Fancy? Nope, but incredibly delicious. Photo by Tucker Shaw.
There’s nothing wrong, exactly, with extensively franchised doughnut chains. At least one of them — Lamar’s — is excellent. But there is something about the small, independent, one-store doughnut shop that makes doughnut-lovers (guilty!) weak in the knees.
Maybe it’s because doughnut-lovers know that, if you operate a small, independent, one-store doughnut shop, you do it because you really, really like doughnuts, and you really, really like other people who like doughnuts, too.
Why else would you be willing to keep totally off-hours (such as, for example, the 3 a.m-noon shift), spend your time punching down dough and dodging hot-oil splatters, and take home a salary that, if potentially livable, certainly isn’t kingly. It’s hardly an easy career.
But there is an awareness of the essential nature of doughnuts that permeates the life of a dedicated doughnut-vendor, a noble awareness of the importance the doughnut shop in the life of a community. Without them, communities are poorer.
This awareness, along with the smell of freshly fried doughnuts, permeates the air at Westminster’s Carol Lee Donut Shop and Burritos.
Neighborhoodies cite the glazed raised doughnuts as some of the best around, and the chocolate-glazed and apple claws fly out of the case, but at Carol Lee’s it’s the old-fashioned cake doughnuts that stand apart. Soft, crumbly and buttery, with just enough heft to survive one, or perhaps two, coffee-dunks.
Carol Lee is not a fancy shop, just a rough-hewn storefront at the end of a weathered strip mall. But it’s a comfortable shop, homey and quiet — but alive. So while you’ll be tempted to grab your doughnut to wolf down during your hectic drive to work, change your mind and have a seat instead. Dunk your old-fashioned in your coffee, watch the flow of workaday traffic down 72nd Avenue and appreciate, for a time, the noble life of the doughnut-vendor.
– Carol Lee Donut Shop and Burritos –
Donuts. Hours: 5 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday. 5 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday. 5 a.m.-noon Sunday. 7200 Meade St., Westminster, 303-428-2090.
– Tucker Shaw
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