(Photo: Manila Social Club)
This isn't a simple cake donut from your local shop. The Manila Social Club, a restaurant in the trendy Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, offers only the finest donuts for the most elite tastes. Chef Björn DelaCruz made this donut with a Cristal champagne frosting, filled with an ube mousse, and coated in 24 karat gold. Each one costs $100.
In an interview with First We Feast, DelaCruz explained why he devised this novel take on the humble donut:
We have this doughnut program where we make doughnuts every Friday, and you can only order them online on Thursday. The reason why we do this is because we’re not a doughnut shop. The Golden Cristal Ube Donut came along because there is a brewery in Bushwick called Braven Brewery, and we know the owners Marshall and Erik. We both started our businesses around the same time. We had a doughnut event where I unveiled a doughnut with icing made with Braven White IPA, dusted with gold. That was the beginning of the golden doughnut [idea].
The reason that gold leaf and Cristal were added was because I love all different champagnes. I wanted to add something [to the menu] for the new year to celebrate how long we have been going. I didn’t know people would go and order a dozen [of these] at a time! But then again, it is New York, and there are people willing to put down a grand for a dozen doughnuts.