A simple, old-fashioned gem
I’ve long believed that there’s a sort of hierarchy to food, with donuts and pizza sharing a similar tier. Like pizza, donuts aren’t particularly complicated and are relatively hard to botch (unless you’re Dunkin’ and had to drop the “Donuts” because your product became so inedible). Each food comes with a huge variety of available toppings and sauces/icings, plus the potential to be stuffed or filled. There are numerous pizza crust styles, just as there are yeast donuts, cake donuts, and even potato donuts. Pizza chains and donut chains are plentiful — some better than others, with most falling within the “average” range and the best spots usually being little, old local mom-and-pop shops.
With that said, it’s rare for a donut to blow me away.
That’s not to say that I don’t have some favorites from my college football travels. Nicola’s in Tampa (USF), Babe’s in Tuscaloosa (Alabama), and Buckeye Donuts in Columbus (Ohio State) have all been tasty experiences.
But the only donut shop to really tickle my tastebuds in a distinctly memorable way was Gibson’s, a cozy shop located in a mid-century strip center a couple of miles from the University of Memphis that’s been in operation since 1967.
Enter the Carol Lee Donut Shop, a long-standing Blacksburg institution that came highly recommended by every Hokie I know. So I ventured out about a mile and a half northeast of the Virginia Tech campus, basically a straight shot out Main Street, to check it out.
As I approached the small white building with its eye-catching yellow sign, I immediately noticed the portico — a nice tough allowing customers to load up boxes of donuts during poor weather.
The interior was the kind of simple, unpretentious, no-frills design you’d expect from a venerable family-owned donut shop. Along the front counter was small-ish display case and
But the most impressive interior feature was the menu board, which proudly displayed Carol Lee’s affordable pricing. Donuts ranged from $1.15 – $1.60 each, while a medium coffee is a very reasonable $2.00. By comparison, a chain like Krispy Kreme charges $1.99-$2.99 for individual donuts, about 75% more than Carol Lee’s on average.
I arrived relatively late in the morning after driving over from Richmond, so I faced more limited options than I would’ve encountered earlier in the day. Honestly, though, I probably would’ve gone simple anyway: one classic glazed, one chocolate iced, and whichever filled donut caught my eye.
So how did they taste?
Let’s just say that the recommendations were all correct. The donuts were soft and fluffy while being neither overly chewy nor airy, and the dough had just enough sweetness to be tasty on its own, but not so overly sweet that it couldn’t take on additional sweet glazes, icing, or toppings.
For whatever reason, I tend to be self-limited to only 2 donuts per sitting no matter how hungry I am, so I was only planning to take sample bits of the three I ordered. Nope, they were just too delectable without being overly heavy on the palate. All were absolutely devoured … and quickly.
Carol Lee Donut Shop has earned a spot right alongside Gibson’s on my list of next-level donut experiences. It’s one of the best donut shops I’ve ever visited — a must-stop in Blacksburg and one I’d go out of my way to visit again. The donuts are that good.
CFB Travel Guy 