Hipster "Doughnuts" @ Sidecar

With the skies still gray and our curiosity piqued about this new donut place in Costa Mesa,

southward we went on our little food adventure with Cathy at the wheel...

It probably only took ten minutes toget there. We were amused by this domed building (it was a shopping center)...Later on we saw another domed building and thought it was a mosque; it turned out to be an "Alibaba Motel". Har.

I also had Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop on my GPS, based on elmomonster's recent post). Whenever I read posts raving about certai places, I program it into my Garmin even if we don't plan to go there soon. It's fun to see what pops up on the map and that sometimes that determines where we, as a family, will go. Anyhow, we weren't going to Greenleaf today.

Yelp reviews mentioned that Sidecard was NOT at the Sprouts shopping center but on the other side. Check. It also mentioned that it was in a stripmall and there was no signage. Check. Darlene mentioned that a red vehicle with "Sidecar" on it would be nearby.

Look for this strip mall sign...

Then look for this...

There's no signage, at least not yet, but it's next to Pie-Not.

Cathy and I easily found parking, but the lot here is pretty cramped. Again, we got lucky in terms of beating any sort of "rush". Our original thoughts were, "If it's too crowded here (meaning the line is snaking out the door), then FK it".  Well, maybe not those exact words, but you know what I mean. The line wasn't too terrible, maybe about 10 people ahead of us.

I still had my sea salt coffee in the car waiting to be polished off so no coffee here for me.  I'm sure it's great, but I only wanted one donut. Excuse me. One "doughnut".

Nice inside. Small. Lots of people. Music playing on an actual turntable.

Cool light fixtures.

There's that record player playing Joni Mitchell (the album was "Blue", released in 1971). I could have done without the "sensitive songwriter" music. With all due respect to Joni Mitchell, could they not have played something better, like early Metallica or Iron Maiden or even Queen? Of course not. A hipster place would not be caught dead playing rock or metal.

I wonder if it's the same album all damn day? If so, I would be sooooo sick of it!  I also wonder who picks the record. Do they pick names out of a hat of their favorite singers or groups? Kool Moe Dee anyone? Cypress Hill? James Taylor (he would probably get picked)? Ke$ha? Yeah right!

All right, rant over.

So here we were inhaling the lovely smell of fresh donuts in the air.

On the mirror were the flavors of the day. It may be hard to read but among the flavors were the ubiquitous Maple Bacon, plus Vanilla Twist, Bavarian cream, Huckleberry, and Buttermilk. The prices were definitely NOT your normal donut joint's prices. Rather than .80 cents or a $1 a donut, they ranged from $1.50 (for the Vanilla Twist) to $3.50 and upwards to $4.75 (for their savory Green Eggs & Ham offering).

As Kirk would say, "Egads!".

The prices are like donut bar in San Diego. Both places pride themselves on being all the buzzowrds that make donut snobs all hot 'n bothered: "gourmet", "artisanal", "handmade".  What? No farm to table? Is it (gasp) organic? What mill did that flour come from? Inquiring minds want to know!

We came around 10 am and many of their donuts were running low. However, new ones were still being made in the back.

Below, the Cinnamon Crumb:

Buttermilk, Birthday Cake, and Huckleberry:

This was the Guava. I was tempted to get this, but didn't want to spend $3 for it. Call me a cheapass because I am. The guava flavoring looks like it's just in the glaze.

One of the workers preparing the maple bacon. The bowl in front of her had the huckleberry glaze. Gawd, did I mention how awesome it smelled in here?

This was interesting, their savory donut:

This was $4.75.

I liked how it looked, runny yolk and all.

My not so surreptitious photo - "Kelsey's" donuts: looks like she got the Cinnamon Crumb, the Green Eggs and Ham, the Bavarian Cream and the Maple Bacon.  The lone Maple Bacon on the counter was very fresh. The bacon was still sizzling! Nice!!!! I liked that it was chopped up too instead of just a lame strip laid across the top.

One thing to note - if you buy more than four, they will charge you $1 for the box. WTF.

Our donuts - Cathy's Buttermilk and my Huckleberry...

We sat outside at the tables next door (that post will be next). Ha ha, you can see my "Dumb" phone. I must be one of the few people left in the world that doesn't have an iPhone, a Galaxy, Razor, or whatever.

The glaze on Cathy's donut had little tiny vanilla specks on it (you'll have to wait for her post to see it). The huckleberry comes from Oregon by the way.  The last time I had anything with this berry was during our Oregon trip last year (Huckleberry ice cream from Tonalli's Donuts & Cream, and Huckleberry soda from Pop Culture), so I was excited to try this donut. It did not disappoint.

We enjoyed a few one bite slices from our respective donuts. What I really liked about mine was that the huckleberry flavor was not just present in the lovely glaze, but also within the donut itself. It wasn't too heavy but it had more "heft" than a yeast donut. Bert and TC enjoyed it later that evening right before I ran upstairs to catch the "Game of Thrones" Season 3 Finale.

Overall, worth at least one visit. Not worth buying a dozen unless you want to drop $36 dollars and that's not including coffee. They do have a lot of interesting flavors there and they do put more effort into these donuts. If you have a lot of money to burn, by all means, go for it. Yay for you. I can understand the appeal of these for those looking for something different and more "high-end" than your run of the mill Winchell's, but at $3 a pop, these treats are not something "normal" people like me would enjoy on a daily basis.

On a remotely related note, I thought this was pretty funny. While trying to see if someone did a video on this place, I found THIS instead (even better, ha ha!):

Makes me wanna go out and do this on my bike.    Not.

Sidecar Doughnuts
270 E. 17th St., Suite 18
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
(949) 887-2910

www.sidecardoughnuts.com

Who else went to Sidecar Doughnuts?

Darlene went here recently; her post spurred us to visit and give Sidecar a shot:
Sidecar Doughnuts & Coffee: On Doing it Right" (May 2013)

Other reviews/articles:
Yelp Event - Meet the Owner
"Sidecar to Debut Gourmet Donuts" - OC Register, January 2013
"Sidecar Doughnuts in Costa Mesa Opening April 12, 2103" Griffin Eats OC blog
and Yelp (take these with a grain of salt - who knows how many people are shills?)

As you can see, we didn't really "pig out".  We exercised restraint as well as our internal "off switch". We had to save room for something savory from the place next door to Sidecar which seemed to be fairly new as well.

That post shall be next.