Underground Donut Tour Digs Into Cork's History And Diversity. And Doughnuts Of Course!

Underground Donut Tour Digs Into Cork's History And Diversity.

And Doughnuts Of Course!

Donut ranks at Offbeat

Pat, a proud Corkman, was our guide as we marched through the city last week in search of doughnuts, or donuts as the Americans, and now most of the world, spell it! 

Not exactly marching, more like strolling. And not just doughnuts, there were other sweet treats in the mix, including croissants and churros and quite a chunk of local history.

The tour takes about two hours and there are four food stops in total, each chosen because they are local and support local. Dulce Cafe (Oliver Plunkett Street), Cameron Bakery (Parnell Place), Offbeat Donuts (French Church Street) and Golden Bites (Kyrl Street) are the quartet.

Our guide Pat

And all this fits in well with the aims of founder and owner Jeff who started the tour in his native Chicago and guided its spread to over a dozen cities in the US and Canada. Now, Europe has been added to the list with Dublin and London starting just before Cork. 

Jeff: “At each stop you sample donuts, beignets, churros or other local delicacies while learning the history of each shop”.

We linked up with guide Pat outside Dulce, the first stop, and, as he sang the praises of the establishment, we happily tucked into our first donuts, one an Oreo, the other churro-based. Think we two preferred the Churro over the darker Oreo but no doubt chocolate lovers will go for the other one.

Dulce Bun House is centrally perched on the main thoroughfare of Cork City on Oliver Plunkett Street. The family-run café, which already has achieved many awards, opened its doors in 2017 with an ethos to provide deliciously tasting coffee and sweet treats.

A little history now as we strolled up Oliver Plunkett Street. Do you know where Turner's Hotel was? Look on the wall above JJ Walshe’s pub. Speaking of walls, we soon saw the old city wall in the Grand Parade, the onion seller (sculpted by Seamus Murphy) in the park, the Berwick Fountain, the cannon that masquerades as a bollard.

Gone but not forgotten on North Main Street.

Back down the Mall then, past the National Monument and others, past the restaurant Jacobs on the Mall (once the Turkish Baths) and past the famous Imperial Hotel. 

Around the corner into Parnell Place and here we called into Cameron, a French bakery, and they had some sweet (and large) croissants for us, one with chocolate chip, the other with apricot. Here, though both were delicious, a pattern began to emerge as it was the lighter one that got the nod.

Cameron is a traditional French Bakery, now with three locations across Cork City. They offer a large range of French bread, baguettes, sandwiches, pastries,... "all prepared in store under your eyes with seasonal ingredients".

Mary Elmes, hero of WW2

Tanora, the Real Cork donut

Up Merchants Quay after that, Pat uses the river and its two channels to hammer home the point that the city is an island. Two bridges named after two famous Corkonians lay ahead. First, the newish pedestrian bridge named after the heroic Mary Elmes, the second was named after sporting icon Christy Ring.

Into the middle of the island to visit Offbeat Donuts who recently opened their first shop in Cork to add to a string in Dublin. It has an amazing range. No Corkman could turn down the famous Mi Daza (flavoured with a famous local lemonade Tanora).

The second, the Caramel Crumble, is dipped in a smooth luscious caramel, topped with homemade crumble and milk chocolate, and finished with a piece of Twix, which is also very acceptable indeed. So too were the seats upstairs.

St Fin Barres, from Nano Nagle Bridge

After that short rest in what is known as the Huguenot Quarter, not that we were under any pressure, we headed for North Main Street (the original "main" street of the nascent city) and its famous ancient lanes, many of them now closed but even those are recalled with bronze plaques on the footpath. Instead of looking up here, we were looking down!

Dulce

Soon we were turning right into Kyle Street and the Brazilian-owned Golden Bites. They are famous for their mini churros and we enjoyed two versions, with a delicious sauce of Nutella or Caramel (Dulce de Lecce). Freshly deep-fried and covered in sugar and cinnamon, these were sweet! You can guess our favourite.

Golden Bites is well-known in the markets where, as in Kyle Street, they offer Mini Churros, Savoury Snacks and Acai Smoothie Bowls. Of course, they appeal to Brazilians living here. "Are you homesick? Golden Bites is the best place to solve it! Here, you can find the best Brazilian snacks. You'll love it! You can have all these delights in your home too, order them on Deliveroo or Uber Eats."

An unexpected end to the Underground Tour. But nobody will be complaining if all endings are as sweet as this Brazilian touch in an old Cork street.

Cameron's Croissant

The Underground Donut Tour Cork is a great and relaxing way to learn about the city's history and sample some of its delicious food. 

