go with the Sealright takeout containers of baked beans. And, of course, simple lard-fried plain donuts. There used to be bakeries like this in every town, until the vast beige plague of the yuppies arrived in the '80s and '90s.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

And let's not get into the gourmet cupcake thing. :doh:

 

[HudsonHawk]

"Upscale" bakeries are just The Boys in another guise -- selling an image of sophistication and "gourmet respectability" and baguettes that poke out of the bag at just the right meet-cute angle, like in a Woody Allen movie. What I want to see are working-class bakeries that sell baked-in-a-tin-can brown bread on Saturday nights, to go with the Sealright takeout containers of baked beans. And, of course, simple lard-fried plain donuts. There used to be bakeries like this in every town, until the vast beige plague of the yuppies arrived in the '80s and '90s.

What's wrong with "respectable" doughnuts? I don't get why it has to be either a big chain or baked by someone who sleeps on a dirt floor.

 

[HudsonHawk]

And let's not get into the gourmet cupcake thing. :doh:

I love the gourmet cupcakes. Not $5 worth, but the quality is outstanding.

 

[LizzieMaine]

What's wrong with "respectable" doughnuts? I don't get why it has to be either a big chain or baked by someone who sleeps on a dirt floor.

It's the very idea that a donut needs to be made "respectable," let alone the idea that any donut is worth $3.50. Just another symptom of the creeping gentrification that's erasing my native culture in favor of a generic, marketing-driven "upscale white people" way of life -- while trying to make me believe they're doing me a favor in doing so. No thanks.

 

[HudsonHawk]

It's the very idea that a donut needs to be made "respectable," let alone the idea that any donut is worth $3.50. Just another symptom of the creeping gentrification that's erasing my native culture in favor of a generic, marketing-driven "upscale white people" way of life -- while trying to make me believe they're doing me a favor in doing so. No thanks.

I get that. But at some point, it has to come down to the quality of the food, not the image. At least for me.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I used to go into Slamin's Bakery in Belfast and get a sincere lard-fried plain donut for fifteen cents. I can't imagine anything to come out of Yupville that would ever taste as good as that. Of course that donut was made by an overweight, sweaty WW2 vet in a stained T-shirt, and not a rail-thin neck-bearded hipster who thinks he's a "chef."

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Chef Ethan