Route 1 Kane's Donuts Review: Other Stores Should Be Jelly

SAUGUS, MA — In the name of journalism, Patch visited the recently opened Kane's Donuts on Route 1 to see if the locally iconic company can sling the best doughnuts north of Boston in two locations in the same city.

Spoiler alert: They can.

While the new Kane's certainly lacks the old-school cramped charm of the original location on Lincoln Ave. - which isn't necessarily a bad thing - the product is still stinkin' delicious.

Kane's had a soft-opening last week in Essex Landing, a new development that overtook the mini golf course with the big orange dinosaur. The dinosaur, thankfully, is still keeping a watchful eye.

The dinosaur isn't alone in that. Paul Delios, president and co-owner of Kane's, was there Thursday to overlook everything and talk up some customers. He had already been at Lincoln Ave. and the Boston location earlier in the day. "I love all my children equally," he said.

The Route 1 location isn't afraid to try something new, and we aren't just talking about the drive-thru that hasn't yet opened. The inside looks unabashedly modern - closer to what you might expect in Somerville than Saugus. There's a chrome, neutral look when you walk in thanks to the doughnut production going on behind the counter. It's bookended by a colorful shrine to Kane's on the left and the word L-O-V-E hanging on an espresso bean wall on the right. The menu layout is from Lincoln Ave. The blue and brown trim is from Boston.

It's different, but you'll know where you are when you walk in.

"We're never going to be able to copy the look of the old store," Delios told Patch.

Would he want to if he could?

"No."

A couple dozen customers filed in in the short time it took this reporter to devour a buttercrunch doughnut and get started on this review. (Does anyone have any keyboard cleaner?) One person made sure to interrupt an interview to Delios to make it known: "Best doughnuts in the world!"

There were Kane's loyalists - "I just wanted to look!" exclaimed one woman - and total newbies. One gentleman who was tasked by his boss with getting two jelly's had never heard of it. Even someone from the Essex County Sheriff's Department came in; He took a Reese's doughnut into custody.

"Seeing some old faces, seeing a lot more new faces, too," Delios said.

Oh, yea, the doughnuts. Just like the original, Kane's has dozens of doughnuts taunting you from behind glass, with full production going on in the back. The woman plucking the doughnuts said the most popular thus far were the buttercrunch (guilty,) the coconut, and the ungodly doughnut flavor of pistachio. Delios said it's always the honeydew.

"It's the same recipes my dad passed on," he said.

It is $2.50 plus tax for a doughnut, $15 for a half-dozen. I paid for my one and went over to a seat overlooking a stone front that will be overflowing with people in a couple months - Delios said it may soon have chairs and tables.

My buttercrunch didn't stand a chance. It tasted like it had just come out of the oven, which Delios said was likely the case.

You might find some too-cool-for-school people who think Kane's is becoming some tourist trap with a new location. Whatever. It's just intensely scrumptious doughnuts, now available on the way into Boston from the North Shore without getting off the highway.

Take a look for yourself.

(Kane's is still under a soft open as staff is filled out and things are fine-tuned.)