Dining
Doughboy’s serves incredible doughnuts, stromboli
Doughboy’s serves incredible doughnuts, stromboli
Come for the doughnuts. Stay for the stromboli.
Like so much worthwhile in New Mexico, you have to know your destination in advance to find Doughboy’s, a delightfully retro bakery-luncheonette in the Far North Shopping Center. Located in a back corner of the Northeast Heights mall, Doughboys is stocked with pastry cases that make you want to press your nose against them like a 7-yearold struggling to choose between a chocolate-frosted donut and a Frisbee-sized chocolate chip cookie.
Nostalgia rules here. Think back to the preStarbucks and pre-Twitter days, when folks met early for their morning coffee klatch. They gathered to opine and solve the world’s problems over coffee and doughnuts.
Doughboy’s Bake Shoppe is such a place, a serene journey to the past.
Tables are placed with sufficient distance among them to allow for discretionary
venting or a discreet bit of gossip. And the coffee, a rich, mellow blend from Red Rock Roasters, is excellent.
And the doughnuts are some of the best. Not overly sugary or saturated with fat, but fresh and pure, airy yet substantial enough to evoke memories of childhood bakery treats. Nor are these chic froufrou doughnuts with neon-colored icing. Flavors of maple bacon and Nutella — the bestseller — are as avantgarde as they get. They are comfortingly oldfashioned, fist-sized, and well-worth the price of 99 cents apiece or $8.99 per dozen. If a doughnut can taste wholesome, these do. Where else can you find such joy and satisfaction for a buck?
Doughboy’s is descended from La Fiesta Bakery, located long ago near the plaza in Socorro. The extended family of La Fiesta’s proprietors, Tony and Gloria Jaramillo, opened Doughboys relying on treasured family recipes. They are especially proud of their fritters (99 cents), loaded with apples and nuts, and their gold bars, kid-pleasing concoctions made of graham crackers, crisped rice, peanut butter and chocolate ($2.49). Delicate Mexican wedding cookies and
state cookie biscochitos taste like they are fresh out of the oven. The cheese Danish (99 cents) is a bite of heaven, and the mini-apple strudel is irresistible.
Doughboy’s also offers specialty strombolis for breakfast and lunch ($5.99-$6.99). For breakfast, in a variation on the breakfast burrito, eggs, cheese and bacon, sausage or ham are wrapped in a jacket of fresh bread, baked golden and served with a side of searing green chile.
Lunch versions include a perky Cuban, with roast pork, Swiss cheese, pickles and ham; the Italian, with pepperoni, salami, ham and provolone; and the veggie, with cheddar and Swiss cheese, roasted red peppers, and baby spinach. Like everything else at Doughboy’s, the strombolis are simple and delicious.