Why Donut Shops Are Everywhere In Southern California

From Yelp's best taco restaurant, Birrieria Familia Castro, to renowned farm-to-table cuisine, Southern California offers a range of iconic food experiences. Yet whenever morning arrives, it's the modest donut shop that pervades the city's fabric. Los Angeles alone is home to well over 1,000 businesses dedicated to the sweet, an ubiquity basically unrivaled elsewhere in the United States. Outlets range from small, cherished, decades-old operations to trendy establishments that innovate the doughy dessert into new forms.

Such widespread popularity didn't emerge solely from Californians' appetite for a donut. Instead, the intriguing economic backstory stretches back decades. Chains like Randy's Donuts got their start in the early 1950s, offering drive-thru sweets recognizable by massive donut sculptures. During this time, other independently operated shops scattered across the region, too. However, it wasn't until the 1970s that donut momentum really started rolling.

Cambodian immigrants, who arrived in California to escape the Khmer Rouge, swiftly expanded the donut business. The trend was first sparked by entrepreneur Ted Ngoy, who built his way into the donut industry from scratch, establishing the successful chain Christy's Donuts after less than a decade in the U.S. He passed on the profitable blueprint to a multitude of other Cambodian immigrants, leading to a surge that lasted years. To this day, Cambodian Americans continue to manage and operate most outlets in Southern California, making the region a donut hotspot.

In the early days, the region's donut scene encompassed predominantly modest operations, serving affordable sweets alongside cheap coffee. At Winchell's Donuts, a popular Southern California chain of the 1960s and '70s, donuts were sold 24 hours a day, with customers recalling prices as low as 15 cents per sweet. To keep costs down, mom-and-pop outlets often fried donuts infrequently, leading to staler offerings.

As Southern California's donut business exploded by the 1980s, the quality and variety of the sweets shifted. Chains like Winchell's declined, while newcomers like Krispy Kreme didn't arrive until the cusp of the 21st century, cultivating a donut culture unique to Southern California. Shops maintained long operating hours and a community feel, all while forging distinct, high-quality offerings and establishing abundant donut availability. Akin to cafés or the best old-school diners, the donut industry wove itself into the culture of the region.

Today, such trends have continued, with donut shops catering to an impressive array of tastes. Whether you're after a fancy brioche donut with bourbon glaze, a gluten-free or vegan option, or an intricately decorated, photogenic donut, there's a shop in Southern California for you. The old-school joints keep serving up tried-and-true formulas, while newcomers meld in ever-expanding influences, making the SoCal donut scene a truly impressive one to bite into.