Old Fashioned Donuts - Finding Treasures in Unexpected Places
Photo credit: DNAinfo/Kyla Gardner
I've written before - here and elsewhere - about how Chicago South Side's bad reputation makes people overlook some pretty cool, worthwhile things. So it's all the more embarrassing when I find myself falling into the same trap.
I've never really explored Roseland because I didn't think there was really anything to explore. Like many working-class neighborhoods on Chicago's Far South Side, Roseland never recovered when local factories shut down, putting most of its residents out of work. The thriving commercial corridors dried up, and the neighborhood came to be associated with poverty and pollution left over from the factories.
So when I read the latest column by DNAinfo Chicago's Mark Konkol, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A successful doughnut shop, in Roseland? A shop that's been around since 1972, when the neighborhood was in much better shape, still surviving after most of the surrounding stores closed? And making pretty good doughnuts, too? Was this for real.
Yes, yes it was. Old Fashioned Donuts is very much real. And a simple Google search revealed that it's gotten plenty of reviews, write-ups and press coverage before, so it isn't like Konkol discovered something that's been under the radar.
Like I said - once I read the article, I felt bad.
Of course, now that I do know it exists, I'm going to have to (to borrow one my mom's favorite sayings) fill in that gap. Especially when Konkol's column makes the doughnuts sound so good. I'll just have to figure out when.
And once I do, you better believe I'll write about it.