I was standing in line at the Walgreens pharmacy on Paxton Avenue when I noticed the woman in front of me was fighting back tears. She was around my age and I wondered if her tears were the result of a worrying diagnosis or an insurance company’s refusal to pay for a pricey prescription, or both. Beneath the drug store’s harsh fluorescent lights, Peter Cetera’s treacly The Glory of Love started playing and all I wanted to do was give the woman a hug.
I didn’t, of course. That would’ve been weird. But I should have at least asked if she was OK. If there was something I could do for her. Unfortunately, I did neither.
My empathy for the woman and my inability to help her left me feeling unmoored, so I decided to stop by the Servatii bakery a few doors down to ground myself before heading home. There’s something restorative about Servatii, a bakery that’s been around for 62 years, and a bakery that my mother used to take me to for a danish whenever she was feeling blue. In the days before selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a Servatii danish seemed to have pharmacological properties of its own.
Instead of the danish, my eyes darted toward a row of plump, crumbly “apple crisp” donuts that reminded me of the Hostess coffee cakes I loved when I was little.
I don’t normally like donuts. But I knew these would prove an exception to the rule. First off, they were cake donuts, which are so much better than fried donuts. And the description of the donut, placed on the little plastic menu card on the counter, made them an easy sell.
Servatii blends pureed apples into the dough then glazes them and tops them with a buttery cinammon crumb after the bake. The result is a cross between a New England cider donut and a Cincinnati coffee cake, the warming spices of cinammon and apple making me wish fall would just get on with it already. As much as a warm pot roast or a brick of lasagna, this donut is a comfort food unto itself.
I only ordered three of the donuts, which my family and I devoured so quickly when I got home that I went back to Servatii the next day to order more (and two days later, even more).
My sense of urgency was warranted. The apple crisp donuts are part of Servatii’s Donut of the Month program, which features seasonal donuts made with ingredients such as blueberries, strawberries and, in this case, apples. That means the apple crisp donuts will only be available until the end of September, when, I’m told, they will switch over to a pumpkin donut.
Food memories run deep. And I’ll bet that next year, when the apple crisp donut comes around again, I’ll remember the woman I saw at the Walgreens that day. I’ll kick myself for not asking if she was OK; if she needed anything; if I could run to Servatii and buy her a donut. Sure, buying a donut for a stranger might sound weird, but when someone is hurting, maybe weird is OK.
Highly Recommended is a weekly spotlight on some of food writer Keith Pandolfi’s favorite finds as he eats his way across Greater Cincinnati. Come back every Tuesday for more. Still hungry? Sign up for Keith’s At the Table newsletter at bit.ly/atthetablesignup.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: The glory of an apple crisp donut from Servatii
Reporting by Keith Pandolfi, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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