Week #38, Heitzman Bakery and Nord’s Bakery, Louisville, KY Part 2

Last time I shared our visits to Heitzman Bakery and Nord’s Bakery, both in Louisville. Today’s blog post is about where the donuts went and who ate them!

Here’s where you get a little glimpse into my world outside of visiting donut shops. I’m an artist and most often work with balloons. I work with my husband, John, nearly everyday. I also get the opportunity to work with many other non-traditional artists and a few times a year I get to work with a whole bunch of them all at once. It’s kind of like an ADD fest with fried food…

Alrighty, grab a snack and a beverage, preferably a donut and milk or coffee. You’ll need it. This is lengthy…

John shared the Maple Bacon Bar from Nord’s with Mark. I’m sure Mark has some fancy job title that succinctly defines all of his responsibilities but I don’t know what it is. We sometimes refer to him as an agent, sometimes as an entertainment coordinator/producer and sometimes his duties seem to involve babysitting sugar-crazed entertainers whose brains are always on overdrive. Add to that his own background as a variety entertainer and you get a good mix of fun and sensibility. Yes, I just referred to Mark as sensible. One day I will regret this…

After much contemplation and sampling, John and Mark both declared they liked the Maple Bacon Bar from Nord’s. Mark said the flavor might be enhanced by including bacon in the dough, not just on top. This was John’s second bacon-topped donut this year and he has reluctantly tried them both (see the reluctance in the photos?) and then said he liked them both.

Later in the day I shared donuts with Doug from the Procrastinators, a percussion ensemble that uses five gallon water bottles, barstools and kitchenware for drums. Their show is like those annoying bucket drummers you see on the street corner, only it’s enjoyable and sounds good. I guess that makes it nothing like bucket drummers, but you get the idea. We’ve worked with Doug several times and I’ve noticed he is always on the prowl for good food and girls. It’s always fun to hang out with him and his fellow drummers.

Doug had a cream-filled chocolate long john. He commented that it was the perfect balance of donut and filling and that it was perfectly sweet, not causing his teeth to hurt. So there it is, the seal of approval on a filled donut for those with sensitive teeth.

The next donut to be sampled was the cream-filled donut that Nord’s says is the favorite of President Bill Clinton. In a room full of goofy folks, the jokes about this donut were flying. To think all of these years folks had impure thoughts about that stain on Monica’s dress…

The donut got the presidential seal of approval from everyone that tried it (I think it was split by four people) and John said the frosting would be excellent on a cake. If he had to pick one donut from all of these to try again, this would be the one.

Around lunchtime, I shared more donuts with Michelle, a living statue artist. It is interesting to watch her perform, primarily because of her grace and skill, but also because of the interactions she has with people. I could watch the reaction on people’s faces for hours when they discover she is indeed a living, breathing human and not a stone statue. It amuses me that people never question that unlikeliness of a statue being where she performs, like the state fair.

Michelle prefers a cake donut, although she said she doesn’t eat very many donuts and indulged in just half of one for Heitzman Bakery. It got the thumbs up!

Also at lunch, donuts were shared with the guys from Kenya Safari Acrobats. The dressing area for the other artists also doubles as a spot for us to grab lunch and we were often treated to their rehearsals at lunchtime. Nothing like a little serious tumbling to go with my PB&J. By this time in the day, the donut selection was getting picked over and several partial donuts remained in the two bags. I’m not sure what they ate but they all commented the donuts were great. Not surprising because there don’t seem to be bad donuts in Louisville…

John and Mark once again delved into the donuts, this time splitting an apple fritter/cinnamon roll concoction. It looked like the flat cinnamon roll common at donut shops, but also had apple chunks in it like an apple fritter. It wasn’t quite as crunchy on the outside as a good apple fritter, but I thought there might be a fight over the last little bit of it. It was that kind of good.

Down to the very last donuts, Bounce and Ooo La La, amazing jugglers, simply super variety artists and just great folks, dropped in and tried a donut. I seem to recall a conversation about clogged arteries and expanding waistlines following, but I’m not sure how that relates to this epic donut adventure. Weird.

That wraps up what has been the most fun donut adventure so far this year. Even though I wasn’t able to eat any of these donuts, I feel like I experienced each one of them through the tastebuds of a friend. Somewhere along the way, I’ve realized that not only does everyone love a donut, but most people truly enjoy sharing food with each other. I’m glad I got to share this crazy adventure with each of these people. It was a blast!