1. A giant donut is literally the first thing you see when you’re flying into the airport.

There’s no getting around the fact that LAX is a miserable place. But before visitors to this fair city are greeted with an hour of runway taxiing and searching for lost baggage, they get to feast their eyes on the massive donut that resides permanently atop Randy’s Donuts (805 W. Manchester Blvd.). Brothers Ron and Larry Weintraub co-own this landmark shop, which has appeared in such cinematic masterpieces as Earth Girls are Easy and Volcano. The drive-thru is open 24 hours—just in case you caught the redeye—and the classic jelly is better than any donut in your city.

2. It’s not overrun by mediocre chains.

Chain donut shops are fine, especially if you’re craving a sad, wilting maple bar and a scalding hot cup of America’s Most Overrated Coffee. But, hey, you know what’s even better? Pretty much every donut shop in Los Angeles. Bostonians may pride themselves on supporting the Big National Chain, but LA—like much of California—has staunchly resisted its intrusion for years. Drive through the city, and you’ll find a mom-and-pop donut shop on nearly every corner. Sure, they may not all be great, but you won’t know that until you try them. Think of it as playing the lottery with the odds stacked in your favor.

3. You can get Chinese food and donuts under one roof.

If you’ve lived in LA for any reasonable amount of time, you’ve likely stumbled across a shop that sells Chinese food alongside donuts. These small, hole-in-the-wall establishments may owe to the influx of Cambodian immigrants in the 1970s, though their donuts tend to be of the standard American variety. They’re also incredibly inexpensive, so it makes good economic sense to substitute a glazed cruller for a side of white rice. Check out Mom’s Donuts & Chinese Food (601 N. Silver Lake Blvd.) in Silver Lake and discover why LA really is the city where dreams come true.

4. “Gourmet” donuts are a stupid fad, but LA even has those.

Putting bacon on your donut is a sign of insecurity, and charging $4 for the resulting abomination should be a crime worthy of arrest. It’s not that experimentation is bad, per se, but sometimes a good thing just doesn’t need to be gussied up. The people of LA seem to know this intuitively, which is why you can still find a no-fuss, 50-cent donut everywhere you look. If you have special dietary restrictions, you can always hit up a vegan spot like Breakaway Bakery (5264 W. Pico Blvd.), but here’s a rule to live by: the best donuts belong in your belly, not on Instagram.

5. Shhh. The best donut shop in Chicago is an LA donut shop in disguise.

If you live in Chicago, maybe you’ve visited a Stan’s Donuts recently. And while you were there, maybe you thought to yourself, “This is a good donut place.” You were right! But at its jelly-filled core, Stan’s in Chicago is really just a dressed-up version of the original Stan’s (10948 Weyburn Ave.), an unassuming stand in Westwood that’s been churning out the hits since 1965.

6. When New York bakers tried to get all meta-donut, LA beat 'em at their own game.

By now you’ve surely heard of the cronut, the half-croissant, half-donut hybrid invented by Chef Dominique Ansel in his New York bakery. Is the cronut necessary? Of course not. But New Yorkers have this annoying habit of thinking they’re the best at everything, so LA was forced to take the cronut and make it even better. Hence the brûléed crullant from Semi Sweet Bakery (105 E. 6th St.) , a cruller-croissant that comes topped with two layers of brûléed sugar. In the low-budget class, the clear winner is the $2 faux-nut from California Donuts (3540 W. 3rd St.). Hey, New York, can you make a $2 cronut?

7. Potato flour donuts are common in LA and nearly impossible to find elsewhere.

Donuts made with potato flour were once not all that uncommon. Sold under the franchise name of Spudnuts, these donuts could be found everywhere from Alaska to the American South, but the parent company shut down in the late 1970s and independent stores gradually followed suit. Except in LA, that is, where Spudnuts is very much alive and ready to answer the burning question of “What does a potato donut taste like?” (Not like french fries, strangely enough).

8. Most LA donut shops are open late, and plenty of them never close.

Donuts are fatty, sugary, and inexpensive, which means they’re the perfect food to eat when your inhibitions leave you at 4 a.m. Thankfully, LA has no shortage of donut shops open 24 hours, including the aforementioned Randy’s and California Donuts.

9. A donut bought in LA is a victory for the American Dream.

There are plenty of reasons to crown LA the donut capital of the world—so many, in fact, that it’s almost silly to even be having this conversation. But the most compelling reasons lie in what kind of country we want America to be. Do we want to live in a country where a hardworking, ever-smiling couple like Ralph and Celia Primo (Primo’s Donuts, 2918 Sawtelle Blvd.) can battle the big chains and emerge victorious? Do we want to live in a country where you can exchange a single dollar bill for the best damn donut of your life? If your answer is “Yes!”, then come to LA. And look out for Randy’s on your way in.

Photo illustrations by Mark Mills, Groupon

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