Doughnut Plant Arrives in LIC

Doughnut Plant from Licqueenstv on Vimeo.

Doughnut Plant Arrives in LIC
by Eso Romero

When I first heard the news that Doughnut Plant was planning to open a location in LIC, I was ecstatic. Opening day finally arrived last month. It joins several other food businesses inside the Falchi building on 47th Avenue, a historic, newly renovated concrete space with art deco accents of color. Not only did Doughnut Plant open a storefront, it also will occupy over 8000 square feet of the building for the bulk of its production. Luckily for us customers, we will be able to view the doughnut-making process once its up and running, similar to how Juice Press has set up down the hall. Dotting the walls outside Doughnut Plant  are mesmerizing photos of LIC’s landscape. It was worth the visit just to see those and appreciate our changing neighborhood.

If you’re new to Doughnut Plant, they pride themselves on all natural, high quality ingredients. No eggs, preservatives or artificial anything in these doughnuts! This is not your neighborhood Dunkin’ Donuts. They even make their jam fillings from scratch and sell jars for purchase (...think PBJ sandwiches with blackberry jam. Yum.). Their menu offers unusual and creative flavors. Better yet, there are different dough textures: yeast, cake, doughseeds (mini-doughnuts with filling) and yeast filled. Many of the flavors come in all those versions. I’m biased towards the yeast doughnuts -- how can I resist the airy light goodness of every bite? For the sake of the review, however, I must expand my doughnut horizons and try the other options. And so I did.

We ventured into Doughnut Plant on a Saturday morning. Open every day from 6:30am-7pm, it had a steady stream of customers. The employees were friendly and pleasant, making our experience that much better. Upon ordering, the first thing you see is a countertop display case of the available doughnuts. Decisions, decisions, decisions! Everything looked good. My family and I went for a mocha yeast, vanilla bean blackberry jam-filled, a chocolate hazelnut doughseed and a wild blueberry cake. To our delightful surprise, they threw in a couple more on the house: a mocha doughseed and a strawberry yeast, both seasonal flavors with limited availability. One can’t have that many doughnuts without washing it down with a drink. I had a macchiato and my partner had the Nola Au Lait. Both were divinely smooth and paired perfectly with our indulgent feast. No need for added sugar in these drinks. The doughnuts covered that just fine.

The doughnut breakdown:

• Strawberry Yeast - Airy bites of subtle strawberry taste. 
• Vanilla Bean Blackberry Jam-filled - A very pleasant surprise! I don't normally like filled doughnuts because the filling takes over the whole doughnut.This, however, was nice and balanced, without being powerfully sweet.
• Wild Blueberry Cake - Another surprise. I expected the cake texture to be too dense. Instead, it was moist and delicate.
• Chocolate Hazelnut Doughseed -  A small doughnut but hearty and rich. Perfect balance between filling and chopped hazelnuts. 
• Mocha Yeast - A bit of a disappointment. I tasted more chocolate than coffee. Least fave of the bunch.
• Mocha Doughseed- Better than the mocha yeast due to the tasty filling. A burst of flavor with the coffee infused mascarpone filling. 

As we gobbled down our doughnuts, the line grew longer. It was only noon and the tres leches doughnuts were all sold out. I’ll add that to my list my next visit. Oh yes, another visit is a must.