In search of good donuts

Mike Paulus |

In case you haven’t heard, Marie’s Bakery in downtown Eau Claire is now – and abruptly – closed. To many people, Marie’s was the beginning and end of baked goods in the Chippewa Valley. While plenty of places around town from grocery stores to gas stations to coffee shops offer you donuts, pastries, and bread, Marie’s was one of only a handful of actual, dedicated bakeries, though its hours and selections where ... how you say ... select. I can already hear the moaning and the lamenting and the What? Aw, man!’s from Marie’s many fans. And it’s to be expected – Marie’s didn’t just offer baked goods, it offered European baked goods of the kind and quality you can’t you couldn’t get anywhere else in the Valley.

But. This closing once again reminds me that the Valley lacks a true donut shop/bakery. Yes, we have a few, and yes some of them do certain things pretty well, but we lack an actual full service bakery. (Correct me if I’m wrong, please.) And I’m not talking about galettes and pain au chocolat, as good as that stuff is. I’m talking about donuts and bear claws and danishes and crullers. Pretty much since Eau Claire’s Hoeppner’s closed down a few years back, there’s been donut black hole that’s been impossible to fill with Ron’s Castle long johns and Kwik Trip Glazers.

But I don’t blame the bakers. I blame our overwhelming urge to get our morning’s sugar/fat/carb concoction from a Holiday Station rather than a real bakery. What’s up with that?