Michael F.
Yelp
They are back open, but it isn't every day, I think it's Thursday night through Sunday right now. I'm glad they're back.
As someone who has eaten Mrs. Johnson's donuts since the 1960s, I can tell you that they are getting some things right with the reopen. It's bright and clean, new equipment installed, new paint, and an outside table area that is covered took the place of the old drive-through lane. The new lane snakes around the back of the building and comes up the other side.
Mrs. Johnson's used a different type of vanilla in their recipe to give it their signature flavor. I don't know if this new incarnation is using the same, but the flavor is close to the original I remember. So far I have only had the glazed and the chocolate iced, but - and again, this is early, they're still finding their footing - the donuts are way off. The chocolate icing is far too bitter and it's very thin and gummy. The traditional icing was almost like a fudge, it was much lighter in color, thick, and when it cooled it would actually break off of the donut into chunks of candy/icing. No more, it's just a black, sticky goo that is bitter and probably some "artisan cacao" type of icing.
The worst culprit though is that the donuts are not as fluffy and airy as they were, not by a long shot. I'd estimate that these are half as high as the old ones, and they're tough and chewy. Chewy when they're hot, resisting pulling apart when you bite them. When they're cold they're still chewy and tough, but they break off into chunks when bitten. I don't know if they've not been proofed long enough or if there is a yeast problem, but these are small, dense, and really not satisfying at all even when they are hot. Since we're talking about the base donut here, it means that it will affect all of their products. I hope they figure this out soon. If they don't, that flashing neon sign won't be a promise, it'll just be another trick of memory.