Dynamo Donuts & Coffee in San Francisco, California: A Review

Did you happen to see that episode of King of the Hill from a year or so back, where Peggy inadvertently starts a hipster invasion of the affordable Mexican neighborhood in Arlen? Aside from the fact that that whole show was clearly inspired by the Mission or someplace just like it, there's one scene in particular that I found very informative. Hank and Enrique (Hank's Mexican co-worker who is about to be priced out of his own neighborhood by the hipster invasion and who also can't believe they put salmon in the fish tacos) are at a neighborhood bar discussing the problem and trying to at least relax a little when the hipsters bust in, all "How-lah am-eee-gos!" One of them is carrying a boom box and he insists that everyone listen to "his friends new album", which sounds like power tools randomly being fired off over beats from that old D.J. Scribble game for Playstation. Anyway, in spite of the horrid sound all the hipsters start doing this goofy dance to it and get totally into it, oblivious to the fact that it sucks.

The point of all that is that Goofy Hipster Dance = places in the Mission like Dynamo Donuts. Now, stay with me here. I'm not saying Dynamo Donuts totally sucks, but what happens is that one hipster with really bad taste decides he's "totally into it", and then lemming-like the rest of them follow, and pretty soon there's enough buzz that it's sucking in non-hipsters. And everyone is Hipster Goofy Dancing while sucking down their bacon donuts. Or something like that.

Anyway, the main point of the place is that they sell Bacon Maple Donuts, and that seems to be the crux of their popularity. This actually apparently isn't a new thing, I'm seeing references to this flavor combination in other places and I'm guessing Canada is ultimately responsible. Dynamo Donuts goes one up on that by putting bits of actual bacon on top of the donut. Even if you don't find the prospect totally disgusting, they're hard to get as apparently they are so popular they sell out before ten or eleven each day.

Now, I'm not here to totally trash or hate on Dynamo Donuts, I thought some of their flavors were actually pretty decent. It's just that they really weren't to my taste, I guess I can see where other people would like them, but I have this nagging suspicion that a lot of people are just Goofy Hipster Dancing along with the beat on this one.

So I didn't try the bacon one because we couldn't get one, not that I had any great desire to taste it anyway. Fortunately I was with a group, though, because they charge $3 per donut and there's no way I would ever have bought more than one at that price. Instead we pooled in for a bunch and then just kind of divided them up so everyone could try each. The Banana de Leche was easily my favorite, a kind of filled donut with a burst of banana pudding (with some actual banana blended in) and caramel inside. The Chocolate Spice was the most highly recommended by all the local buzz and alternative papers and all of that, but ... wtf, it tastes like regular chocolate donut with pepper sprinkled on it? Orange Ginger and Vanilla Bean were both decent, but not $3 a pop good. The flavor rotation seems to be partially seasonal, as apparently during the winter they had a pumpkin donut.

The coffee they serve alongside the donuts is Four Barrel, which is one of those local roasteries that gets talked up a lot. I dunno if it was an off day but it was dark, not dark in a good way, with far too much acidity and a little too much oiliness to boot as well. Then again, the oil might have been backwash from the donuts, some of which left a definite greasy film sort of cling in the mouth.

I guess the moral here is that just because something is complex and/or original, it isn't necessarily great for everyone. That is the lesson of Dynamo Donuts and the Goofy Hipster Dance. Maybe if they didn't cost so much I'd have been more forgiving of them, but when you ask $3 a pop for donuts (and in the middle of one of the poorer parts of the Mission to boot) you're setting the bar pretty high for yourself, and I didn't feel they quite made it.

Dynamo Donuts & Coffee
2760 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
# 415-920-1978
http://dynamosf.com/