#stan's

This Stan's Donut...

That I've been saving for tonight. It is happy delicious. Happy. Delicious. That is all I have to say about that.

Happy Sunday,

I'm off by a few days but I've been busy.  On days that I don't have to rush home from my internship downtown to go to work, I like to hang out in Wicker Park for a little, walk around, and check out the shops in the area.  It's a really cute neighborhood with a kind of vintage hipster charm to it, with a lot of independently owned boutiques and places to eat.  

On Friday I had such free time for once.  There is a boutique called Anastasia's that's about a 10 minute walk from my office that I found driving around one day.  I did some Google research on it and found that it is a lesser-priced high-end boutique that specializes mainly in dresses and skirts, complete with complimentary tailoring.  The clothes are all designed by designer Anastasia Chatzka, who is local I believe.  

I didn't manage to get any of my own pictures of the store, as I was the only one in there at the time and shy to whip out my camera in front of the salesgirl.  They had some super cute, super girly skirts and dresses.  I found a skater skirt that was light blue and cream diagonal striped that would've been super cute for the 4th of July, however "lesser priced designer" apparently means $85 for a skirt, which is a little out of the peasant budget.  They had many cute skater skirts that I really loved, in pinks and other sorority girl dream patterns.  My only complaint about the place is that it smelled like an antique store.  

Another 10 minutes from there, and conveniently right next to the blue line stop at Damen that I had to get on to get home, was a doughnut shop that I had heard of called Stan's.  I follow an Instagram account of a local food critic called @chicagofoodauthorityand she's given this place a shout out before, so I decided to check it out.  And by check it out I mean buy doughnuts to bring home to my parents so I can both avoid calories, taste the stuff without the guilt, and lie to myself that I'm a nice person.  

While Stan's is not a Chicago native(they're from Westwood, CA) I was pretty impressed with their selection.  They had a couple of curve ball flavors like Captain Crunch and their Nutella pocket(like a filled doughnut), but also some great classics like Apple Fritters and Lemon Old Fashioned.  I like to try new things, so I opted for a Pistachio Lemon Old Fashioned, a Chocolate Banana Pocket, and a Maple Bacon Pecan something(their version of a long john).

The only one I actually got a good solid taste of was the Lemon Pistachio Old Fashioned.  It was by far the best Old Fashioned I had ever tasted.  I could practically hear my organs screaming as they gasped their last breath after I swallowed the first bite.  It had a great texture but wasn't too heavy like Old Fashioned doughnuts can be, and a great glaze.  It also had a very strong lemon flavor, but I was a little disappointed because it overpowered the pistachio flavor, and I really like pistachio. 

The bacon one I got because a) I love bacon and b) I wanted to compare it to a Maple Bacon Long John I had at Glazed and Infused doughnut shop downtown a couple months ago.  Stan's was much better.  Their long john had candied bacon chopped up on top as opposed to one long piece of bacon shoved on top, which I liked.  The glaze also wasn't too sweet, and the cake had a great texture.  However, the candied bacon was just a little bit too sweet.  All in all, great doughnut though. 

The last one I really did not like.  I don't know if it's because I tried a piece of it after it had been sitting on my counter for 2 days or what.  First of all, it got squished in the bag because the cashier wrapped it wierd.  Second of all, it had whole banana chunks inside, which was disappointing as I was expecting some kind of creamy filling.  The frosting was also kind of dry, along with the inside.  Although the pastry itself was good, I would not recommend it.