Time to buy the donuts!

I once had a plan to have a "Mister Day" and then have a "City" day...I was going to start the first with breakfast at Mister Donut, visit Mr Tire for a set of rubbers for the truck, see an attorney in our town named Mr Mister about filing a frivolous lawsuit, go to Mr Tape and get a Mr Mister CD, and finish the day with dinner at Mister Steak.

Then in a week or so, I would have breakfast at Waffle City, get a new stereo for the truck at Circuit City, get some new kicks at Shoe City, and take my life in my hands by having dinner in Baltimore City!

I never got around to either of these plans, but if I get to California, I'm planning for breakfast at Donut City in Seal Beach, which is where one of those "only in America" stories "is unfolding," as they say on TV news.

As any good donut shop will do, Donut City opens at 4:30 in the yawning, and they usually stay open until 2 PM, but they will close up early if there are no more donuts to sell.

The shop has been there since 1990, owned by Cambodian immigrants Stella and John Chhan, and they are mighty popular among the local Seal Beachians, some of whom started noticing lately that Stella was not around when they stopped in for their morning dozen.

John told those who asked that Stella suffered an aneurysm in late September and was rehabbing in a nursing home, and he added that he went there every day after he sold all the donuts and cleaned up.


“Days went by and I just couldn’t get it out of my head,” customer Dawn Caviola told the Orange County Register. “So I thought, if enough people would buy a dozen doughnuts every morning, he could close early and go be with his wife.”

Caviola took to social media to post her idea: let's buy up all the crullers so John can get out of there earlier. The next day, the line was out the door by 6 AM and it's been that way ever since.

When the Washington Post called Chhan the other day at 8 California time. he said, “We’re done for today. Sold out about a half-hour ago. A lot of people come in and buy three, four, five dozen.”

That day, Chhan told the Post he sold 50 dozen doughnuts.


Jenee Rogers, a regular Donut Citizen for 20 years, told the paper that the Chhans are “humble, smiling people.” and that they declined an offer of a GoFundMe page for their benefit.

John Chhan was cleaning up when the Post contacted him, on his way to see his wife. He said they came from Cambodia together in the late 1970s and bought the donut shop in 1990.

After Stella's aneurysm, she couldn't speak, or move around well, John said, but now she is on the mend. “She’s getting better and better,” he said.

And he had to interrupt his conversation with the Post reporter several times to tell customers he was already sold out.  And he said how thankful he is for what his customers are doing for him and Stella.

“I so appreciate it,” he said. “I just can’t say enough thank you and thank you.”