Santa Clara's Doughnut Corner Runs on Two Clocks, and 2:30 p.m. Is the Handoff

On the morning Randy's Donuts opened at Homestead Road and Las Palmas Drive, Ameer Al-Gharib and a friend split the job. He stood in the Stan's line, his friend stood in the Randy's line, and the plan was to meet afterward for a side-by-side tasting. When someone asked where the neutral ground was, another customer, Dave Loya, pointed across the parking lot to the corner business and said, "Taco Bell!"

That was July 31, 2026. Two months later, the "doughnut war" label still sticks to this intersection. The more useful thing to know is what each shop's posted hours show. Stan's closes in the early afternoon and Randy's keeps going into the evening, so the two shops split the day between them. For anyone who lives nearby, that makes the corner a single doughnut stop that runs from 6 a.m. into the evening, with 2:30 p.m. as the handoff.

Two shops from the 1950s, kitty-corner on Homestead

Randy's Santa Clara shop is the brand's first in Northern California. It's a franchise in a bright orange building at 2595 Homestead Road that used to be a KFC. The brand started in Inglewood and is known for its 32-foot rooftop doughnut, which showed up in Iron Man 2. CEO Mark Kelegian says Randy's dates to 1952. It was family-owned for decades before it changed hands and started franchising.

Across the intersection, Stan's Donut Shop sits at 2628 Homestead Road in the Mariposa Shopping Center. Stan Wittmayer, a World War II veteran, opened the bakery with his wife, Florence, in 1959. All nine of their children worked there at one point or another, and the family still owns it. Owner Julie Clark is a Wittmayer daughter.

Both shops say the glazed raised doughnut is their bestseller. On opening day, the East Bay Times priced it at $1.90 at Stan's and $2.75 at Randy's. Opening day itself was a big turnout on both sides of the street. Randy's co-owner Ausaf Masud estimated about 400 people in his line, which he said stretched across two blocks. Clark told KQED her own line was four to five times longer than usual. Some of the people in it had been coming for decades. James Stewart lives nearby and told KQED he stops at Stan's about once a week and has for roughly 40 years. Steve Alfinito said he'd been a Stan's supporter "since before there was a San Tomas Expressway."

Nobody running either shop calls it a rivalry. "We appreciate everyone in this line," Clark said on opening day. Masud told KQED that he and his family live in the area and were Stan's customers before they got into the doughnut business. His prediction is that people will go to Stan's one day and Randy's the next, which he called "double the doughnut fun."

How the corner's day breaks down

Masud's one-day-here, next-day-there idea makes the most sense when you look at each shop's posted hours together:

• 6:00 a.m. Both shops open, according to their own websites.
• Morning rush. At Stan's, the line usually starts inside along the wall and often runs out onto the shopping center sidewalk. Ten-year-old Nihal Plaha watched the staff work through opening day's crowd and called Stan's "the In-N-Out of doughnuts."
• 2:30 p.m. Stan's closes for the day, per its posted hours.
• After 2:30 p.m. Randy's is the only one of the two still open. Kelegian told the East Bay Times the brand keeps longer hours than most doughnut shops so people can get something sweet in the late afternoon or after dinner.
• Closing time at Randy's. Opening-week reports said the Santa Clara shop would stay open until 9 or 10 p.m. Its location page now lists 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. If you're planning an after-dinner stop, check the current hours first.

That gives the corner about eight and a half hours of overlap in the morning and early afternoon. After that, Randy's has a few more hours on its own. For an after-school or post-dinner doughnut, the choice comes down to which shop is still open.

Cash at one counter, 50 flavors at the other

Payment is the other practical difference. KQED described Stan's as cash-only, and the shop's own menu says it takes cash and check. Bring cash if you're heading there first thing. The doughnuts are handmade, and many are shaped in the big front window where customers can watch. Besides the raised glazed, the menu has a rotating lineup of buttermilk doughnuts and old-fashioneds, plus rotating weekday flavors. There's counter seating if you want to stay for a doughnut and a coffee. Clark says the short menu is on purpose:

"We're old school. We stick to the classics."

Randy's takes the opposite approach. The case holds up to about 50 varieties, including chocolate or maple Long Johns, Maple Bacon Long Johns, mango Tajín, matcha, and doughnuts topped with Oreos, Fruity Pebbles, or s'mores. It also sells breakfast sandwiches and a long list of coffee drinks and refreshers.

So the shops differ on the menu as well as the clock. Stan's sells a small set of classics in the morning. Randy's has the bigger, more experimental case and covers the hours after Stan's closes.

A taste-test route that works with both schedules

If you want to settle the debate yourself, the Al-Gharib method needs a little timing. Here's a route that fits both shops' posted hours:

1. Get to Stan's first, before 2:30 p.m., with cash. Order the glazed raised as your baseline, since it's the bestseller at both shops. Opening day shoppers had their own favorites. Denise Flippo goes for the maple bar and Tim Flippo for the buttermilk.
2. Walk across to Randy's for the same doughnut. A glazed raised from each lets you compare like for like before you move on to something like mango Tajín.
3. Pick your neutral ground. Loya's Taco Bell suggestion still holds, and you'll find other options in the Mariposa Shopping Center, which Stan's shares with Safeway, Main Street Bagels, Pho To Chau, Sumiya and Taichi Pot.
4. Do the tasting. Avery St. Lawrence had moved to Santa Clara from Michigan a week before opening day. She waited in both lines and ran her own comparison outside Stan's. Her verdict on the second bite was "This one is better. This one's way better," and she called the Stan's glazed "a lot fluffier." Your result may be different, and that's the point of trying.

If it's already past 2:30 p.m. when you think of this, save the comparison for another morning and take a Randy's half-dozen home. The route only works in order before Stan's closes.

What's still coming to the corner

The corner isn't finished changing. Masud said his group chose the old KFC building for two reasons. It has a large kitchen, and it has a drive-thru lane they could reopen, which he said few available properties offer. In the most recent local update we found, from Santa Clara News Online on August 3, the drive-thru was still expected to open later in 2026. We couldn't confirm that it has opened as of early October, so treat it as pending.

The kitchen also has a bigger job planned. The franchise belongs to three partners operating as Sweet Rings LLC. Masud told KQED they hope to open about five Randy's locations around the Bay Area over time, with the Santa Clara kitchen making doughnuts for the future shops. No next location or opening date has been announced in the coverage we found. For now, Homestead Road is still the only place in the Bay Area to get a Randy's doughnut.

Across the street, Stan's website still lists 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. every day. Kelegian's comment on the whole doughnut-war idea was "There's generally enough business for everyone." On Homestead Road, that business is split by the clock, with Stan's open in the morning and Randy's staying open later.

At Taylor Lambert Group, we like knowing details like which shop is still open at 3 p.m. as much as we like knowing market numbers. If you live near Homestead Road and wonder what your home is worth now, get your free home valuation and we'll walk you through it. Doughnuts from either side of the street are welcome at the meeting.