Dunkin' Donuts!

The Dunkin' Donuts on Veterans in Metairie has re-opened. OK, in the grand scheme of things in metro New Orleans, that's not a big deal, but I'm not one for eating beignets for breakfast. I find beignets to be way too heavy to start the morning. The DD breakfast sandwiches are also infinitely better than your basic McMuffin or Crossandwich. There are only three DDs in metro New Orleans--one on Jefferson Hwy, near Causeway, one on St. Charles Ave., in the CBD, and the one on Vets.

I grew up with Tastee and McKenzie (which, by the way, makes it appropriate that Tastee sells a few ex-McKenzie items), Tastee glazed donuts and McKenzie chocolate cake donuts. With chocolate milk, of course. When we moved back to Metairie, we discovered that going to DD was not all that much further than going to Tastee.

One thing I'll say for our Dunkin Donuts locations-we may only have a tiny fraction of what they have in greater Boston, ours make much better donuts. They just as soon call the ones in Boston "Dunkin Bagels." There's this one DD that's almost directly across from Park Street Station (the T stop that's at Boston Common) that has the nastiest donuts in the nation. But they make a great sausage-egg-cheese-everything bagel. Go figger.

Then there's the coffee. I like DD when I'm away from New Orleans because they have flavored coffee. A large French Vanilla is a poor substitute for Morning Call's most excellent coffee-with-chicory, but heck, when you're in Framingham, Mass, you do what you gotta do. While the DD here does great donuts, the coffee up north is better. They actually use the French Vanilla roast up there, because they go through so much of it. In Metairie, the DD hits regular coffee with a flavor shot. It's OK, but bloody tempting to make two stops--one at DD for food, one at CDM or MC for coffee... :-)