Monuts Donuts of Durham – The Best Donuts Ever! Period.

Monuts Donuts!

I’ll be honest with you, I have a lot of experience eating donuts. I grew up in New Jersey eating Dunkin’ Donuts and currently work around the corner from a Krispy Kreme in downtown Raleigh. On a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest I even made an early morning excursion to the famous Voodoo Doughnut shop in downtown Portland to try their famous donuts.

Well, I am here to tell you that none of those places even come close to the awesomeness of the donuts made by Monuts Donuts in Durham. As the title of this post states, Monuts make the best donuts ever! Period.

Monuts Donuts at the Durham Farmers’ Market

I first heard about Monuts through facebook when they opened a little over a year ago in Durham.  It started off as a two person operation by Lindsay Moriarty and her partner Rob Gillespie but their reputation and popularity has quickly blossomed requiring them to expand their team to include Lindsay’s father and a new employee to help meet the growing demand for their donuts.

Monuts & bike coffee setting up along Hunt Street in Durham

Lindsey and Rob started off making a few dozen donuts each week in the  professional shared space kitchen at the Cookery. Now it isn’t unusual for them to make 60-70 dozen doughnuts each week. Customers can pre-order their donuts online and receive them by delivery each Friday or you can find them at the Durham Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings. They typically set up their donut table on Hunt Street each Saturday morning alongside the cool folks at BikeCoffee.

Fresh Monuts Donuts

Monuts Donuts are all hand-made. The dough is made the night before, and Lindsay and Rob get up well before dawn to perform the glazing process literally minutes before they head out the door to sell the fresh donuts at the Farmers’ Market.

Monuts fans lining up at a recent RTP Food Truck Rodeo!

The donuts typically run around $2 each (well worth it) and they offer a limited number of Saturday pre-orders through their website providing a great deal at $12.50 a dozen. Their donuts are very popular and they often sell out within 2 hours at the market.

Dulce de Leche Donut

In addition to their donuts being super fresh, Monuts Donuts stands out for their unique flavors using seasonally-inspired local ingredients whenever possible. On my recent visits to the market to buy their donuts I have experience everything from a Dulce de Leche donut, to flavors like Cinnamon Hibisucs, Maple Bacon Bourbon, and Blueberry Cabernet with Dark Chocolate Shavings (a favorite of mine).

Maple Bacon Bourbon Donut

As mentioned above, their donuts are very popular and in high demand each weekend at the Farmers’ Market. Fortunately for donut lovers like myself, Monuts has plans to open a brick and mortar location in 2013. Planning for the store is still in the early stages, but we do know it will be located at 110 E. Parrish Street, right across from Bull City Burger and Brewery.

Blueberry Cabernet Donut with Dark Chocolate Shavings

Recent updates on their facebook page indicate the store will feature 14ft ceilings, exposed interior brick walls and original hard wood floors in the dining room. Having their own store is an important next step for Monuts since it will mean more prep/ baking space allowing for them to increase production and experiment with even more flavors.  For a behind the scenes glimpse at their current donut making process check out this fun video below.

You can  read more about the cool people behind Monuts Donuts in a recent feature about them in last month’s Durham Magazine. Or you can also follow them on Facebook and  Twitter  to stay updated on the flavors they are working on and where you can find them each week.