By Robert Haugh
Earlier this month on National Donut Day, Yelp released its list of the Top 100 U.S. Donut Shops.
Santa Clara’s own Stan’s Donuts was ranked 8th. Kudos to the Mission City eatery.
Two other Bay Area donut shops also rank in the top 20.
The Jelly Donut in San Francisco was listed as 7th.
Milkbomb Ice Cream in San Francisco and Berkeley came in 20th. They sell donuts as well as frozen treats.
Mission City residents have been enjoying Stan’s Donuts for seven decades.
Stan’s survived the pandemic and even an erroneous Mercury News report in 2020 that it closed its doors. Oops.
The place is so popular you have to get there early for the best selection of donuts.
Last summer, KTVU featured Stan’s among Santa Clara’s local eateries on its popular Zip Trip show with Mayor Lisa Gillmor.
Stan’s Donuts is certainly a Santa Clara institution and my family have been enjoying their donuts for years. Traditionally, on the last day of school for my children, we would take them to Stan’s for celebratory donuts at the counter.
While I did not intend to respond to this post, but being Father’s day today and learning about Stan’s obituary in which is recited: “Proverbs 17:6 Grandchildren are the crown of old men and the glory of sons is their father,” there is no better day to consider that proverb than today.
So, on this day, I offer posthumously a “Happy Father’s Day” to Stanford Wittmayer (“Stan”) and his sons, as well as best wishes for his family overall.
He epitomizes the concept that a single individual can touch so many lives. There is a national radio and TV personality that lived in Sunnyvale years ago, and still raves about Stan’s nationally. Just think of it, Stan, a WWII vet, went into the biz of transforming dough into donuts and still positively affects so many people to this day. Stan’s is a treasure of our community. I tip my hat and thank Stan and his family.
If interested, please see:
https://www.stansdonutshop.com/about
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/santa-clara-ca/stanford-wittmayer-4556516
https://hen-olive-nef7.squarespace.com/writing/the-wittmayer-way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fU-pPWomPI
There are many other sources out there to learn more about our beloved Stan’s donuts.
My waistline thanks you for the reminder. LOL, I usually think about Stan’s sometime when they’re closed. Today, I was able to rush in before closing and they still had some of their amazing raised, plain glazed donuts! Someday I’ll try some of their other offerings, but completely happy with their glazed after many years.
I got into a discussion with a teacher in Washington DC many years ago. We both claimed to know the hands down best donut shop in the US. Neither of us knew where we were from/visited. Turned out, in the crazy small world that we live in, we were both talking about that little donut shop in Santa Clara, STAN’S DONUTS!
The Murky News gets a lot of things wrong. Like endorsing candidates backed by the 49ers that are now indicted, accomplices to a crime and under investigation. Whoops! When are you going to admit it, Editorial Board??
If you want an apple fritter this is where to go, but only on Mondays. Yum.