George Jetson-era doughnuts

It’s hard to believe in the digital age that there isn’t a Web site advertising DeAngelis Donuts, a funky coffee shop at a busy intersection northeast of Pittsburgh.

So newcomers like us are forced to call the business in Rochester boasting a retro plastic sign capped with a giant spinning doughnut to find out when it opens and closes.

The waitress on the other end of the line today said she usually locks up when the donuts are sold out, but will be there until 5 p.m. So much for regular hours at this roadside attraction at one end of the Monaca-Rochester Bridge crossing the Ohio River in Beaver County.

We arrive about 4:30 p.m. to find the inside lights aglow, a chubby customer at the counter, the doors locked and a friendly waitress who ultimately decides to let us inside. I am happy and on a mission to sink my teeth into what the sign outside promotes as “Delightfully Different DONUTS.”

By now, I am craving greasy, sticky arteries-clogging glazed donuts of a heavenly variety. To my surprise, there are several rows of surviving chocolate cake donuts covered in dark sprinkles, those with fancy swirls that pretend to have a French connection and others dusted with powdered sugar in the sour dough family. The doughnut gods are surely smiling down upon us. She bags us a half-dozen assortment that cost just under $5 and we are out the door.

In the end, there isn’t anything special about these donuts. They are kind of small, actually. But that's OK.

It’s the original 1950s architecture, shiny chrome counter stools and giant geometric George Jetsonish sign that make this business a worthy adventure in the New Millennium.