Cops & Doughnuts – Central Precinct

• 1327 S. Mission Street
• Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858
• (989) 546-7666
• Website
• Menu

Up early on Black Friday but not to go shopping. I had to work.

It wasn’t my usual 9-5 job. I had picked up a couple of side jobs over the Thanksgiving holiday in Mt. Pleasant. I had to be in town Thursday (Thanksgiving morning) to start the job then we finished it with a 10 hour day on Friday.

I’m not one of those people that book hotels based on whether or not they have free breakfast in the morning. It’s usually crap. I actually did have free breakfast at my hotel but I had other plans.

My job site was near Central Michigan University so I left a few minutes early so I could make a stop.

My stop was at Cops & Donuts on Mission Street and Fairfield Drive on the south side of Mt. Pleasant. The small donut shop is one of four “precincts” (full stores) that branched out from the original concept in nearby Clare. There are also six “substation” where you can get their donuts. These are at various stores, restaurants, and retailers mostly in Northern Michigan.

This small donut chain has a really cool story. All nine members of the Clare police department came together to buy the historic building the original location or “Headquarters” occupies in Clare saving the 113 year old bakery.

The Mt. Pleasant location is known as the “Central Precinct.” The business is in a strip mall that’s a little hard to see from Mission Street. I ended up missing the entrance at 6 AM when it was dark and I was tired and went around the block to try again.

There’s an order counter along the wall to your right when you walk in the door. I had no idea what I was looking for when I stopped in but I knew I wanted doughnuts. A dry erase board behind the counter helped me narrow down what I was looking at.

I really, really like vanilla long johns. I always kind of thought this was a Chicago thing because I can never seem to find them regularly outside of Illinois. Sweetwaters will occasionally have them and we can find them sometimes at Dunkin’. Cops & Doughnuts had not one but two kinds of vanilla long johns. They had one filled with vanilla cream and one filled vanilla custard. I got three of the custard filled ones and three glazed donuts knowing B doesn’t like thick frosting. It was one of those situations where I was pretty overwhelmed because everything in the case looked good.

The cost for six donuts was right around $12.

I headed over to my job site and wanted to try both so I broke one of the long johns in half….and OMG. I always thought there would never be a doughnut that would come even close to Sweetwaters but this doughnut…OMG. The doughnut is a big, flaky yeast raised filled with an insanely good vanilla custard. This doughnut was heaven. I only wanted to eat half of one of these but I cheated and went with maybe 3/4 instead…finishing off the last little bit when I got done with work for the day and got back in the car. I probably should have just got a whole have dozen of these. L shares my love of vanilla long johns and had the same reaction I did when she woke up to doughnuts Sunday morning. She quickly polished off of the remaining two and at some point, took half of the third one after I tried to make the remaining doughnut last a couple of days.

B doesn’t like thick frosting. He doesn’t like it on doughnuts. He doesn’t like it on cake. He likes a thin layer of frosting but he’s just not into the thick, sugary frostings.

Knowing that, I ordered three glazed doughnuts as well. Again, I broke off half of one of the doughnuts so I could try one. These raised glazed doughnuts are so much better than Krispy Kreme. These didn’t last very long once I got them home either. I’m not sure who ate them but buy the time I got to the box Sunday morning, there was only a small piece left.

I’ve heard about Cops & Doughnuts for years but I’m not usually in that part of Michigan. Man, I have been missing out. These doughnuts were amazing. I’m not gonna say they were better than Sweetwaters…gotta rep the hometown team still…but they are just as crave able and I can’t wait until the next time I’m close enough to one of the “Precincts.” I know now to grab more than I think I’ll be able to eat.