Copper Top Coffee & Donuts

From this...

(photo from my "Scenes from Hillcrest and PB..." post, May 2017)

Does anyone remember when this place was still selling chili dogs?


To this:

As of May 2016 (see article linked at the end), the old familiar Wienerschnitzel spot now houses another concept...

In this case, a new Coffee & Donut spot, Copper Top.

They had their soft opening a few days ago and were giving out free samples.

We missed the boat on that but no matter! We were here and were ready to give this place a go.



Not sure where their coffee is from (forgot to ask)  but they do offer coffee, tea and other healthy options. There are only six types of donuts, each $2. 

We ordered the Tortoise and Bear Claw only, but they gave us four, which was a nice surprise.   There was an extra Tortoise (yay) and a Cinnamon Sugar.

The so called Bear Claw didn't resemble what I thought a bear claw should like like. Sure, it has almonds on it but it is donut shaped and not claw shaped.  It was also the smallest donut of the bunch.  I think it was a good thing they comped us two because $2 for that small thing would have been a rip.

Because the donuts are formed by hand  (resulting in uneven sizes) and fried fresh per order, you might have to wait a bit to get your donuts.  There were some folks ahead of us waiting and we were wondering why the holdup, until we opened our box.

Originally the side gate to the outside patio was locked.  The owner ended up unlocking it for us so we could enjoy our coffee and drinks - tea for me and salted caramel latte for Bert (paper cups, sad face, but no other choice).

Three of the four above.  Because the donuts were fried fresh, they were still hot from the fryer but not greasy at all, The chocolate glaze on the Tortoise was melty, which I kind of didn't like because it was messy, but hey! Fresh!

The two Tortoise donuts (chocolate, caramel, walnuts) were roughly the same size, the "bear claw" was the runt while the cinnamon sugar was a nice and puffy freebie.




The back side of Copper Top has a window for their eventual "drive thru".

Of the four types we tried today, I liked the flavor of the Tortoise despite it's gooeyness.  Surprisingly, I liked the cinnamon sugar donut because it was so fluffy and fresh. My least favorite was my original choice, the bear claw which they should just call an almond donut to be honest. Bert's favorite was the Tortoise because it had all the flavors he enjoys. Except peanut butter.

The folks working here were really nice, a few young ladies plus the owner.  Our server even came to give us our drinks so we could grab a seat first.  One of the workers came out and chatted with us. She said they were still working things out and was interested in hearing our feedback about the donuts.

Article (because I like knowing the background history 'n shit; you're welcome):
"Hillcrest Wienerschnitzel kaput - New coffee spot for the old A-frame?" SD Reader, May 26, 2016 (click on this to see a photo of the decrepit Wienerschnitzel before it was cordoned; Googlemaps by the way, still has images of it fenced off)

Copper Top Coffee & Donuts
101 W. Washington St.
San Diego, CA 92103
No phone # yet

www.coppertopcoffee.com + reviews from you know where (only five as of time of writing)

The website isn't quite complete yet, i.e. menu page does not have prices and they say they offer "dipping sauces" but we didn't find that the case during our visit. Again, they just started out and are working out which flavors people prefer the best (or least). It will be interesting to see if they can keep  up this fried to order concept especially when dealing with either large crowds or large orders.  At least you know that they won't run out of a certain kind because each order is personalized.  The limited flavor menu also works in their favor so that they're not offering too much of some flavors that aren't as popular.

Glad we stopped by. Thanks Cathy for the tip!  One last thing, we were able to get parking around the block. There were a few untimed spots on the bridge across from the elementary school. Otherwise, spots were either paid meters, 30 minute green spots, or if you are a sucker, $6 to pay in the lot by the donut joint itself. WTH man. We only lucked out because it was still early in the morning and a holiday weekday.