The Donut Cooperative

A new donut shop called The Donut Cooperative opened in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis and Marnie and I ventured over there this morning to check it out. The consensus was that it is very "Seward".

For those who are not familiar with this neighborhood in South Minneapolis, Seward is a very old neighborhood. The population is fairly diverse, including many Somali immigrants, college professors, professionals and students. It's fairly liberal and houses one of the major food coops in the Twin Ciites, the Seward Coop. Seward residents are generally very proud of where they live and like supporting local businesses. As you can imagine, your stereotypical Seward resident has a little "granola" in them. Of course, this means that both Marnie and I dig this neighborhood.

The Donut Cooperative is just a couple blocks west of the Birchwood Cafe, a local coffee shop and restaurant that features organic and locally sourced foods and coffees, and a few blocks south of the Seward Coop on 30th Ave. S and East 25th Street (I can never remember whether you're supposed to say the street or the avenue first).

Inside, The Donut Cooperative has a very...well...Seward feel to it with hardwood floors, a chalkboard with prices, a few vintage tables, and old fashioned turquoise and gold wallpaper on one wall. They serve various coffees, sandwiches, baked goods, and of course, donuts, specializing in cake donuts. In fact, they do not make raised donuts, much to Marnie's chagrin. Marnie is a raised donut kind of girl.

We ordered the following:

• Chocolate Banana
• Vanilla Dill
• Honey Glazed
• Eggnog
• Coconut (vegan)

The Reviews

Honey Glazed

We started with honey glazed and worked our way around. The first thing we both noticed was how sticky it was, which is not surprising, given the honey component. Neither the donut or the glaze were very sweet, which we both liked. The texture was fluffy and the donut had some kind of unidentified spice in it, which we settled on calling cardamom, though neither of us are good at playing "name that spice". Marnie thought it was a little on the greasy side. While this was a good donut and a solid effort, it didn't rock our worlds.

Marnie: 7.5 | Renee: 7

Eggnog

Eggnog is the first we tried of the more novelty flavors. It was one of my choices and was solely based on looks. I don't actually like eggnog. This one actually ended up being Marnie's favorite. The eggnog donut was sweeter than the honey glazed, but only because of the icing. The donut itself was in line with the sweetness of the honey glazed and was a nice combination with the slightly sweeter (but not too sweet) icing. I also thought the icing had some nice physical properties, as it held together well, but was not too firm or too soft. Even though the donut itself was well executed, I didn't care for it. My problem, not theirs. I don't do eggnog and there was a spice I didn't like, possibly nutmeg. I've never been a nutmeg fan.

Marnie: 8 | Renee: 6

Coconut (vegan)

It's pretty much a requirement for any restaurant, bakery or cafe in the Seward neighborhood to have vegan options and The Donut Cooperative does vegan quite well. In a blind taste test, we would not have identified this donut as anything out of the ordinary. Like the previous two donuts, this one was not sweet, either. It had a very nice crunchy outside, but needed more coconut. If I order a coconut anything, I want coconut and that's where this donut lost points.

Marnie: 6 | Renee: 6

Vanilla Dill

The vanilla dill donut was characterized by it's messy icing, which we both actually quite liked. That's saying something because I don't normally like iced donuts. Had this been a blind taste test, this donut probably would have scored higher, simply on it's own merit. However, since we knew this to be a "vanilla dill" donut, it lost points. We did not taste much dill or vanilla and felt that this may have been a crazy flavor combination more for show than anything.

Marnie: 6 | Renee: 7

Chocolate Banana

The chocolate banana donut was very different than what we were expecting. It was a regular cake donut (not chocolate) with actual dark chocolate (not frosting) and banana chips on top. The chocolate was a very nice touch; however, the banana flavor was exclusive to the banana chips, which was a bit disappointing. Marnie liked the fact that this donut was not what she was expecting.

Marnie: 7 | Renee: 6

Overall

None of the donuts were too sweet, which we both liked very much. Though the flavors were not all traditional, they all started from the same base cake donut with little variation. Overall, however, The Donut Cooperative certainly fits it's neighborhood and provides a pleasant experience for it's patrons.