As we march through the oppressive dog days of summer, my food truck hankerings often turn toward
the sweet. As I aimlessly ambled through a food truck roundup, one truck caught my eye, gleaming in
the sun a yellow beacon of gustatory delight. That truck was Art City Donuts – a trailer, really, that has
been producing simple circular mini donuts since 2014.
Fun fact: Like many great food creations, the mini donut made its big debut at the Minnesota State Fair.
That was over 70 years ago and Tom Thumb Donuts, the original purveyor of the diminutive delights,
still has a stand at that fair today. There are two conflicting stories of how the original mini donut
machine was invented and I like them both. The first is that an engineer working for the Disney
Corporation invented the machine to promote the animated Thumbelina. The other story is that a group
of bored engineers at Ryan Aeronautical Company in California, who had free time on their hands after
WWII, put their minds together and genius ensued. Either way, being able to consume a whole donut in
a single bite makes the world a place I want to continue living in.
As its name implies, Art City Donuts got its start nearly a decade ago in Springville (also known as Utah’s
Art City). There are currently two trucks that service Utah and Salt Lake counties. Their menu is simple:
they fry up a basketful of miniature vanilla cake donuts which can then be topped with a variety of
homemade sauces and other toppings to create each of their desserts. For example:
Cinnamon + sugar + cream cheese icing + cinnamon crumble = Cinnabomb
Sugar glaze + fresh strawberries + whipped cream = Shortcake
Chocolate icing + Bavarian cream = Boston Cream
Powdered sugar + chocolate icing + peanut butter icing = Muddy Buddy
You get the idea. This isn’t rocket science, but it does make for a satisfying summer snack. They rotate
their flavors and had five the day I went: Cinnabomb, Shortcake, Boston Cream, Muddy Buddy, and
Cookies ‘n’ Cream. Offerings at other times include: Coconut Cream, Chocolate Cream Pie, Lemon Bar,
Raspberry Lemon, S’mores, and Blueberry Crumble. If you’re boring, you can also opt to get their
“standard” donuts which are much simpler in how they are dressed: cinnamon & sugar, powdered
sugar, chocolate iced, maple iced, or glazed. Orders come in two sizes – either 12 donuts or 18. And,
while I’m no dietician, I’m pretty sure that if you’re going to eat 12 donuts, you might as well eat 18.
So, how were they? Hot, they were delicious. They’re very much like French fries and trophy wives – the
hotter the better. Luckily, they are cooked to order, so getting them hot shouldn’t be a problem. As I
walked around and they had a chance to cool, they weren’t bad, but they had definitely ceased to be
peak donut. I got two varieties, the Cinnabomb and Bavarian Cream. Both were delicious but I liked the
heavier topping load on the Bavarian Cream ones. It should be noted that the donuts at the top of the
pile get the king’s share of the toppings, so you might want to alternate between top donuts and
bottom donuts as you plow through the basket.
So many times in life we hear that bigger is better, but the mini donut makes a great argument for small
packages. If you see one of the Art Cit Donut trucks in your area, I encourage you to stop and give them
a try.
Know Before You Go: Check out their website artcitydonuts.com or social media to see where they’ll be
when the craving hits you. Art City Donuts also caters and, since they can crank out a lot of donuts
quickly, would likely be a crowd pleaser.
