We were in Galveston again this weekend to do some work on the beach house, to relax, and to eat donuts.
Galveston is home to the best donuts at a little shop called Home Cut Donuts. That link is to the glowing reviews on Yelp. Home Cut donuts is a no-frill, locals’ spot that will probably never have a website, but it will earn enthusiastic reviews from anyone who steps into the small shop.
Like several reviewers said, part of the charm of Home Cut Donuts is that locals have been sitting on the barstools for decades, eating the most delicious donuts and talking Galveston news.
When I was a kid, we often stopped at Home Cut Donuts to pick up a box of Day Old Donuts. Random leftover donuts might sound gross if you’re used to fresh ones, but if you’ve only ever had Day Old Donuts? They taste delicious.
A dozen assorted donuts cost $1.60, which seemed like a lot of money when I was a kid. Maybe because donuts were also a junk-food splurge? I can remember running into Home Cut Donuts to plunk the money on the counter and to grab a pink box of donuts. Buying donuts was breaking the family rules of frugality and nutrition and it felt delicious.
The night after my last day of high school a bunch of us seniors stayed out all night. Stopping at Home Cut Donuts around three in the morning felt like a terrific idea–until we walked in to find a counter-full of cops just ending their night shift. Finding police in the donut shop shouldn’t have been surprising, but we hadn’t counted on it. We were out way after Galveston’s curfew and they could bust us.
But those cops broke the rules and didn’t even ask us about how we were breaking the rules. Instead, they chatted with us as we all ate freshly-baked donuts. The owner must have noticed our shaking hands as we paid and she just smiled at us. Twenty years later, when I bring my family in for donuts, I still want to thank her for casually serving a bunch of rule breakers.
For forty years, Home Cut Donuts has been a place for me to break the rules–and it still is. I try to feed our family Paleo-ish food. No grains, no cheap oils, no sugar. In other words, no donuts. Ever.
Except when we go to Galveston. And except at Home Cut Donuts. The kids spin on the barstools and order blueberry cake donuts, eclairs, and glazed donuts dripping in sugar. We all feast on the contraband donuts that are the most delicious in the world.
Mike, although glad for the break from pumpkin breakfast bars, claims it’s the nostalgia that tastes so good. He says that Home Cut Donuts are nothing special, that fried dough covered in sugar would taste good at any donut shop.
Probably so. But for me, Home Cut has always been the place where you donut always have to follow the rules.
And that’s delicious.
