Baltimore - June, 2019

On a visit to Baltimore in mid June, 2019, we were reminded of something we should have taken to heart long ago.  If you are serious about ferreting out boutique, elite donuts, do not expect to find any in the afternoon hours unless you are visiting a 24-hour donut emporium.  On a first—an ill-fated donut safari—we came up empty after trying to visit two spots. Alas, alack—that mistake will never be made again. 

But did that stop us? No!  We managed to get donuts from these places after all.

Donut Alliance

Web Site: Facebook

Address: 4311 Harford Rd, Baltimore, MD 21214

Phone: 410-627-4597

              

Rating: 

When in search of the perfect donut, do not let be discouraged if you cannot get there within operating hours.  One of my donut buddies, Phyllis Segal-Denaburg, is a very successful business woman and marathon speed walker.  Who knew she was also an extraordinary donut locator and securer?  We had wanted to visit Donut Alliance in Baltimore.  It came highly rated.  But, we were quite distressed to discover that they have very limited hours—Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10 am – 2pm only.  These hours did not align with our Board meeting hours, so the laws of physics absolutely would not allow us to scope out this emporium in person.  However, Phyllis—being tenacious and quite dedicated to the cause—hired a LYFT driver to pick up 1-1/2 dozen of these beautiful and scrumptious delights (with one for the driver, of course).  I tasted a vanilla glazed Pride donut (rainbow sprinkles of course) and it was delicious.  We should all be allies of Donut Alliance.  Worth a trip.

Full Circle Artisan Palace

Web Site: None

Address: 3528 Chestnut Ave, Baltimore, MD 21211

Phone: None

              

Rating: 

We were so disappointed that we landed at the doorstep of Full Circle Artisan Palace after they had closed for the day.  Like many small, boutique donut shops, Full Circle advertises that its closing time is 3:00 pm or “when we sell out” – so when we arrived at 2:15, we were too late. Once again, Phyllis came through. Her tenacity and commitment truly paid off.  She went out of her way to return to Full Circle early Saturday morning with her donut-loving son in hand—both to document the donuts photographically and to taste them. Here is her report:

Delicious, light cakey donuts. Light as a yeast donut and cake like. Amazing innovative flavours-filled and glazed. I bought the sprinkle, the espresso and smore. And in true Safari style, lots of napkins and plastic forks.  I loved the shop, very cute and friendly. 

Thank you, Phyllis! 

Miami - Washington D.C. Area - June, 2017

MIAMI

The Salty Donut
Web Site: https://saltydonut.com

Address: 50 NW 23rd St #112, Miami, FL 33127
Rating: 

Wynwood -- an up and coming neighborhood of Miami with beautiful murals everywhere. Worth going out of your way to see this neighborhood and sample these donuts! Delicious, unusual and wonderful variety. Boutique, hand crafted donuts—including some donut holes with liqueur infusion (comparable to sufganiyot)—chocolate had oreo topping and fudge infusion, pistachio had a rum infusion. I loved the brown butter (cake style) donut. OMG! Blackberry not so great.

Chez Bon Bon at Fontainebleu Hotel
Web Site: none
Address: 4441 Collins Avenue, [Lobby], Miami Beach, FL 33140
Rating: 

Very chic patisserie, upscale sandwiches, and gelato shop within the famed Fontainebleu Hotel. Very limited selection of donuts (only listed here because was listed in a recent compilation of “Miami’s Best Donuts"). Only yeast-style donuts. I had the cinnamon flavor.Good but these are more eye candy than anything else. I wouldn’t go out of my way to have donuts at Chez Bon Bon—go for the other pastries. Side note—the US Conference of Mayors was having their annual meeting AT THE FONTAINBLEU when we were there. No wonder everyone was wearing a “Mayor” nametag. D’oh!

