Come for a doughnut, stay for the wonton soup
No wonton soup for you, or you or you. The only good news is that the owners of Country Fresh Donuts on Victoria Ave. in Niagara Falls plan to rebuild after a car demolished their business early Monday morning.
Those of you who don’t know about this place must have all kinds of questions about a coffee shop that is famous for its wonton soup. Those of you who frequent the joint, and I mean that in a nice way because I love the place, already know how unique it really is and there’s no need for further explanation.
Doughnuts and wonton soup are a strange combination, but both are great. That’s why the business always has a long line of customers.
People travel miles for a bowl of their wonton soup. It’s so darn good that once you taste it, you are hooked and become a true believer.
One day there was an American visitor at the counter talking to the owner and he was telling him about being pulled over at the border when he was returning home. The man said the custom’s officer asked him what had been the purpose of his his trip and he told him he was over for a bowl of wonton soup. The American said he could not remember the name of the business, but it was a coffee shop on Victoria Ave. More questions followed. So you went to a restaurant for wonton soup?
No, I went to a coffee shop and they have wonton soup.
Why would you go to a coffee shop if you wanted soup?
They make good wonton soup, it just happens to be a coffee shop.
Sir, can you please pull over to secondary for inspection.
The American asked the owner for a business card or a receipt so he would have some proof of where he had been for his wonton soup.
The doughnut shop is a rather small place, there’s a counter with swivel seats and a few tables along the two walls near the large windows. The owners Tom and John, along with their wives, are all hardworking individuals. They can be found there at all hours of the day or night. The business is open 24 hours.
For now, my Thursday nights are ruined.
In the summer, on Thursday nights I head over to Firemen’s Park for the Steve Burnside’s Summertime Blues concerts. But during the winter I can be found about 7 p.m. enjoying a large bowl of wonton soup at Country Fresh Donuts. I meet up with Terry O’Reilly from Willick’s Recycling and our conversation usually revolves around something in the news or something about scrap metal.
In some respects, I’m a junk man or a hoarder, so Terry and I get along great. Terry is an interesting character and so are some of the other individuals who walk through the door at Country Fresh Donuts.
A few years ago when I was writing my What’s Your Problem column, I did an article about park benches that used to be in front of the business. People would go outside and sit on the benches to have a smoke, but it got to be an issue late at night because groups of young people would hang around and cause problems. The park benches were eventually taken out and the troublemakers moved on.
After looking at photos of the car that crashed through the business on Monday, it’s a wonder that no one was injured.
Construction workers were on site Tuesday to secure the building and the latest word is that the building can be fixed. It sounds like the damage was more cosmetic rather than structural so that’s definitely good news.
Until Country Fresh Donuts reopens, does anyone know where I can buy a “hot” bowl of wonton soup? No questions asked. I pay cash.