More on the Cork tour here.

OFFBEAT REVEALS THE ULTIMATE CORK FLAVOURED DONUT

press release

OFFBEAT REVEALS THE ULTIMATE CORK FLAVOURED DONUT

Offbeat Donuts has created a new Tanora flavoured donut to mark six months in the Rebel City.  The leading bakery, which is proud to be 100% Irish, launched a competition asking the people of Cork to design a brand new donut for its popular store on French Church Street. 

The winning pure-Cork donut is the ‘Me Daza Donut’ - a term of approval in Cork slang. It’s filled with a tangerine cream, topped with a Tanora glaze and sprinkled with popping candy. The limited edition sweet treat is now on sale at Offbeat Donuts in Cork city. 

Tanora is a popular soft drink that was first introduced to Cork in the 1930s and remains a firm favourite today. 

Sandra O’Casey from Offbeat Donuts said, “We’ve had great fun with this competition and were blown away by the delicious suggestions from the people of Cork with fillings ranging from Jameson whiskey-flavoured cream and Rasa raspberry cordial, to savoury ones like Hillbillies chicken and black pudding. However, there could only be one winner and Tanora is such a uniquely Cork drink that we simply had to make it. ”

OffBeat is one of the largest fresh donut bakeries in Ireland and has eight stores in Dublin and Cork employing 120 people. Cork native Brian and his wife Sandra O’Casey began experimenting with flavours in a development kitchen located in their shed before they opened their first store in Pearse Station, Westland Row in May 2016. 

The donuts are freshly made from scratch on-site every day, with customers able to observe the entire baking process while in store.

LEADING IRISH BAKERY REVEALS HOW CORK vs DUBLIN TASTES DIFFER

Offbeat Donuts has made almost 18 million donuts fresh in store since 2016

Brian O'Casey, founder of Offbeat Donuts, pictured with team members Alanna Dolan and Chloe McCarthy. Picture: Michael O'Sullivan /OSM PHOTO

One of Ireland’s leading bakeries has revealed a surprising difference in the tastes of its customers in Dublin and Cork. Offbeat Donuts, which is proud to be 100% Irish, has found that customers in the capital seek out fruit flavours first. In Cork, it has emerged that consumers are in love with hazelnut, opting for kinder bueno and nutella flavours before any other. 

OffBeat is one of the largest fresh donut bakeries in Ireland and has eight stores in Dublin and Cork employing 120 people. Since 2016, Offbeat Donuts has made a whopping 17.65 million donuts. That’s enough donuts to line the route from Dublin to Cork more than five times over. 

In Cork, the most popular flavours are ‘Bueno Bueno’, ‘Happy Hippo’ and ‘Nutella’ all of which contain hazelnut and chocolate toppings or fillings. In contrast, customers in Dublin are drawn towards ‘Offbeat Jam’, ‘Apple Crumble’ and ‘Cookies and Creme’ first.

Plant based donuts are also increasingly popular in both locations, however, sales in Cork are increasing at a faster rate and now account for 15% of all sales in Cork and 7% of sales in Dublin. Offbeat Donuts now offers three vegan flavours including biscoff, chocolate cookie and chocolate ganache. 

Alanna Dolan and Chloe McCarthy

Husband and wife duo Brian and Sandra O’Casey began experimenting with flavours in a development kitchen located in their shed before they opened their first store in Pearse Station, Westland Row in May 2016. 

Sandra O’Casey said, “In September 2022 we opened our first store outside of the capital in French Church Street, in Cork City. It has been a huge success and we’ve produced around 400,000 donuts in store since then. We always wondered if there were any differences in the tastes between our customers in Cork and Dublin and now we know. What’s clear is that our customers in the Rebel County love hazelnuts and chocolate while in Dublin they prefer our classic Jam Donut or Apple Crumble.  It’s incredible to think that we’ve produced nearly 18 million donuts since 2016. We work with some incredible Irish suppliers who have been with us since day one, we continue to work with them as we develop new and exciting flavours to suit all tastes.”

The first donut flavour Brian and Sandra O’Casey created was ‘Glazed’ which was quickly followed by ‘Sprinkles’. It’s estimated that Offbeat Donuts has used more than 8 tonnes of 100s and 1000s over the last 7 years with approximately 4,400 sprinkles on each donut. 

OffBeat donuts are freshly made from scratch on-site every day, with customers able to observe the entire baking process while in store. In addition to its large selection of hand-crafted donuts, OffBeat serves loaded ice-cream cones, ethically sourced coffee, cookies and freshly made milkshakes.