Miami Needs Fresh, Homemade Donuts

Lee Klein

Dynamo's apricot cardamom and maple bacon donuts

​I am no donut aficionado, but I happen to be married to one. Miami is not a good place to be a donut aficionado. It's like being a fan of live American bluegrass music and living in Zimbabwe. Miami is not a good place to be married to a donut aficionado either; there is no local way of fulfilling this particular fix. But my wife was in donut bliss through much of our trip to San Francisco. There are non-chain donut shops everywhere. Among them, Dynamo Donuts made the most dynamite donuts (and priciest at $2 to $3 per). The signature "maple glazed bacon apple" is worth a trip by itself, but we also relished the apricot cardamom; cornmeal rosemary cherry; and chocolate chipotle.

​Dynamo ain't the sort of place Tom Waits sings of, where "all the donuts have names that sound like prostitutes" -- although even that would be an improvement over the mass-produced sugar circles spun out by Dunkin' Donuts and Krispy Kreme. Dynamo is rustic and cozy. There are a few tables up front facing an open bakery kitchen where the donuts are being rolled, fried, glazed, etc., and more tables upon a lovely back patio - with built-in bicycle rack of course. A take-out counter up front, on 24th Street in the Mission, seems to sell as many cups of coffee as donuts to folks on the go. The coffee is by Blue Bottle, and in a town filled with an absurd number of privately owned coffee shops serving distinctive blends, this was the best cup of coffee I had (Philz was my second favorite).

So, in summation, a plea to Miami dessert entrepreneurs: Enough with cupcakes already. We desperately need a real donut shop. The natives are getting restless.