You don’t need a crowbar to enter but you may end up leaving with one.. or a few.
OC Donut Bar Storefront.
One will need to head to Orange County’s Donut Bar located at 18011 Newhope St. in Fountain Valley on the weekends for a cro-bar; this west-coast award-winning donut shops answer to its New York counterpart, the cro-nut. During the week if it’s on the menu you can also pick up their best-selling donut which is a strawberry-split.
OC Donut Bar as it’s typically referred to on Facebook and Instagram is owned by Hector Garcia and they opened their doors on March 29, 2014. This was one year and one week later after the first store, San Diego’s Donut Bar opened in you guessed it, San Diego.
OC Donut Bar opens at 7a.m. during the week and at 8a.m. on weekends. They don’t have a closing time because they close when the last donut is sold. Often times it’s within a few hours. Their menu changes daily and can be found on their Facebook page. Like them on Facebook and every Thursday you can enter to win their free dozen give-a-ways. Winners are announced on Fridays.
Employee Bekah Hinds serves up donuts.
The menu boasts more than 40 different flavors such as Nutella, Mexican hot chocolate, caramel latte, Samoa, blood orange, maple bourbon, and Homer’s Donut. Their newest creation is the Big Poppa-Tart donut: A donut with a pop-tart inside! On any given day you can find about 20 or so of these flavors on their menu. If you’re a vegan, you are not forgotten. They offer vegan choices as well.
OC Donut Bar was created because “donuts have been around forever, we wanted to create a gourmet donut.” said Hector Garcia. He went on to add that their donuts are not as filling or as rich as others. They use real quality ingredients.
Each batch of their maple bourbon bars contains a full bottle of Jim Beam bourbon. They also use other quality ingredients like Real Vermont Maple Syrup. The use of real quality ingredients is reflected in their price ($3 on average per donut) and appearance. It’s even winning them awards.
Garcia stated he has lost count of awards they have received. OC Donut Bar has been featured on KTLA5, and The View. Thrillist included them in their list of ‘The 21 Best donut shops in America’, The OC Register named them “Monster Donuts”, and Orange Coast Magazine named them a Best of OC Winner.
They are also putting in a lot of hard work. Everybody at OC Donut Bar contributes their ideas to see which ones will make it on the menu. Garcia told me they are messing in the kitchen every other day. Employee, Bekah Hinds’ creation Neapolitan Milk, the mixing together of chocolate milk and strawberry milk from their cold milk tap made it on the menu and helped to get them named “The Best of OC.”
On weekends, OC Donut Bar also gives free donuts to kids.
OC Donut Bar Owner, Hector Garcia (left) and this article’s author, Brandon Moyes
Hinds energetically said “I love giving out the kids donuts on the weekends, that’s the best part.”
“I really like donuts,” said Michelle Nguyen of Santa Ana, right before she and her friends cut into the Big Poppa-Tart. She has been to OC Donut Bar a few dozen times visiting usually once or twice a week. On this particular visit she was trying the Big Poppa-Tart donut.
On this particular day many patrons walked out with boxes.
“Customers don’t just buy one or two they’ll buy them by the dozen,” said Garcia. “Donuts don’t discriminate. They’ll be eaten by anyone.”
In November, OC Donut Bar will be featured at a wine festival at the Honda Center in Anaheim where they will feature a wine-infused donut.
“This is not your average donut shop for sure.” said Garcia.
