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| - Totally bizarre experience only recommended to those who enjoy reveling in the fallout of a post-consumer society.
I used to love Winchell's donuts which know appears to be a completely defunct brand. They didn't have a lot of donut types to speak of, but the cake in their old fashioned donuts was to die for and a religious experience when dipped into some fresh dark roast coffee. This was the downtown Winchell's donuts that was likely a bustling morning spot in the 70s and 80s when people craved straight no-nonsense coffee in the morning, felt safer getting out of their cars west of 7th Ave, and didn't feel guilty eating donuts as a morning meal. I remember always passing it, and sometimes stopping after Suns games when they still played at the Madhouse on McDowell for a late night treat.
At some point Winchell's stopped being open after noon and then completely closed down. The property value of this location dropped so severely that it appears to have been made available to a sole "investor" who resurrected it as Wishill's donuts.
Their method of resurrection: somehow repainting the signature yellow upside-down triangle to read "Wishill's" and selling a couple of trays of donuts on the top of the counter each morning. Walking in is a surreal and creepy experience as you will find yourself surrounded by delapitaded remnants of the 70s era Winchell's brand that have been left around and uncared for for decades.
The benches are grody and falling apart. The large coffee machine which is the centerpiece of the establishment appears barely operable. The menu, which is one of those brown boards with slots in them to stick in numbers, has been left as-is except for the letters that have fallen off or are dangling by a small piece of plastic, even though they don't offer almost anything on it. The window is covered by large stick-on ads for the "Heavyweight" sandwich (a half pound crossandwhich) and a fancy coffee beverage which appeared to be last attempts to appeal to new market segments before Winchell's called it quits, even though they don't offer these items either. The donut racks on the wall and under the counter are completely empty and don't appear to have been cleaned since Wishill's took over. There is some crazy person sitting on one of the couple bar stools starring at the counter instead of at the broken down portable T.V. right beside them. If you weren't so close to downtown, you feel like you are in some sort of horror movie about 5 scenes before you meet a band of genetic freaks hellbent on torturing you to death. As it is, I guess its more M. Night Shyamalan or Oliver Stone maybe.
I considered turning right back around except for how insanely curious I was to find out if the donuts were still up to snuff. For some reason, the owner has them on two baking trays on top of the counter instead of one of the 30 built in racks for holding donuts. And unfortunately, there are no donuts resembling the old-fashioned ones that made Winchell's great. I instead bought a plain donut for dipping and one with vanilla icing and sprinkles. They both pretty much sucked.
UPDATE - 1/16/2008
Upgrading to 3 stars after one of my co-workers grabbed two dozen donuts there this morning. He said that it wasn't nearly as weird as when I went and they had a ton of donuts, all properly on the racks.
I tried an old fashioned style donut and a cinnamon donut. Both were really good. Although nothing like Winchell's donuts.
Holding off from giving more stars until I visit it again for myself sometime.
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