Stan's Donuts: an introduction

In the heart of Westwood (by Los Angeles), across the street from the Mann and Fox theaters where so many movies have had their premiers, is a tiny donut shop. Its proprietor, Stan Berman, has been there, witnessing the happenings and changes of Westwood, since he opened it in 1965. He's the prototypical small business operator: friendly, aware of his neighborhood, old-fashioned, modest. He's a lot of fun as a person, and with more interesting stories than there'll ever be time for him to tell you.

It also happens that his donuts are absurdly good. Forbes declared them America's best in 2001, Huell Howser visited twice to feature him on California Gold, and any time you see a show about donuts on either a travel or food network, Stan will get a mention. Just a sampling; I could go on. In fact, I will, at some point, but this is just an introduction to a fascinating individual I'd like you to meet, and his products, which you'd do yourself a disservice by not meeting. I'm not the only one to think so: Stan can always tell if a show he was featured in got played, because the next day he gets orders from all over the country to overnight ship dozens of donuts. He seems amused at this, because without marking up more than FedEx's cost, this means the recipient will be paying about $6 for each day-old donut! Now, I like Stan's day-olds more than a lot of place's fresh donuts, but that's entirely crazy. Besides, if you have a maple bar, glazed buttermilk, or any of his other creations a mere few minutes after they were made, you'll understand what donuts are supposed to taste like.

I know you think I'm exaggerating. That's because you haven't visited Stan's yet.

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