On College Avenue in Tempe, a large variety of food and dining options are all competing for your lunch money, greedy like a bully on the way to school. Postino WineCafe, Snooze AM Eatery, Royal Coffee Bar and Pitchforks and Corks, as well as lesser offerings Dickey's and Cupz, menace the avenue's otherwise undeveloped path from the light rail to campus.
New to the landscape is Fractured Prune Doughnuts on 521 S. College Ave., originally from Maryland. This is the fifth location to open in the Valley in the past year. The brilliant white interior of the store also includes swashes of green and lavender, the company colors. There's modern white cabinetry, counters and a white couch that scream the siren song of modernity.
Owner Mark Prygocki appreciates the diversity of the Tempe crowd, especially given that Postino and Snooze are just across 6th Street to Fractured Prune's latest location. He runs the company with his wife, Karen.
"A lot of corporations are here. So it’s not only one of the largest universities in the country, which makes it special, but also the businesses that are around here," he said.
College Avenue is an up-and-coming center in the wheels of a huge capitalist machine. A large population with a disposable income and a lot of free time gives rise to this hive of activity.
"We just think it’s a great avenue," Prygocki said. "They close off this avenue on football days. So I think it’s generating a lot of attention off Mill avenue and on the way to school."
If you need a huge bolus of sugar, fat and carbohydrate before you trudge off to your finals next week, stop by Fractured Prune (The brand's website reads: "It’s a doughnut. It’s a treat. Don’t ruin it with calorie counts.") The ordering process is simpler than you might think and is part of the wave in "quick serve" restaurants like Chipotle and Jimmy John's.
"So what we try to do is we make one fantastic doughnut, it’s a cake-based doughnut, made right in front of you, served hot," Prygocki said. "Then what we give people the option to dip it into one of our 20 glazes, and up to two of our 14 different toppings, so you’re actually designing your own doughnut.”
Mark Prygocki's favorite is salted caramel, and his wife's is Carnival-flavored. Also available are 28 pre-selected doughnuts like Margarita and Bacon Bomb. I liked the solidarity of the rainbow-decorated Carnival doughnut given the gay marriage arguments the Supreme Court heard today.
Also available for ordering is a monstrous option called the "Eggnut" which, amongst other things, makes this reporter question if there is a God. It is a doughnut breakfast sandwich with egg and cheese that goes for $2.99.
One might tempt fate and add sausage or bacon for $3.49, but the sandwich is only available before 11 a.m. Like the costs of most environmentally-unfriendly practices, the true cost of these doughnuts are not reflected in the purchase price.
Reach the reporter at pnorthfe@asu.edu or follow @peternorthfelt on Twitter
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