Just about everyone I talked to at the fair told me I couldn’t leave without taking a dozen of the famous Wellington band doughnuts home with me.
I decided I had to see what all the fuss was about.
“Your doughnuts are legendary,” I greeted band director Toni Novotny when she emerged from the back of the doughnut-making operation covered in powdered sugar.
She didn’t bat an eye. “Yes, they are,” she said with a smile.
It seems the Wellington band doughnuts, like the Midway Oh-Boy burgers, are just one of those must-haves when people stop at the fair.
Wellington band doughnuts come by the dozen. But by the time I took this picture, their numbers had dwindled. (Photo by Rona Proudfoot, The Chronicle-Telegram.)
In a year that saw lower attendance and lots of vendors complaining about slow business, the band doughnut booth didn’t seem to be feeling the pinch.
Novotny said it’s been “a little busier” than other years and noted that the Sunday before the fair’s official opening, “setup day,” saw record sales for them.
“The weather’s cooperated for us,” she said. “But it really doesn’t matter if it’s hot or raining. At the end of the night, people come over and they buy their dougnuts to take home with them.”
So I did the same. But I have to admit I was a little skeptical. I mean, a doughnut’s a doughnut, right?
Several hours later (after I’d worked into the early morning hours posting to this blog), I was more than ready for a midnight snack.
I was a little disappointed to see some of the icing was cracking and had fallen off some of the doughnuts. I scooped up what I could — I didn’t want a tasteless doughnut — and took my first bite.
What followed was one of those heavens opening up/epiphany-type moments. That doughnut was about the best darn thing I think I’ve ever tasted in my life! Forget the icing. The cake part of the doughnut was so, so sweet and flavorful.
I went to bed, but sleep-walked down for one more doughnut, before shoving what remained of the dozen into the freezer.
These doughnuts are a deadly weapon in the hands of a single girl who lives alone!
Did I mention this week is the start of The Chronicle’s “Biggest Loser” competition? I think these doughnuts were sent to sabotage me!
