Los Angeles-Based Donut Icon Expands into San Diego with Huge Opening Day Splash

After nearly 75 years of donut supremacy in Los Angeles, the iconic and always delicious Randy’s Donuts has finally made its way to beautiful San Diego. And if the line, which wrapped all the way around the building and down the street, on opening day is any indication, San Diegans have been eagerly awaiting the move for quite some time.

Amidst all of the donut craziness taking place on opening day, which included a DJ booth, a live raffle, and too many giveaways and prizes to count, I had the unique privilege of sitting down with Jessica Harrison, the lead special marketer for Emilio Tamez—the man responsible for bringing Randy’s Donuts to San Diego. Through my brief but insightful conversation with Harrison, I was able to gain a better understanding of what the present and future of Randy’s Donuts could look like in San Diego.

Although Randy’s original location in Inglewood, California, stood alone for many many years—since 1952 to be exact—expansion always seemed inevitable. In 2015, that inevitable expansion finally came to fruition, and new Randy’s locations began popping up in Orange County, Las Vegas, and even South Korea and Saudi Arabia. Fast forward to 2023, and it feels almost as if a San Diego Randy’s location is long overdo. “San Diego was picked as an ideal location to continue the momentum in Southern California, and also because it’s just such a wonderful family destination and such a great town,” Harrison said of the move. Not only that, but, it seems Emilio Tamez is looking to make up for lost time, as Harrison also went on to reveal that, “The goal is that we’ll have 10 Randy’s locations throughout San Diego County, and in the next couple years we’re hoping to have one or two morel.” Now if that’s not an absolute vote of full confidence in Randy’s and San Diego County being a match made in donut heaven, then I don’t know what is.

While it is undoubtedly the immediate recognizability of the massive donut atop Randy’s original Inglewood location, which lends the legendary donut shop much of it’s fame and notoriety in pop culture, it cannot overshadow the quality of the donut itself. The secret behind the sweet, mouth watering donuts found at Randy’s comes from a simple but consistent recipe, one which Harrison would not reveal to me (surprise, surprise). She did, however, confirm that “it is the original recipe” which dates all the way back to the first 1952 Inglewood location and no tweaks have been made to the recipe overtime. “Certainly they’ve added flavors, but the process of making the donuts has not changed,” Harrison further explained.

Harrison also shared that the line for the grand opening began forming at 1:30am – even though the doors didn’t open until 6am.

In regards to the unchanged recipe found at Randy’s, one could say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But if the seemingly never ending line on opening day is any indication, maybe “don’t mess with perfection” is a more fitting phrase.

Randy’s Donuts
3737 Murphy Canyon Road
San Diego, CA 92123
Sunday – Saturday
6am – 9pm