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Community Corner

Bites Nearby: Variety Doughnuts

For this week's Bites Nearby, we visit a family-run doughnut shop that is known for its interesting hours.

Each week, St. Clair Shores Patch editors and readers will pick a great restaurant either in town or nearby.

Here's this week's choice: 

There's something fascinating about a place that is solely focused on one item. Variety Donuts does not try to serve anything but doughnuts (and coffee and milk).

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Open early until the last doughnut is sold (usually sometime in the late morning or early afternoon), Variety boasts some of the freshest doughnuts you can get your hands on. Of course, if you're closing once the last doughnut is sold, the next day's are bound to be fresh.  

Variety Donuts is easy to miss. Across the street from the glitzier , the building is simple brown and, judging from its appearance, has not been updated in years—maybe decades. Don't let that stop you. 

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Walk through the front door and it is almost like a step back in time.  Everything appears to be at least 20 years old, including the incredible cash register that looks like could be straight out of the 70s. At last visit, they do not accept credit cards either, which isn't a big deal unless you're planning on purchasing the entire lot of doughnuts one morning.

Prices are all around a dollar. Whether it's a plain cake donut or a sweet, cinnamon-laced apple fritter, no single fried confection is going to break the bank.

I must make a confession at this point: I usually do not like doughnuts. It is an odd admission, I know, but they just don't do anything for me besides weigh me down for the rest of the day. However, I can wholeheartedly recommend the apple fritter and any of the fruit donuts at Variety. Fruit donuts are topped (rather than filled) with pie filling—blueberry and cherry—and are like super-sweet fluffy pies.  

A proper apple fritter melts my heart. My mother used to make a version of fritters when I was younger, so any time I bite into a fritter memories well up. For me, this is the best kind of connection with food—a wonderful moment of joy that arises from taste and smell. In fact, I can almost taste a fritter as I write this.  Guess I know where I'm headed in the morning.

Variety Donuts

Address: 27751 Harper Avenue

Phone: 586)-779-3620

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