Andy's Donut Stop

With Bert's fresh hot coffee in hand, we made our way to a local donut place that has been here for at least 40+ years...

Although I like to bag on that four lettered site, I admit I do use it to look up places and then read the reviews with a grain of salt. This was one of those "finds"...

where the donut joint was open at all hours of the day, offered blueberry donuts, and most important of all...

had this most awesome painting on the side of the building!

As soon as I saw the user photos, I exclaimed to Bert, "We are definitely going HERE!"! How could you NOT go here with this amazing mural of a donut-headed man driving a car with donut wheels and a donut spare tire???

One thing about this part of town, Richmond...the side streets are narrow. Many folks actually parked their cars partly ON the sidewalks! I believe the streets were built at a time when most folks actually parked their cars IN their garages and not on the streets. Nowadays, most households have more than one car which necessitates parking on the streets, but it sure made for some crappy navigating while we were trying to find this place.

Richmond is a neighborhood close to El Cerrito and boasts a large Hispanic population. It was neat seeing many of the businesses, especially along 23rd Street, one of the main drags. Instead of just Mexican eateries and businesses like in Chula Vista, we also saw Salvadorean, Central American and even Honduran places!

Andy's Donut Stop is located on the corner of 23rd and Visalia. The bible thumpers were out in full force that day as there were a ton of them in the shop and a few outside trying to give out leaflets. For some reason, they chose not to proseltytize us...Maybe it was because of the 666 tattooed on my forehead?     Pause.

In any case, we were left alone to choose our donuts and snack in peace.

The donuts in the racks were fully stocked, which was nice to see. Sometimes it sucks going to a donut place and seeing most of the inventory gone.


Unfortunately they were already out of blueberry donuts that afternoon...



Our  donut snack - Bert's maple old fashioned, my chocolate cruller (I just had to try it to compare to Mary's in Santee), and TC's glazed donut holes.

The Asian lady working here was super nice. We found out when we opened our bag that she gave TC TEN donut holes instead of the half dozen she originally wanted. In looking at the prices, even it only cost a few cents more to get a dozen, her generosity was much appreciated.

Our donuts tasted fresh and I have to say that the cruller was almost as good as Mary's! The choux pastry dough was perfect - so light and springy.

Yes...crullers come to me.

The coffee went quite well with these donuts.  It was still early in the afternoon and we weren't quite ready to get to Thane's just yet.  We really made good time during our drive up. Leaving at the ungodly hour of 3 am that Saturday morning brought us to El Cerrito by 11:15'ish.  My, uh driving contribution was about almost an hour's worth while Bert drove the rest of the way.

Andy's Donut Stop
971 23rd St.
Richmond, CA
(519) 232-6057

There is no website but here are the mostly positive reviews from that place.

You'd think we would be all sugared out but no!

Our next destination was in north Berkeley's so-called Gourmet Ghetto for some macs...