Donut Tour, Cave Creek Safeway
November 21, 2008
Only a few moments to post; I’ve been busy enough lately that I’m behind the 8 ball when it comes to posting.
To update the Donut Tour, I recently went to the Cave Creek Safeway. I was looking for a mid-day Starbucks pick-me-up when I spotted this:
Was I indulging my sweet tooth? Or was I doing double duty – creating a blog post while also helping a client by waiting for an appliance delivery? I’ll let readers judge me on that one.
Suffice it to say I grabbed 3 donuts and made for the exit. I chose a plain glazed, a choclate frosted and a cinnamon roll.
The cinnamon roll was the best, although it could have used a thicker glaze, and more of it. The cinnamon was just right, and there was spicy goodness in every layer. The glaze was too thin and not nearly enough of it was used. Overall though, a very good cinnamon roll.
The plain glazed was downright awful, I’m sorry to say. The donut itself was fine but the glaze had a plastick-y, fishy taste. Weird. I didn’t finish it. Glaze texture was just right and there was enough of it, but the flavor was just terrible.
The chocolate frosted mostly redeemed Safeway’s donut selection. The donut itself wasn’t quite as good as those at the Cave Creek Road Rainbow Donuts, but the chocolate frosting/glaze was perfection! I almost always want more chocolate on anything I eat, but this donut had enough to satisfy even my chocolate needs.
At at 69 cents per donut, they’re a great bargain. Just avoid those plain glazeds.
Next up: Rainbow Donuts on 7th Street. By invitation, no less. I was immensely flattered to receive a personal invitation to visit from the Manager of the store himself. He boasts about his coffee, so I’m going to check it out. Since I don’t move in the mornings without a good cuppa joe, I have high hopes!
Rainbow Donuts
October 17, 2008
This is the first in an ongoing series called The Donut Tour of Phoenix. See the entire series here. Wondering why a real estate blog has restaurant reviews? First, I love to eat. Second, I work with quite a few out of towners buying Phoenix real estate for the first time and they almost always ask for restaurant suggestions. Eating my way through Phoenix, just to serve! 
Rainbow Donuts
15834 N Cave Creek Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85032
(602) 867-9502
Rainbow Donuts is located on Cave Creek road just south of Greenway Parkway. There are 2 other shops in town with the Rainbow name but I learned today they’re independently operated. You can also find Rainbow on 1347 E McDowell Road and at 8714 N 7th Street.
The Cave Creek road shop has been there for about 6 or 8 years and is run by a two-person team. Gina runs the front of the house, and her partner does the baking overnight in the back. They open at 4:00 am and there’s even a drive-thru!
A note about the pics – These are camera phone pics and are blurrier than I’d like. Thought the phone would be less conspicuous than the camera. Turns out I forgot that ordering 4 donuts and then aiming my phone at them would kinda give me away.
It’s all about the donuts here at Rainbow. The big glass display case up front is all donuts, all the time, without any unnecessary frills. Think Dunkin’ Donuts, not Starbucks. Joe Sixpack would be completely comfortable here. So would Joe the Plumber, but I think he’s kinda busy these days.
The shop is tidy, neat and really clean. Gina uses tongs to grab your chosen pastry delight, and while the tongs get a little gummy with glaze, who could really complain about too much glaze? Besides, there’s none of those disposable plastic gloves to clog up our landfills.
Rainbow offers an assortment of other morning needs, including milk, soda, super-caffeinated drinks and bottled water for those who don’t drink coffee. Talk about coffee! This stuff is good and strong, served piping hot. If you need a pick-me-up to get you through the day, a size Small will suit you fine. Need to pull an all nighter to cram for exams? Try the Medium. For those who stir stuff into their coffee, Rainbow provides sugar, sugar substitutes (pink, blue and yellow), half-and-half and powdered non-dairy creamers in various flavours.
I tried the above-mentioned Small coffee and 4 donuts: plain glazed, sugared (both yeast style), apple crumb and chocolate glazed (both cake style). Gina has 2 employees helping her in the morning rush hours and they willingly offered to photograph me with my pastry stash. Hmmm, reminder to “do” my hair before doing another restaurant review.
The cake style donuts were really good – not too dense and not too light, with a little hint of lemony zing in them. I thought the chocolate glazed could use more glaze, but then again that’s me. I’m pretty sure I’d eat cardboard if it had enough chocolate glaze on it! I liked the Apple Crumb quite a bit too, especially because of the little whiff of cinnamon spice in the crumb mix.
The yeast style donuts were excellent and the plain glazed rival the defunct Krispy Kreme variety in my opinion. KKs were so overly sweet they made my teeth hurt. Rainbow’s plain glazed are just right.
Gina reports that while she’s got lots of regular customers, the current economic downturn has slowed traffic a bit. So get out and support independently owned restaurants in Phoenix – go taste the Rainbow.
Read Google reviews of this Rainbow Donuts shop.
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