WASHINGTON, DC

Astro Donuts and Fried Chicken
Web Site: http://astrodoughnuts.com/
Address: 1308 G Northwest, Washington, DC 20004
Rating: 

Donuts and fried chicken!!!!!! This tiny shop is in the business section of the District and doing a nice business with folks on their way to work. I didn’t have any fried chicken (served on a biscuit, slathered with sauce), but it looked good. Most of the donuts were yeast-style, but I ordered a birthday cake donut as they seem to be quite popular and I hadn’t had any. My hopes weren’t too high. I saved it for lunch time and it was extraordinary—a chocolate cake donut lovingly glazed lightly with a vanilla glaze—dusted with rainbow sprinkles and garnished with a generous dollop of vanilla butter cream frosting. I rarely polish off an entire donut (particularly if it isn’t an old-fashioned donut) but this was very very tasty. Highly recommended!

District Doughnut
Web Site: https://www.districtdoughnut.com/
Address: 749 8th St SE, Washington, DC 20003
Rating: 

I made two trips to District Doughnuts—one to their Capitol Hill location (about a mile from the Navy Yard) and one at Nationals Ball Park. District is the most highly-acclaimed donutery in DC and it wasn’t hard to see why. There’s a wonderful military vibe as they are adjacent to the Naval Yard where lots of the servicemen and women live. One of their taglines is “Semper Fry—Made in America.” Very clever. And many military folks were coming in. They have a wonderful variety of doughnuts — again mostly yeast donuts. I chose brown butter glazed, milk chocolate glazed, strawberry glazed (cake variety). The strawberry glazed was exceptional. You can order the mini doughnuts in advance—all infused with fillings, but only in half dozens. We couldn’t justify buying six small ones but with the four we ordered, it was probably the same amount of food. Some interesting flavors such as key lime, lemon meringue, everything bagel doughnut, Nutella s’more doughnut, etc. We also watched them torching one of the crème brulee doughnuts. These folks are very serious about their doughnuts.

At the ballpark, the selection was limited to doughnut holes only—and only three flavors—cinnamon, powdered sugar, and vanilla glazed. You can only purchase these in half dozens (at least). They were warm and wonderful. If only every ballpark offered District Doughnuts!!!

Note: not to be confused with District Donuts in NOLA.

WASHINGTON METRO AREA

Sugar Shack Donuts and Coffee  (Arlington, VA)
Web Site: http://www.sugarshackdonuts.com/locations/arlington
Address: 1014 S Glebe Rd, Arlington, VA 22204
Rating: 

Sugar Shack is located in various cities across Virginia, we visited the Arlington Branch (also in Cocoa and Melbourne, Florida). Absolutely worth seeking out! The vibe is kind of ware-housey. The service was very accommodating (at some spots when we ask for a photo, we get almost coerced cooperation. Not so at Sugar Shack). Beautiful selection and the first old-fashioned donut across Florida or Washington DC. They had a special display of red/white/blue donuts for the 4th of July—so we purchased a vanilla (white) glazed old fashioned donut, a red velvet donut, and a blueberry donut. The white donut was absolutely sublime. We also sampled a chocolate/coconut glazed yeast donut. Quite delicious. They had lots of Sugar Shack accessories — including 4th of July donut T-shirts. Who could resist?

Duck Donuts (Rockville, MD)
Web Site: https://www.duckdonuts.com/
Address: 1327 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852
Rating: 

Duck Donuts is franchised in dozens of cities in the South East, Mid Atlantic, and in Houston. They have a very fun concept—make your own donut. You choose the type of donut, the glaze, the topping and they make it while you wait. The shoppe was not busy when we were there and I don’t know quite how they will handle a Saturday or Sunday morning crowd. But, the concept is fun and the donut was tasty. It was not warm but hot and hard to eat without smearing over your entire hand but definitely worth a visit. Lots of attitude in their marketing and store decorations.

BALTIMORE
Diablo Donuts
Web Site: http://diablodoughnutsou.com/
Address: 717 S Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21231
Rating: 

Diablo Donuts is tucked into a (during nighttime hours) pizza shop in the up and coming/bustling Fall Point neighborhood of Baltimore. These are boutique donuts done with a lot of flair and attitude. I had a red/white/blue sprinkled yeast donut (not generally my favorite) but the sprinkles were perched atop a light dark chocolate glaze so the donut was quite worthy. In fact, I ate the entire thing! I would definitely go back to Diablo Donuts to taste other flavors.