Folded into a sundrenched booth at George’s Donuts & Merriment, I’m living out a fantasy even Willy Wonka would drool over.

Donuts cover my table, rainbow-sprinkled classics side-by-side with sugar-dusted beauties filled with jams and custards—and I’m not the only one. Across the bright, airy cafe, people gleefully take down small mountains of donuts artfully laid out on vintage pewter trays and mottled ceramic dishes. Approximately every 7.5 seconds, another pink box walks out the door in the hands of a smiling customer.

Outside, the line snakes down West Portal Avenue and, in the “donut window” at the back of the cafe, they’re making them as fast as they can, dousing batches of naked pastries in glazes of Valrhona chocolate and vanilla bean.

It’s been this way every day for the last week-and-a-half, George’s executive pastry chef Janina O’Leary tells me, “just nonstop since we opened our doors.”

Donuts, believe O’Leary and co-owners Lea and Andrew Dudam, have the magic to bring people together. George’s, the latest addition to what’s unexpectedly become one of SF’s most buzzy neighborhoods, is a reflection of that joy. The Art Deco-era interior, with its 30-foot high ceiling and large overhead skylight, was refashioned by ROY Hospitality with timeless and sophisticated European styling, jewel-toned accents, and pops of whimsy fit for a cafe with the word “merriment” right in its name.

It’s George, Andrew Dudam’s grandfather, who’s the inspiration for all this donut-related cheer. The owner of an East Bay laundry, the self-christened “Shirt King” of the neighborhood, for decades George Coway upheld a tradition of treating his kids and grandkids to donuts at the shop down the street from his own.

At 93 years old, he’s still “this larger than life character,” says O’Leary and his oversized portrait, dressed in the same royal robes and jeweled crown of his younger days, hangs across from one of Dudam’s grandmother, Freida, decked out like a queen.

“He has that photo on his business card,” laughs the chef. Her apple fritter, which is made with local organic honeycrisp apples and Saigon cinnamon, is his favorite.

O’Leary has had to wind her way through the fine dining world to arrive here at the altar of the humble donut. The Texas-born pastry chef and French Culinary Institute graduate spent years crafting the sweet stuff for Michelin-starred and other prized restaurants like Spruce, Per Se, and Daniel, becoming a James Beard Award semi-finalist Rising Star Chef along the way.

That training comes through in some of the more complex, “elevated” donuts, like the exquisitely tangy key lime pie topped with candied lime and the rich custard-filled creme brulee topped with a crunchy caramelized sugar glaze, fresh raspberries, and flecks of gold. So, too, does O’Leary’s Mexican upbringing, which is currently channeled into an impossibly light churro-dusted cruller. She’s playing around with other ideas for the future—maybe a tequila margarita donut that would be “kind of a spin” on the key lime, maybe a Mexican hot chocolate donut that evokes the cinnamon-laced hot chocolate and buñuelos her aunt used to make—and they’ll pop up seasonally along with homages to Andrew Dudam’s Palestinian upbringing like this first menu’s tahini rose cake donut.

The menu isn’t all donuts all the time. At 11am, they break out lunch, a selection of simple sandwiches and salads made with top-notch ingredients (think kale and pancetta salad and turkey sandwiches made with Niman Ranch bacon, heirloom tomato, and Noe Valley Bakery seeded bread). Espressos and affogatos come courtesy of Four Barrel Coffee and bubbles, wine, and beer are available all day along with Italian-style spritzes like the Cocchi Americano made with grapefruit cordial, prosecco and rosemary.

But while George’s churns out the donuts until closing, the only way you’re guaranteed to get your own mountain of them (especially the brioche donuts, which are selling out the fastest, says O’Leary) is to get there early. When the doors open at 9am, there’s no stopping the merriment to follow.

// Open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 3pm; 163 West Portal Ave. (West Portal), georgessf.com