[dropcap size=big]A[/dropcap] bell rings when you walk through the doorway into Donas donut shop in Downey and the sounds never stop. (The shop is named after the word for donuts in Spanish.)
“What’s a mazapan?” Asks one customer. “How do you say that word?” Another one asks. This goes on seemingly all day. “What’s in the Bidi Bidi Bom Bom donut?” “Ooh, is that glitter on that donut?” The cashier responds to them one at a time, “ca-je-ta.” Besides the seemingly never-ending stream of customers making it seem like 2PAC’s Hail Mary is about to pop off at any moment, there are the mellifluous sounds of cultures meshing and mouths salivating.
Questions abound as customers from all different backgrounds come to this little Mexican-American donut shop in Downey to try their bicultural approach to the artisanal donut. Donas became internet famous three weeks ago by a viral Foodbeast video that changed everything.
“The next day people were lining up outside at 6 o'clock in the morning,” Donas operating partner Amber Bobadilla told L.A. Taco. “The phone was jammed, ‘Can you ship to New York? Las Vegas?’ We had a customer who came all the way from Atlanta just to try our donuts. She said it was worth the flight.”