The popular Monarch Donuts shop in Arcadia, California, closed on Sept. 21 to make way for a residential and retail development.
Los Angeles Times food critic Jenn Harris said the shop’s apple fritter is the best in a region known for many doughnut shops. Indeed, Monarch Donuts had long drawn a lengthy line of customers when it opened at 5 a.m. He sold at least 1,500 doughnuts each day.
The shop at 15 W. Huntington Drive (aka Route 66) will be demolished for the Arcadia Town Center.
Owner Jonathan Ung seemed OK with stepping away. He never liked doughnuts that much. Ung said it’s time to rest and was ready to retire.
His father, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, started working at doughnut shops throughout Los Angeles about 50 years ago.
Ung’s uncled also worked at Monarch for many years, and he took over when he left.
“My dad is my hero,” he says. “He always wanted me to do better than he did because he knew how treacherous it was to be a baker. He wanted me to work in an office or get an education. But if you’re able to make doughnuts and give us the life that we had, where we didn’t know we were poor and just had the best Christmas every year, I just wanted to be like him.”
Ung built a steady following for his fluffy, yeast-raised doughnuts and cake doughnuts with a soft, delicate crumb. But it was the apple fritter that captured my attention. Back in 2015, I named it the best apple fritter in the city. Today, it’s still true.
Despite his success, Ung never developed a taste for doughnuts, or a passion for baking. His education in the kitchen was mostly trial and error. And when I ask him about his recipe or process, or how he manages to achieve that pillow-soft texture, he always replies: “I use the same ingredients as every other place. I just put love.” […]
“I got to grow with people’s families,” says Ung. “Even though God has not blessed me with a partner, I get to cheer on everyone who has one at the window, and be a part of it.”
Here’s a video from Arcadia Public Network about Ung and his shop from a few years ago:
According to property records, the building was constructed in 1953.
Whether Monarch was the L.A. region’s best doughnut shop remains in dispute. Another Route 66 landmark, The Donut Man in Glendora, makes a strong claim due to its famous strawberry doughnuts, served only when the fruits are in season.
(Hat tip to Chris Willman; excerpted image from Google Street View of Monarch Donuts in Arcadia, California)