“Are Sidecar Doughnuts really that much better? Is it just a lemming thing?” my editor asked when I pitched a review of Salt Lake City’s hottest (literally) new sugary sweet.
Sidecar Doughnuts opened last week and excitement rippled through the county. Local food influencers posted about the opening and raved about the doughnuts all over my Instagram feed. More than one person I know tried to get doughnuts but were deterred by the lack of available parking and long lines.
My editor’s question is a fair one. ... With every new out-of-state franchise opening, there’s quite a bit of pomp and circumstance, and rarely does the food match the excitement surrounding it. Which is, in my opinion, a customer problem. We tend to conflate nostalgia with our adoration of a meal. And my memories of Sidecar Doughnuts are intertwined with memories of California vacations to the beach and Disneyland.
But even with my understanding of my responsibility as a journalist to not lean too much on nostalgia to recommend food, I told my editor, “The butter and salt doughnut really is outstanding,” because I knew that was the truth. After I tried the butter and salt variety for the first time on a visit to Costa Mesa, I said out loud, “That’s one of the best things I’ve ever tasted.” And the sentiment held true when I tried it again on another trip.
I thought it would be wise, though, to triple-check before making a full recommendation to ensure that 1. I wasn’t just confusing happy vacation memories with the taste of the doughnut, and 2. The new Salt Lake City location was making the doughnuts just as delicious here as they do in SoCal.
So I planned a trip to Sidecar, which replaced the gone but never forgotten Spaghetti By The Bucket at 701 E. 2100 South in Salt Lake City.
It actually took two attempts for me to get my hands on the doughnuts. The first time I walked in, the line looped around the building interior and I had about five minutes before I needed to get to an appointment. So I made a humiliating 12-point turn out of the parking lot — while customers who opted to enjoy their doughnuts in the car watched — and vowed to try again later in the day.
And so I returned around 1 p.m., and the line was shorter but not by much. The wait was, though, dare I say, pleasant? A fun camaraderie developed among us excited customers as we watched the dough be cut, fried and glazed. We all shared our favorite flavors, reminisced on the locations wherein we first sampled the goods, and together we agreed it was worth waiting five more minutes for a fresh batch of the butter and salt. I ordered two, as well as two vanilla bean glazed, a strawberry buttermilk, and an old-fashioned for a total of $25. Which is not a small sum for six doughnuts.
Once I returned to my car and opened the box to take just one bite, I found myself worried. Worried that the doughnuts wouldn’t hold up to my memory, which had placed their flavor on a pedestal. Worried it wasn’t worth $4-$5 a doughnut. Worried I wouldn’t have a story to write. But then I took a bite of the butter and salt, which I had purchased not two minutes after it came out of the fryer, and it was better than I had remembered.
My intention was to take one bite and then try all the rest as soon as I got home, but I was unable to resist eating the entire doughnut at a stoplight. It was just the right combination of warm, sweet, rich and salty. It hit all my taste buds in a way that zings the brain.
After school, my kids and I sampled the other flavors, and we all came away with different favorites. My son ate one and a half of the vanilla-bean-glazed, which is the only raised doughnut I bought. The rest were of the cake variety. My oldest preferred the strawberry buttermilk, and my middle child liked the old-fashioned.
The next morning I had what remained of the second butter and salt, and was delighted to find that it was just as good as freshly fried. Maybe better? The glaze had hardened a bit, giving it more of a true salty butter taste. I’ll be honest, I wished I had at least one more.
So it might be for the best, blood-sugar-and-wallet-wise, that I live a 25-minute drive from Sidecar. But I will be stopping in for a doughnut every time I’m in the city, and hopefully will create happy nostalgic memories for the food I now get to enjoy at home.