Bite of the Palouse: Dom’s Donuts a Frighteningly Good Donut

The Only Real Scare is Having to Choose

CARSON HOLLAND

Dom’s Donuts bringing scary good donuts to the Palouse

CARSON HOLLAND, Evergreen columnist

Need a sweet treat that is not the hoard of fun-sized candy that you have accumulated in your dorm room? Does the scent of fried dough send you into a Halloween haze? Are you impatient with me for asking these pointed questions?

If the answer to one or all of these is correct then you and I are both thinking about the sweet treat that only rarely can be beat, the donut. Whether it is a maple bar, bear claw or a traditional glazed, I can always go for a donut no matter the mood or time of day. Beyond the bakery aisle in a grocery store, it is hard to find a fresh donut in Pullman. 

That is until I found Dom’s Donuts, a relatively new food truck that is open for business right next to the Pullman Depot Heritage Foundation train on Grand Ave. While at first, the truck might be hard to spot, do not let that scare you away from these tasty treats.

The hours of the donut truck are perhaps the oddest thing about it and I had to do some significant planning in order to get my hands on these donuts. Open Tuesday to Saturday, you might just have to skip sleeping in as they open at 7:30 a.m. and close at noon. The only exception to this rule is on Saturday when their hours are 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

While walk-up orders are welcome, you can order your donuts online and schedule a pickup time if that is more convenient. I can imagine picking up a dozen donuts right before class tomorrow would make that lecture a bit more bearable. Ordering ahead of time is encouraged for larger orders and going online can help you pick out your donuts from Dom’s many options.

Now the reason you are all here, the donuts. 

When my girlfriend and I stopped by we wanted to try out as many donuts as possible. The most important thing to note about Dom’s Donuts is that despite their initial small size they are thick cake donuts and can fill you up fast so we settled on a half-dozen.

In the end, after agonizing over the menu we chose the S’more, Chocolate Iced, Cinnamon Sugar, Glazed, Maple and of course a spooky Halloween-themed sprinkles donut. Altogether it came out to around $14 which seemed reasonable enough even before we dug in. 

First up we tried the glazed. Being a huge fan of the traditional Krispy Kreme original I had high hopes for this donut and it did not disappoint. Sweet but not to the point of sickly, the glaze meshed really well with the cake donut consistency that while a sticky mess was an enjoyable one.

Next was the maple donut. Like the glazed, I am a huge proponent of the maple bar so my bar was set rather high. Unfortunately, this was one of my least favorite donuts as the maple was gloopy in some places and much too thick in others. Still a good donut by any measure but my least favorite of the bunch. 

The third was the cinnamon sugar and honestly, it is hard to say anything other than good. A crispy dough mixed with cinnamon sugar is hard to mess up on and from the first to the last bite, I enjoyed munching on the donut. 

The Halloween-themed sprinkles donut was a solid entry and breached the top three, incorporating the positives of all of the previous donuts. Perfectly cooked and fitting the spooky season this should be a go-to for any Halloween enjoyer. 

In the final two, second place goes to the chocolate donut by a close margin. Crispy outside with a soft and thick middle, the donut itself could have ranked high even without the sweet and tasty chocolate frosting on top. I could order a full dozen of just chocolate and be a happy camper. 

If you have been keeping track that leaves only the s’mores donut and oh my Butch T. Cougar it was good. Ironically it was the donut I was most leery of, but it tasted exactly like a s’more without the mess and fuss of cooking one over the fire. This marriage of marshmallow morsel and the delicious donut was a match made in Halloween heaven. 

Despite some clear favorites, not a single donut was an utter disappointment, a welcome change from the roulette wheel of grocery stores. For those wanting an official ranking that puts maple last, cinnamon sugar, glazed, Halloween sprinkles and chocolate in second with s’mores taking the crown.

Of course, this was not even the extent of the donut menu and there are still more to be tasted. I give Dom’s Donuts my enthusiastic donut-loving approval and am glad the Palouse is home to some fresh local donuts. Grab some friends and a big appetite and go down to Dom’s Donuts.

If you know of some food spots that I have not tried yet that you are just dying to brag about to your friends let me know by emailing [email protected].