Flex Donuts: Pop-up Doughnut Shop at Grand Central

[Photographs: Robyn Lee]

What adds to the anticipation of getting pastry chef Zac Young's Flex Donuts is watching him hold a large pastry bag and inject small, round doughnuts with filling. Young, who is executive pastry chef at Flex Mussels and a former contestant of Top Chef Just Desserts, is selling his doughnuts ($1.50) for two weeks in the takeout section of Zocalo in the Lowel Level Dining Concourse at Grand Central Terminal. Young offers five flavors: salted cajeta (caramelized goat's milk), lime, raspberry, spiced chocolate, and cinnamon sugar.

Flex Donuts lined up for your delight. [Photo: Jenny Lee-Adrian]

We tasted all five doughnuts, the best of which was the salted cajeta. The caramelized goat's milk filling left me with a pleasant aftertaste of "goatiness" that didn't overshadow the richness of the caramel flavor. The raspberry was balanced in its sweet-tart ratio; that balance wasn't quite there with the face-puckering lime, which only those who love very tart fillings should try. The spiced chocolate didn't have much of a kick to it; or maybe the reasonably dense doughnut body nixed any sort of heat the filling had.

If you prefer plain yeast doughnuts, then get the cinnamon sugar. But I would pick up a Flex with filling—those fillings steal the show.

Open noon to 6 p.m. (or until doughnuts run out) Mondays through Fridays, through February 4th.

Flex Donuts

At Zocalo, Lower Level Dining Concourse, Grand Central Terminal map 212-687-5666

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