The donut, like the circle from which it takes its shape, is a metaphor for life; it literally never ends. Enjoy eternally enticing eats with today’s Groupon: for $5, you get a choice of five pastries and donuts and one beverage (up to a $10 value) at Mel-O-Glaze Bakery, located off Lake Nokomis at Minnehaha Parkway.

Family-owned Mel-O-Glaze bakery and coffeehouse has been glazing dough and hungry eyeballs for two generations. Patrons have plenty of time to mull over a glittering, self-serve menagerie of donuts ($1), pastries ($1.50), and cookies ($0.75) before coaxing them from the display case to the register. The honey-cinnamon roll soothes the mouth and unravels like the plot of sweet and simple Disney film. Fried confections, such as the levitation-inducing buttermilk cake donut and the flaky apple fritter, earned Mel-O-Glaze a Best Doughnuts award by City Pages in 2007. After the epic journey of dessert selection, diners can retire to cozy couches and look out on the Parkway, nursing a café latte and whatever turnover, twist, or triple axel they managed to pin ($2). Call ahead to inquire about today's available flavors.

Reviews

Chowhound featured Mel-O-Glaze Bakery, and the bakery won Best Doughnuts from City Pages in 2007. Yelpers give Mel-O-Glaze Bakery a three-star average rating.

• If you're going to eat a doughnut, why would you eat anything less than the very best there is? – City Pages
• MAGIC in your mouth. – Wanda M., Yelp