Charleston's favorite donut shop is back open - in a brand new brick-and-mortar location.



Vandalia Donut Co., which had a food truck two years ago in the area, can now be found on Tennessee Avenue in the trendy Elk City neighborhood dishing out delicious donuts under a slightly different name - The Vandalia Co. 



Right now, they're still in a soft opening phase where there is no dine-in and they're open Thursday through Saturday 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Expanded hours and a new menu is coming this summer. 



When I visited, there were three donut flavors: The Number 42 - Scratch-made buttermilk donut rolled in cinnamon sugar. Why the name? It took 42 tries to get it right. 



Hummingbird Cake Donut - The Number 42 with pineapple, whipped cream cheese, toasted pecan, and coconut drizzled with salted caramel banana cream sauce.



Nutella Crunch - The Number 42 topped with whipped Nutella cream, drizzled with Nutella ganache and sprinkled with toasted hazelnuts. 

I think you can tell from the photos alone that these were dee-lish-ous. But the 42 is just a classic and it's the basis for all their specialty ones. The hummingbird just screamed spring to me. And the Nutella? *chef's kiss* - so good. I already can't wait for the next specialty flavors - and to just hang out here.



EDIT 11/06/21: I finally was able to enjoy some of the lunch items they have - like this greek salad grain bowl. It was SO good. It had couscous, kalamata olives, cucumbers, spring mix, hummus, taziki, pita, a delicious lemon vinaigrette, tomatoes and feta. It was full of texture and flavor and so, so good.



Grade: A

Princeton is consistently improving and adding all kinds of new, fun things. One of those new things is Totally Glazed, a donut shop on Mercer Street. 



The shop has a sorta retro vibe with the awning and then some graffiti art. Brick walls lay the way for bright, white counters full of donuts. FULL OF DONUTS.



As I perused all the different flavors, I matched the chalkboard menu on the wall with the options in front of me. Lemon Glazed. Oreo. Peanut Butter. Pumpkin.

They also have donut holes - or BITES - with cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar, peanut butter, maple bacon, and more. 



Since I wanted to try out a bunch of different flavors, I went for a half dozen with six different options.



But here's some delish donut p0rn for you adore.



Peanut butter! Maple pecan!



Pumpkin! Fruity pebbles!

 

And here's my final six: peanut butter, pumpkin, cookies & cream, maple pecan, fruity pebbles and I think regular glazed. I think it's a bit tough to mess up a donut. And these were good. Not especially different, but good, solid and reliable.

Grade: B

I told you doughnut culture is a ~ thing ~.


So much so that Dawn and I had to try another doughnut shop: Vortex Doughnuts.


This shop has a ton of different flavors, including Cream Cheese Raspberry, Espresso and the Vortex, with cinnamon, sugar and chocolate.


But the one that was calling my name was "salted caramel."


It's crazy how different donuts can taste.


This one was also good - but so much more different. It's much more uniform in shape, and the flavor was good. And sticky.

Doughnut culture is a real thing.


While I may not be the biggest doughnut (or donut) fan, I can certainly appreciate a good one.


HOLE Doughnuts is well-known in the Asheville area.


With dougnut truck in tow, HOLE Doughnuts has long lines that span out the door, and I was happy to join behind them in line.


When we got up to the front, there were four kinds to choose from:


Vanilla glaze, toasted almond, toasted almond sesame and cinnamon, honeysuckle and cinnamon sugar.


I went for a vanilla glaze to keep it simple. I like how they're a bit misshapen, and you can watch folks literally make them and hand-cut them. Freshly fried makes it perfect.

I've heard about Duck Donuts for what feels like forever.


It all began on the sandy beaches of the Outer Banks in Duck, North Carolina. There, Russ DiGilio and his family would enjoy relaxing and fun vacations… but something was missing, there were no fresh donuts! So, they decided to create their own… and Duck Donuts was born.


When I was driving by a location, I stopped to try as many varieties as I could.


There are so many flavors, but I narrowed it down to six.


The ones I went with: cookies & cream, strawberry shortcake, blueberry with blackberry drizzle, strawberry with lemon drizzle, neopolitan and chocolate nut sundae.


Oh goodness were these good.


Do you have a favorite flavor?

A new donut shop opened in the Lewisburg area with a fun theme: Retro.

Retro Donuts has bright pink and teal colors, and the interior has old-school decorations.

The menu features all sorts of glazed and gourmet donuts, as well as sandwiches, bowls, salads and more.

I went for a pumpkin cheesecake donut!

Which one would you choose?

Donut Connection is a chain, but it's not widespread through West Virginia and there are just a few locations in the southern part of the state: two in Huntington, two in Charleston and two in Beckley.

This is the second Charleston location I've visited, and I do like that they have a drive-thru and a nice assortment of donuts.

I got a dozen to take back to the office, which included: caramel apple, pumpkin, iced pumpkin, glazed, german chocolate, samoa, chocolate chip, jelly filled, strawberries & cream, sprinkle and cream-filled.

This was in the fall, so the specialty donuts were my favorites.