Today, Bill Friday begins his Summer of Java tour of the South Bay (after all, he's still afraid of what the folks at Peet's might do to him). First stop... MOON DONUTS.MOON DONUTS. I've been a semi-regular here for the last... jeez, fifteen... sixteen years. At the corner of Torrance Boulevard and Prospect Avenue, Moon Donuts remains the corner landmark in a half-sized strip-mall of broken dreams on the eastern edge of South Redondo.
Over the years, this corner has seen it's share of food and retail come and go: a dry cleaner, an ice cream shop, a multi-station, Internet gaming center for Halo-obsessed, forty-year-old virgins, a French pastry shop where, in the afternoons, the owner's dog was allowed the run of the kitchen (I kid you not!), a very cool, under-capitalized, used book store, another dry cleaner, a discount cigarette and bong emporium, and a Pizza Hut. Yet through it all, Moon Donuts has remained, dealing out a fantastic array of glazed, chocolate raised and jelly filled pieces of nirvana one - or one dozen - at a time.
Owner Steve still remembers the names of the regulars who sit at his counter, unhurriedly enjoying their daily fill, washing down these highly-risen beauties with only the purest form of "donut coffee", Torrance's own roast, Farmer Bros. coffee.
Now officially, I don't count Farmer Bros. as coffee, but as this is the first in a series of Java Trail reports, Moon Donuts gets a pass on the coffee rating based solely on the good will built up by Steve and his family for almost two decades of serving the best round mounds of acid rebound in the South Bay.
And the fact that their are at least twenty coffee houses within a 10 minute drive of Moon, non of which can touch the pastry perfection of just one of Steve's plain cake .
Moon Donuts is located at 1000 Torrance Boulevard, Redondo Beach. Open Monday through Friday 4am to 6 pm; Saturday 4 to 7, and Sunday 4 to1. And if you need special quantities, call them at 310-543-1867.
Copyright © 2008 Bill Friday
