World's Best Donuts — Restaurant in Grand Marais

7/11:

Interesting. Do I understand correctly that you would have engaged with the offended party's comment here had said party called you a racist? I'm basing this question on your comment of: "Lol. The only reason I even responded to you was because you yourself publically called ME a racist. At least Anh didn't do that." A POC describing a blatantly discriminatory experience in your shop doesn't warrant a response from management, but a white person boiling that description down into the one word is somehow regarded as more potentially damaging, so the latter receives a response? Noted.

Further, slander is only truly slander if alleged slanderous remarks are false. Four people all experienced first hand (and three more indirectly) the events described as having recently taken place in your shop. Four people carry the weight of being on the receiving end of that discriminatory behavior. Honestly advocating for those people is not slander. Whether or not you personally support or endorse said discriminatory behaviors, you are the owner of the establishment; it's on you.

7/10:

I’m not sure what the issue is, but no communications have been received by the other interested party on TripAdvisor or via the Google review they left (that has worked well enough for me, it seems). Minimal effort to resolve this issue has been very disappointing.

What I don’t understand is this: in the service industry, if someone has a bad experience and leaves a social media review, the only move that I can see as reasonable is an apology and an immediate reply offering to follow up with the person via email to make it right. I’ve left LOTS of Google reviews and can say from experience that this is just kind of how it works. Further, I’m at a complete loss as to why my review is being so closely attended to while the review of the offended party who experienced pretty terrible customer service, even if it wasn’t racially influenced (even though I’m pretty convinced by accounts from several adults who were present at the time that it was), has yet to receive any direct response from the business owner. WHAT?!! This does SO little to build a case against the racist argument here when the only person interacted with is the white male friend instead of the Vietnamese woman herself. Sad. I understand if you experience technical difficulties for a day, maybe two, on messaging services provided by TripAdvisor, but not trying all avenues that are readily available is not a good look at all.

7/8 PM:

Thanks for the additional info, WBD. While I appreciate the open communication very much, I’m not the one who felt discriminated against in your shop. To that end, I see no response to that party’s comments. I suggest following up along those channels directly.

7/8:

Thanks for the reply, WBD. Employing persons of color doesn’t somehow inoculate you or your staff from racist behavior. I’m willing to accept that I may have been misinformed. However, multiple parties (this isn’t just one word against yours) can corroborate events that shake out something very similar to: white person orders donuts and receives good service, POC customer immediately behind them is told they must wait an hour for the same donuts, same white customer walks to pickup window to request same donuts and is not told “you must wait one hour” but “oh, no wait; we just made fresh ones” while any news of fresh donuts is withheld from POC customer.

No, having persons of color on your payroll doesn’t make this kind of behavior okay. But, please do explain. I’d love to have a dialogue about this so both of us get the opportunity to better ourselves: me if I am misinformed and you if you happen to have racist service practices occurring in your shop with or without your knowledge. Thanks!! 🙏

Original:

Headed to the area this weekend, but will not stop here. This shop is run with discrimantory practices. Treated my friends who visited recently like trash. This might be a great donut shop, but if you aren’t white, you’re better off getting your breakfast...

WARNING: If you're a POC, bring a Caucasian friend with you so you can be treated as a person!. I am married to a Caucasian man and came to this shop because we were told this is one of the best places in town for fresh donuts. We were there to visit the town with family friends (who are also all Caucasians--and our racial differences never mattered). My friend was ahead of me, placed her order and left to go back outside. My family and the rest of our friends was waiting outside, only my daughter was with me and there were others in line behind me. When it was my turn to order, I said I would like to order some of the chocolate donuts because my friend had ordered some and told me it was the best kind. The woman said in a very curt and rude voice that there are no more chocolate donuts. I responded "but you just told my friend she could order and wait for fresh ones to be made". Woman said something that I couldn't hear very well, left the counter and a few minutes later came back and said "it's going to be an hour". An hour! She proceeded to continue to be rude and at that point I turned to my White-passing-multirace daughter and asked her what she wanted and what she thought her siblings would want (because I knew that if I asked her to point it out, she can get the donuts faster and I could get out of there). The donut lady put everything in the same bag so all the different toppings were together while my friend's were nicely separated by tissue and her chocolate donuts came in a nice container. She did put the largest donut-like item in a separate bag and warned me that it was hot and to be careful, which I appreciated. The only reason I even bought anything was because I had 4 hungry kids outside waiting! My husband happened to walk out of the bathroom with our boys at this time and I felt unsafe at this point and asked him to stay with me so he stood a little away by the door so I can finish my purchase. When I came out, asked my friend how long she was told to wait for the chocolate donuts and she said 10-20 minutes. I told my friend what happened, she went to the pick up window and asked the person there if she wanted to order chocolate donuts, how long will it take. Person said they had plenty on hand because just made some fresh and if she would like any other kind? because they had plenty! When we looked in our bag outside, all of our donuts topping were mixed together sadly. So....if you're Asian, your donuts will take an hour to be ready. Maybe not if your Caucasian friend is with you.

UPDATE: After a few days, and first responding to my Caucasian male friend who lives in town and causing him distress, the owner finally responded to my review on TripAdvisor. Owner replied that it was only poor customer service. Then she, a Caucasian person in power, stated that I, a POC, did not have the right to feel discriminated against. Not only was it bad customer service, now I'm being told by the owner what my inherent human right is and how I am to feel. This in itself is a function of microaggression and White fragility. So, again, POC, beware, not only will you NOT get donuts, but you will be told what you can or cannot experience. Posting on here because TripAdvisor doesn't allow responses...

When we found out there was a place called World’s Best Donuts in Grand Marais where we were vacationing for the week, we had to test them for ourselves. So our last morning we were there when they opened to take some on the road trip home. I wanted a variety, so I selected the coconut-covered cake, a cinnamon sugar cake, and the chef’s best donut (a raised donut frosted with chocolate and sprinkles). My husband got the Bavarian cream long john and a chocolate frosted doughnut filled with banana cream. After eating the chef’s best donut, I thought it was a good donut that reminded me of the ones I used to snag after church (back in the 80s and 90s before Krispy Kreme was a thing), but I’ve had a better donut. But I’m glad I had noticed on their website or menu that if you think you don’t like cake donuts, you haven’t tried theirs. And the coconut doughnut was delicious and also reminded me of my childhood because I’m not sure I’ve had a coconut doughnut since then. But then after having the cinnamon sugar cake, I can hands-down say it’s the best cake doughnut I’ve ever had. World’s Best is a big claim, but it’s definitely worth a visit if you’re in the Superior...