Before The Walk, Grab a Breakfast Treat or Two at Monarch Donuts

Donuts, the breakfast of champions! This year we're excited to visit Monarch Donuts (15 W. Huntington Dr., Arcadia), located conveniently across the street from the start of the Great Los Angeles Walk, for coffee and a donut before embarking on our journey.

Monarch is considered to have one of the best, if not *the* best, apple fritters in the city. Owner Jonathan Ung often runs out of his treats in the morning, but he knows we're coming, and will have more donuts and coffee on hand for us before the start of the Walk. Arrive early, however, as I'm sure there will be a line of your fellow Walk-ers wanting the same thing.

Per KCET, which wrote about Monarch Donuts and Ung in 2016:

“One of the hardest doughnuts to make is the apple fritter,” explains Ung. He began to put his focus on mastering the technique, and within months he’d achieved the texture that food writer Jenn Harris of the Los Angeles Times described as a “glossy landscape of hardened icing over hills of sweet dough” when she declared that Ung’s fritter was most likely the best in the city.

The article, published last year, was very unexpected, but it provided Ung with validation that he was onto something. “The article was so beautifully written that it made me want to eat my own apple fritters,” he says. It also brought on a swell of business.

As a result of the piece, customers from Irvine to Santa Barbara descended on the shop en masse for a taste of the now famous fritter. “The article was special but the most special part was meeting all the beautiful people that came by because of the article,” says Ung.

Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken Offers Great Los Angeles Walk Specials This Saturday!

Fuel up before you hit the pavement this Saturday! Downtown's Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken, located a block from Pershing Square on 6th between Olive and Grand, is offering several great specials for Great LA Walkers! Among the specials:

Doughnut and Small Coffee $4
Egg Sandwich and Small Coffee $6
Fried Chicken Honey Sandwich and Small Coffee $8

About Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken: A casual yet refined take on two comfort food classics – fried chicken and doughnuts -- the menu features an evolving array of seasonal doughnuts, creative takes on fried chicken, unique side dishes and specialty doughnut sandwiches.

At Astro we satisfy your inner cravings for two all-American favorites: doughnuts and fried chicken. An astronomical clash of two iconic comfort foods. Everything made from scratch and preservative free.

Astro will open at 8:30 on Saturday -- earlier than usual -- to accommodate us! More info on Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken:

For childhood friends Elliot Spaisman and Jeff Halpern, it all started as a love of hockey and a good old- fashioned fondness for American comfort food. The first native Washingtonians to play for the Washington Capitals, Halpern and Spaisman grew up playing the sport together in Montgomery County, Md., often meeting for a post-game doughnut off the ice.

As adults, the two food lovers forged their childhood pastime into a local eatery offering lighthearted interpretations of two comfort food favorites: doughnuts and fried chicken. Leveraging Spaisman’s experience at Balducci’s (formerly Sutton Place Gourmet), the duo found ways to add a modern spin to classic recipes with inventive seasonal flavors, culturally relevant releases and sandwiches combining both items for a new take on the traditional southern combo of waffles and fried chicken.

In addition to playing for the Washington Capitals — twice — Halpern also graced the ice for the Dallas Stars, Tampa Bay Lightning, Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens and Phoenix Coyotes. All that skating stirs up quite an appetite, so it was only a matter of time before the Princeton grad called upon his economics degree to partner with Spaisman, who had spent a decade in the antiques business honing his business acumen and putting his Ithaca communications degree to good use. When the cupcake craze began sweeping the nation in the 2000s, the duo noticed there was a superior confection flying conspicuously below the radar … and decided to do something about it.

Here's Astro's downtown address:

516 W 6th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90014
(a block from Pershing Square on 6th between Olive and Grand)