“Best Doughnut” honor surprises Spalding’s owner
Spalding’s Bakery in Lexington was honored Friday by MSN.com for making some of the best doughnuts in America, but “it was a surprise to me,” says owner Martha Edwards.
She was so busy baking and selling at the Winchester Road business that “I haven’t had a chance to turn on the computer to check it out.”
Other people have checked it out, based on the calls to local radio programs early Friday.
MSN.com reporter Bret Stetka writes that “horse country’s most popular doughnut maker has gone a long way to preserve their past.”
Spalding’s, founded in 1929 by Edwards’ grandparents, still uses antique display cases to hold its baked goods and “until recently used a clattering 1905 cash register from the shop’s early days,” he writes.
Spalding’s even closes on Tuesdays because of World War II food rationing.
“We started closing during the war and never stopped,” Edwards explained. “It’s a tradition.”
Stetka said he based his latest list mostly on reader comments on an earlier “America’s Best Doughnuts” list.
His latest effort focuses on “independent, small-town doughnut shops” that often have “tastier doughnuts, friendlier clientele and employees, and more interesting décor in a retro-Americana kind of way.”
He won’t get an argument from anyone who’s had a Spalding’s doughnut, that’s for sure.
