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A headline you will never see around here

SAN DIEGO: Dunkin' Donuts Opens to Huge Crowds and Rave Reviews.

Here, a new Dunk's would be greeted like, "Oh, cool, now we don't have to cross the street to get to the Dunkin' Donuts there." But in San Diego, people reported waiting more than an hour to get some donuts.

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Comments

Waiting an hour for DD or 2 hours to get into the fancy new food court at the Pru?

Whatever floats anyone's boat, I guess.

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Especially the one on L Street in SoBo.

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Some people like standing in lines. Its weird as hell but there is no other explanation for their behavior. Craft beer, sneakers, new phones. You name a product and there are nutjobs waiting in line for it for no good reason.

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I won't wait in line for brunch so I know where you're coming from. However, a lot of these people waiting for new phones or phones resell them at quite a markup.

It's a business.

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Boston as well as East Coast. Lived there for years. An iced Dunks would be perfect there with the weather. I'd drink them all day.

You can keep the hot stuff. Swill.

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Back Bay station has 2 less than 100 steps apart.

Or here's another fast take: We're so jaded. Ho hum.

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There was a DD closer to Jos A Bank area on boylston. Not enough locations in back bay.

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So I have to go to Cali for a decent DD!!?!

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I'm willing to bet their coffee sucks just as bad over there as it does here.

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Probably worse, at least to our taste. When I was out there several years ago, the water tasted awful to me. I'm assuming it's because of a different mineral content that we're not used to.

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stayed at the Embassy Suites by the San Diego Convention Center, which has its very own Dunkin Donuts. You got a complimentary donut with check-in. It was a perfectly average Dunkin donut, with that vague stale-air hint to it. You could tell the Northeasterners at the complimentary breakfast because they were all wandering in with a Dunkin to-go cup and eschewing the free coffee the hotel provided.

San Diego has some weird East Coast fetishization going on. Every third restaurant was themed after New York and featured "New York Style" pizza, even though the pizza was not even remotely New York style.

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Real deal. Awesome pizza.

As for post above, it ain't just the mineral count. SD gets its water from the Colorado River after it has been thru many states and populations.
There's a lot in that water. None of it good.

Drank bottled water for years when I lived there.

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I brought my Brita bottle, then. San Diego's water tasted nasty even after it was filtered.

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Adorable!

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I missed it like hell when I lived in LA nearly 20 years ago- since I've been back- not so much

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I think that is the local LA equivalent of DD.

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Winchell's was nasty. We had DD at the time, but only a few outlets. That's back when they made them in the store, and they were so much better than Winchell's.

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The only thing I liked about Winchell's was the free refills on coffee if you were sitting in the shop

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.

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From the video:

Well, we're from the East Coast, and this is home for us. These are what donuts are.

Boy, that's depressing. As is the fact that I have to take the Blue Line to get to the nearest Honey Dew.

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Honey Dew has superior coffee, & breakfast sandwiches as well. I was sorely disappointed when they replaced the one in the South Station Bus Terminal with a McCafe.

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When I buy a coffee, I prefer McDonald's.

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dont get me wrong their sandwiches are disgusting .. but when your lucky to get a Competent employee to make your coffee its not that bad .

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Their coffee is much better than Starbucks' over-roasted burnt garbage. It's cheap and consistent.

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DD hot coffee tastes under roasted and scalded and it soaks up some nasty horrid tastes from the styrofoam cups. I know it is the cup because I don't get that taste when I bring my own mug - just the underroasted and scalded from being held too hot.

The iced is palatable, and the cold brew is a great value.

My kid worked there for a summer and verified that they don't clean the urns between batches like they are supposed to and they let it sit for a long time past its optimal time at higher temps than recommended. He can taste the nasty taste of stuff from styrofoam cups, too.

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anyone criticizes Dunkin Donuts coffee someone will come to its defense by denigrating Starbucks' coffee as burnt, as though there are only two places in the world to get coffee.

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Maybe because they are the two big-name franchises for comparison. Invariably, some smarty pants will come in and suggest that there are more than two options, as if no one's thought of that.

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French roast is a dark roast, however they always have a medium and/ or a light roast on tap in addition to a dark roast... so you really don't know what you're talking about. Keep spewin' nonsense though, Trumpster. OR maybe instead of whining online, you could brew your coffee at home with the roast of your choice. Damn, right you use those land-filling plastic pods in your Keurig... what a waste! No one is forcing you to buy a decent $2 cup of coffee at Sbux, snockerdoodle mocha pumpkin spice chief.

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"Trumpster", really? I do brew my own at home, mostly cause it saves a ton of time and Trader Joe's coffee is excellent for the price. Dunks is still better than starbucks on the go....you mad bro?

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All the people bitching about how strongly roasted Starbucks is don't have a clue about the medium or blond roasts that they offer.

No matter, they can have their grey water coffee with that shit artificial flavor and load it up with cream. Go for it people!

