Tired of Krispy Kremes and Dunkin' Donuts...

My coworkers are sick of Krispy Kremes and Dunkin' Donuts. We need to find a place that sells good doughnuts, muffins, or pastries. Any suggestions?

In what area do you work?Or are you picking up en route?

I live close to downtown and I'm work around the south side of Chicago.

Swedish Bakery in Andersonville is a great place. They have all sorts of coffee cakes (in the European sense od the word), but my personal favorites are their doughnuts. Unlike those girlie-man doughnuts, they're fried in real lard and weigh almost a pound each (well, maybe less). However, get there early because they disappear like... doughnuts. The website is http://www.swedishbakery.com/.

DVM

AGuylian wrote:I live close to downtown and I'm work around the south side of Chicago.

Haven't tried it yet (I've passed by many times, though, as a very cool -- or is that hip??? -- jazz club I love is nearby) but Dat Donut, on 83rd and Cottage, is supposed to be fabulous, with old-school donuts, fritters, and the like.

Dat Old Fashioned Donut
8251 S Cottage Grove Ave
(773) 723-1002

Rebbe

Of course, as Summer slowly wanes and Autumn comes upon us, you could do what I do and head out to the apple orchard for some cider doughnuts. Very few baked goods come close to a fresh cider doughnut, rolled lightly in cinnamon and sugar, and dipped in hot cider. Shit, is it Fall yet?? MMM-mmm. These babies, unfortunately, don't freeze well, but even a 2 week old, stale cider doughnut can sometimes be better than fresh Dunkin or KK. Just one of those things to cherish with the seasons, like sweet corn in Summer or Gluhwein around Christmas.

Rebbe

Old Fashioned Donuts. See this thread.

Some of the best donuts around Chicago can be found on Saturday mornings at the Oak Park farmer's market on Lake St. (in the church parking lot across the pool and the high school).

Warning, it is unlikely they will last the weekend until the work week - but definitely addictively good.

Shannon

Dat Donut, on 83rd and Cottage, is supposed to be fabulous

I can confirm dat Dat Donuts are indeed fabulous, Rabbi. Da now extinct northside Dat never did justice to da donuts at da Cottage Grove Location.

Dat stretch of Cottage Gove can make for a darn good chow day with Dat at 83rd and Barbara Ann's Chicken and Ribs at 79th.

Shannon Clark wrote:Some of the best donuts around Chicago can be found on Saturday mornings at the Oak Park farmer's market on Lake St. (in the church parking lot across the pool and the high school).

Warning, it is unlikely they will last the weekend until the work week - but definitely addictively good.

Shannon

I totally agree with Shannon that the Oak Park Farmer's Market donuts are addictively good, one of the many reasons that make this the best Farmer's Market around, but these donuts are meant to be eaten pretty much immediately. I've had them even just a few hours later, and they pale, sodden rocks of dough.

Do not forget that in Wheeling, one can find a close (enough) version of the stellar LA donut:
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=12

Rob

Rob,

At the Oak Park farmer's market, are these full sized donuts?

I remember a few years ago you were frequently commenting about the mini-donut vendor who made them fresh in front of you. Are these the same?

The Oak Park farmer's market donuts (or do you Oak Parkers prefer to call them Doughnuts?) are fried up by the local churches as a fund-raiser. Fresh and good they are, but they are not fried on-the-spot. They freeze pretty well, by the way, if you can get them right home.

Paul Mollica wrote:The Oak Park farmer's market donuts (or do you Oak Parkers prefer to call them Doughnuts?) are fried up by the local churches as a fund-raiser. Fresh and good they are, but they are not fried on-the-spot. They freeze pretty well, by the way, if you can get them right home.

I seem to remember that they fry them right there in the Pilgrim church basement. I used to go inside to buy them by the box & they'd have the little odds & ends of fried dought on a tray on the kitchen counter you could sample while waiting in line.

And they DO freeze very well. I always load up at the end of the season with enough to take me into the New Year, at least. (Do I sound obsessed?)

MmmmMMMmmm......donuts!

Paul Mollica wrote:The Oak Park farmer's market donuts (or do you Oak Parkers prefer to call them Doughnuts?) are fried up by the local churches as a fund-raiser. Fresh and good they are, but they are not fried on-the-spot. They freeze pretty well, by the way, if you can get them right home.

Yes, they are fried, well maybe not on the spot, but surely that morning, and at several times during the morning as necessary. Many Saturdays, the donut operation is turned over to some local do-gooder organization. Since Ms. VI, the Condiment Queen is very much the do-gooder, she participated one Saturday a few weeks ago in the donut making, with the proceeds going to the "Cluster Tutor" program, an Oak Park group that provides tutors to students in the Austin neighborhood.

Rob

If I recall correctly you could look down into the basement of the church and see the fryers going there - and certainly smell them as fresh batches were handed up to replenish the supplies - at least that is how it worked 12+ years ago when I still lived (at least in the summers) in Oak Park.

