Donut World on 9th Avenue in San Francisco, California: A Review

As the N-Judah tram rounds the corner from 9th Avenue onto Judah, just after it passes the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park and the Craigslist.org building, it stops in front of one of the very few 24 hour donut and coffee operations to exist outside of the confines of the more crack-riddled downtown areas.

Donut World is unique not only for its location, a little further out from all the "nighttime action" than you might think would be viable, but also for not looking like a homeless shelter in spite of welcoming anyone in need of a coffee or donut and a place to sit and enjoy them at any time. Most of the downtown donut shops get the unfortunate and unpleasant default duty of providing shelter since the social safety net of the city of San Francisco has been worn down to almost nothing - that is, the ones that don't simply stack their chairs on their tables and force all their customers to take it "to go."

Donut World has only a few stools and a couple of tables but they always seem to be nearly spotlessly clean whenever I happen by. At night the lights are kept dim and if no one is eating inside, the place might just appear to be closed in spite of the several different electric "Open" and "24 Hours" signs.

On the menu are donuts that are pretty generic, and coffee that is honestly pretty bad. I think in the afternoons they may make a limited range of sandwiches, but not totally sure about that. The coffee is that Peerless "seven flavors" or "eight flavors" or whatever they are up to now, with kind of an artificial taste and a slightly lingering nutty aftertaste. But it's about $1.20 for a small coffee and something like eighty cents for a donut, making it an affordable snack and energy boost on even the most busted of budgets.

And that's pretty much the story with this place. A needed lifeline on a windy and kind of sad corner, providing both sweet treats for the happy and the bitter comfort of a cheap dark cup to keep the downtrodden going. There's also the bonus of possibly catching Craig Newmark coming over from next door in the throes of a desire to gruffle down as many jelly donuts as he can hold. I still haven't seen that one personally but I can always keep hoping.