Doughnut Shoppe is a new gift to Los Angeles from distinguished pastry chef Elizabeth Belkind. For the past month, she has transformed Grace, a high-end Beverly corridor restaurant from Neal Fraser and Amy Knoll Fraser, into a doughnut-lover’s wonderland. She offers seven different, and I mean different, kinds of doughnuts every Wednesday.

There were only three of us, and as much as we wanted to try all seven doughnuts, we could only manage four different orders ($9 apiece). Fortuitously, each order came with three doughnuts, so we could split them evenly.

We kick-started proceedings with the doughnuts Belkind has offered on Grace’s regular dessert menu since inception: “The Original Jelly Doughnut, strawberry rhubarb jam, vanilla cream, buttermilk strawberry ice cream.”

They were excellent, with ingredients several notches above the jelly doughnuts I ate as a kid. We could have done without the bowl of vanilla cream with a sliver of strawberry floating on top. The doughnuts were good enough on their own. Of course that didn’t stop us from spooning up the cream like soup.

“Brown Sugar Doughnut, blackberry preserves, warm berry salad, beurre noisette” was a contender for the evening’s best plate. Berry preserves and a warm blueberry, blackberry and strawberry blend were melded beautifully with crystallized brown sugar crusts.

“Coconut frosted doughnut, cajeta, roasted cashews, panna gelata” was very good. Belkind coated these doughnuts in coconut strands and served them on a caramel and raw cashew bed.

Our consensus top choice involved “Chocolate Hazelnut Beignet, bananas foster, burnt caramel ice cream” and candied pecans. Beignets were so fluffy, oozed chocolate hazelnut sauce, and accompanying caramelized bananas were beyond luscious.

We cut the effects of all the sugar with strong French press coffee. One friend got French pressed tea that came with a silver and glass bee that had a honey-filled abdomen. Nice touch.

Overall, the evening was a colossal success. Our only regret was that we weren’t able to try all the doughnuts. No problem. It just gives us an excuse to return for the three untested varieties: “Warm Glazed Doughnut, sweet and simple, cold glass of milk”; “Warm chocolate pillows, marshmallow cream, spiced hot chocolate, spiced burlat cherries”; and “Doughnut Shoppe, yeast raised, filled and glazed, house-spun vanilla ice cream.” Of course, as innovative as Ms. Belkind is, there could easily be more than seven varieties by the time of our return. (If you’re reading this, Elizabeth, hint-hint).

UPDATE: Elizabeth Belkind has moved on, but new Pastry Chef Mariah Swan is continuing the Doughnut Shoppe tradition.