Definitely full sized diet busting donuts.

Shannon

I live close to downtown and I work around the south side of Chicago.

Since you're heading south from downtown, maybe Bridgeport Bakery would be convenient for you. It's spitting distance from the Stevenson and not too far west of the Ryan. I was going to do a longer post on it one of these days but here's a preview.

Bridgeport Bakery is an ancient, no-frills neighborhood place. Everything is dirt cheap, not everything is great, but there are several real winners I've had so far. Their bacon buns are liked by all (well, at least by those who like bacon). There's a folded cheese pastry looking like an overgrown kolacky that's really good. Sometimes they have fresh strawberry paczki that seem promising (I haven't had one yet; the one I bought disappeared too quickly). I haven't tried their other donuts. Most breads I've had so far have been fairly disappointing. Other pastries vary.

All in all it's a good little place and an incredible value.

Bridgeport Bakery
"Fresh Bakery Goods"
2907 S Archer Av (just south/west of Loomis)
Chicago
773-523-1121
Sun-Mon 5am-1pm, Tue-Fri 5am-6pm, Sat 5am-5:30pm

Since I'm the urban dweller within my immediate family, I'm always the one tapped to bring the bacon buns to family gatherings. In the past I've always been able to call Joe And Frank's Market (right at Archer & Harlem - I pass it on my way home) and place an advance order on the buns and pick them up the next day.

This year my experience wasn't nearly as nice. I called twice and was put on hold and then hung up on - the third call yielded a flustered sounding employee telling me she couldn't guarantee anything. I decided I needed another option.

The search function lead me to this topic and I gave The Bridgeport Bakery a call. Aside from the young woman on the phone saying "Wow." when I placed an order for 4 dozen bacon buns, everything was smooth and simple.

I placed my order around 5pm on Thursday and mentioned I'd like to pick them up at 1pm the following day. The bakery was busy when I walked in, but my order was waiting for me.

My mother is 100% Lithuanian and her parents were immigrants that raised her in the Marquette Park area. In my early years we used to drive down to the "old neighborhood" to buy Lithuanian foodstuffs from the bakeries and butchers that remained, and usually stop for lunch at Noringa. (sp?)

The bacon buns of my youth and the ones served at Joe & Frank's are a small bun - almost like a thin sheet of slightly sweet dough wrapped around a spoonful of bacon, onion & something a little sweet and then baked.

The buns served at The Bridgeport Bakery are a different animal entirely. They're about twice the size (if not larger) that I'm accustomed to but made from the same almost-sweet bread, and liberally strewn with large hunks of thick-cut bacon throughout. It almost tastes like they use ham in the mix at times. The bacon is exceptional, I plan on calling to see where they purchase it.

It's not preceisely what I was looking for, but it's something very good in it's own right. I had no complaints from my family, and plan on visiting the bakery again. Thanks for mentioning it, ReneG - I'd have caught no small ration of hell if we didn't have bacon buns on a holiday.

I don't remember if I had mentioned it before, but Bridgeport Bakery supplies all of the "home made" baked goods to Lou Mitchell's. It's very good stuff.

WEBER'S Bakery! I love their danish, they're reasonably priced and we have nothing comparable (I'm sorry, Dinkel's, you do some things well, but not danish like Weber's) on the northside.

http://www.webersbakery.com/

Weber's Bakery
7055 W. Archer Avenue
Chicago, IL
773-586-1234

If you're heading south from the Loop, why not stop off in Chinatown at, in particular, Saint Anna Bakery & Cafe, 2158 S. Archer Ave. (in the shopping mall) for some cream or sweet-paste dumplings? They open at eight.

On the matter of bacon buns: The restaurant was Neringa, and kitty-corner from it was Nida's a wonderful deli with both kinds of bacon buns (small and large) as well as the fattest jelly doughnuts imaginable. If anyone knows whether Nida's has opened elsewhere I'd appreciate learning about it.

Thanks for the tip on Bridgeport Bakery. I had no idea they had bacon buns available. We've been depending on Healthy Foods down the block, but their buns -- the smaller versions -- are available only on weekends.

Discovered a new donut shop,at least to me,in Richton Park. Daddy O's Donuts is a bright,clean shop selling the usual suspects along with Italian Ice & Gelato. I was there about 1:30pm and asked for an apple fritter ($2.95,3.18 w/pecans) but alas they were sold out,which is probably a good sign. I ordered a chocolate cake donut and a cinnamon roll. The chocolate one had just the right amount of slight crunch and the chocolate frosting was very flavorful without overpowering the cake. Cinnamon roll was glazed over with a ton of sugary cinnamon flavor.

Daddy O's Donuts
3724 Sauk Trail
Richton Park, IL 60471
(708) 833-7896
http://daddyosdonuts.net/

Wow, talking about digging up an old thread! It's amazing to see these really old ones pop back up.