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If DD is cheap then Sbux is cheap.. Because they're the same price for the same product. Not that I love Starbucks (indie shops for me), but they treat their employees better and their coffee is better than DD (which is not hard to accomplish).

I will grant you that DD is consistent though (bleah).

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Putting in the obligatory plug for Mystic Coffee Roaster here: http://www.mysticcoffeeroaster.com/index.html

So many awesome blends for whatever purpose you want to put them to, from Tanzanian Peaberry for cold brew to Dark River Blend for pourovers and the general purpose Mystic River Blend. Plus varietals from all the coffee zones of the world, from Indonesia to Brazil to Kenya and beyond!

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Best fast food product on the market, IMHO.

Their hot coffee is too watery and I haven't had a donut there in many years.

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way around the city by line-of-sight using only DDs and Starbuckses, I'd say you have plenty of company.

Me, I don't like the coffee or pastries or food at either.

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Me, I don't like the coffee or pastries or food at either.

Like your judgement on food and drink means anything to anyone.

/s

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special powers of discernment, and I'm not dumb enough to claim any. I don't even have any deep-geek specializations, like a mania for slow-smoke BBQ or hotpot broth, that make some people really useful sources of food intel.

(I probably know a little more about craft cocktails than some -- heavy research, and all -- and I've probably spent more time eating abroad than some pros, but that just makes me more of a generalist, a dilettante.)

The typical reader tends to gravitate to restaurant critics who share his/her sensibilities: "That MC dude likes and hates the same places I do: he is a genius with exceptional taste!"

(I do love the occasional nerdy fourth-wave pour-over or siphon coffee, but I rarely have time to enjoy them, or rather, time to wait for them to be prepared.)

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"/s"?

;-)

In any event, I value your restaurant reviews -- but don't drink cocktails, so those reviews don't help me much.

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And thank you for the kind words!

I just like to remind folks that when I express an opinion on some food/drink issue, it's not from any kind of imagined position of authority. I'm just a dude, standing in front of a plate of smelts, asking strangers to love them as much as I do.

It's weird to be a professional restaurant critic these days, expressing a point of view on something that everyone has the right to opine on and a social-media platform on which to do it. It's not like fine art, theater, or cinema, where criticism has a long academic tradition and associated credentials. Kids these days? They don't need any olds pontificating at them when they have their own Instagram and peers on Yelp.

I just got lucky, fell into one of the last of a shrinking pool of jobs where one gets paid to write about eating and drinking in restaurants and bars as a journalist, from a consumer advocacy viewpoint. Mainly they keep paying me because I clearly love to do it, get the reported facts straight, submit really clean copy on deadline, and don't cost much. I could not do it the way I do it, with the amount of research I put into it, if I had to earn a living from it. My day job allows me to lose money as a professional restaurant critic.

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You gotta read the bylines too :)

I was just pulling your chain, buddy. You know you're my go-to-guy for restaurant advice in these parts.

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I don't get it. They've had one near the Seaport Village for a while. Apparently there's one more in Balboa Park, according to Google Maps.

Looks like the local chain, Yum Yum Donuts, has more locations, gets better reviews, and looks better!

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Yum+Yum+Donuts/@32.7417576,-117.0486358,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1s-QzJ6wtFEp-8%2FVlcgA2LT9kI%2FAAAAAAAA65c%2FU4WUUwfWcawQEL490p7K7ZwmsWGx5H-_gCJkC!2e4!3e12!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2F-QzJ6wtFEp-8%2FVlcgA2LT9kI%2FAAAAAAAA65c%2FU4WUUwfWcawQEL490p7K7ZwmsWGx5H-_gCJkC%2Fs148-k-no%2F!7i4096!8i2368!4m8!1m2!2m1!1sdunkin+donuts!3m4!1s0x0:0xdc81ff64be8319b3!8m2!3d32.7418403!4d-117.0487905!6m1!1e1

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Nice ad.

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When Krispy Kreme first opened their shop at Wellington Circle, the lines were out the door and around the block for several days. Until people found out that their coffee is like river mud and their donuts go soggy it you don't immediately eat them.

And when Sonic first opened their drive-in in Peabody, rush hour traffic on Route 1 was backed up into Revere because of people waiting to enter the parking lot. Until people found out that they are basically a glorified McDonalds.

In these cases, I'm sure people in the Southeast (where both companies are well-established) were saying the same thing about our "Wow, isn't this amazing" headlines about the local reaction to both shops.

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The ice cream products are better at Sonic than MCD's, especially after the Rolo McFlurry was discontinued, but I understand your point.

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What offends me about DD is that they have advertised themselves in the past as a local favorite, yet on Mondays after a Patriots win instead of giving a free coffee, like they have in previous seasons, they charge 87 cents for a medium. In Pennsylvania, they still offer a free coffee on the Monday after an Eagles win. Of course, there are fewer free coffee days in PA, but still...

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Ravens and Bengals fans also get free Dunkin Donuts coffee after a win.

Jets and Giants fans have to pay $1 for their medium coffee after their teams win.

(Anyone know of other DD NFL promotions?)

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