Yelp will tell you a couple of salient facts about the particular BoSa I went to:
- It’s open 24 hours.
- The staff is surly.
Other facts float around in there, an accolade for their buttermilk donuts and a general positive regard. But on the whole: It’s always open and nobody likes the counter person.
As predicted, we are reviewing the environment and not the doughnuts: The counter person delivered single-word responses whenever possible with a completely flat facial affect, meaning the facial expression of a face at rest. She made no effort to engage in human interaction or discretionary conversation. It was kind of like ordering doughnuts from a command line prompt – which I am okay with. In fact, this lady has the same social manners that I did, 20 years ago.
Working in a customer-facing job is tough if you are not used to putting in all that effort to connect and make people feel welcome. And whatever you get paid at BoSa, it’s probably not the kind of compensation that drives you to attend Toastmasters or develop your interpersonal skills with strangers.
Still, this was ripe for some Yelp complaining, and it’s no wonder so many people participated. The people who staff BoSa either don’t read Yelp or don’t think the finances of late night donuts are improved by trying to find more hospitable staff. Not a lot of competition, likely.
Anyway, doughnuts: The buttermilk doughnut is almost ball-shaped, and full of crinkles and crevices which are filled with icing. This makes for a really sweet buttermilk doughnut, and it was much better than the one at Donut Country, but worse than the one at Sultan Bakery back home.
The glazed ring was squishy and chewy – like Wonder® Bread. Some baked goods take on a really chewy texture if you substitute corn syrup for sugar, and the baked goods here had a texture like that. I’m not a huge fan, unless we’re talking about white sandwich bread, which is its own chewy thing.
I enjoyed my chewy doughnuts and terse service well enough. My partner Marianne, who is perhaps the friendliest person I have ever met, even got a “you’re welcome” out of the server. Would I go back to BoSa? If I wanted a doughnut at 3 am, I sure would. If I had to pick between Dunkin’ and BoSa? Hmmmmmmmm.
