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There is Intelligentsia, Argo, and about 5 Starbucks in walking distance.

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Or perhaps a lobby of a nearby building where you could nosh. I'm not sure how the other coffee shops/restaurants would feel about you bringing your own doughnuts.

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-Mary

There's a food court at Lake and Clark that would be convenient for seating without being an issue of taking up space in a shop where you aren't actually buying anything.... I used to get my lunch from Singha and take it there to eat.

This. I've done this frequently, & its only a block away. Besides, I want to sample the Dark Matter coffee Do-Rite offers rather than buy it elsewhere.

Good point on Dark Matter.

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Probably the best way to make use of the Thompson Center's food court.

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dan

I wasn't thinking of food courts, but there are actually two at Clark and Lake. One is on the NE corner, with McDonalds and Popeyes, etc. Then the Thompson Center one is on the SW corner in the basement. But if it's nice out you can sit on those flower box things north of the Daley Center right across the street from Do-Rite. I have done that with Andy's frozen custard or Beard Papa cream puffs from the Block 37 Pedway.

I would recommend the Chicago Cultural Center as a good indoor public space for eating donuts and drinking coffee. It's just a few blocks from Do-Rite.

Clearly you should divide and conquer, and have one person go to Doughnut Vault for a true A/B test.

(The name of this place always gets that Peggy Lee song stuck in my head. Intentional?)

I've been to DV. I can A/B on mental notes just as I always do. (And really, its all one person's opinion either way, so to me my palate is all that matters - after that people can tell me I'm wrong or agree as they like.)

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I've been to DV. I can A/B on mental notes just as I always do. (And really, its all one person's opinion either way, so to me my palate is all that matters - after that people can tell me I'm wrong or agree as they like.)

For my dollar, Doughnut Vault makes the best Donuts/Doughnuts I've had. I'd place Dynamo SF at #2 and Top Pot Seattle/Dough in Brooklyn at a close #3 and #4 amongst "donut only" places.

If I were to take "restaurant" donuts (places that do whole meals, eggs, etc) into the equation it would be Doughnut Vault, Pies n' Thighs, and Dynamo at #1,2,3.

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Going a bit off topic here, but after trying Doughnut Vault, I'd say they were about anywhere in Los Angeles quality, no better and super expensive. I am very happy to have more nice doughnuts around. I guess the price will keep my waistline in check

I'd love to know where you're finding donuts that good in LA since I get out there at least 2x yearly (and soon to increase.)

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Apparently, you can find doughnuts as good as the Vault's "anywhere" in LA. I'm sorry you didn't care for the Doughnut Vault, mrefjl, but there's no need for hyperbole. I think the Vault puts out some very high-quality doughnuts and don't mind paying a little extra for what is for me a once-in-a-while treat. My favorite by far is the Buttermilk Old-Fashioned.

I'm really looking forward to trying Do-Rite and seeing how it measures up, there is certainly a wider variety than the Vault.

I did like the doughnuts from Doughnut Vault. My experience in LA Is that every place I ate doughnuts they were outstanding. I am, like I said, happy to have more good doughnuts to eat. I a
Not happy to pay more, however, for "good" doughnuts because I think, like in LA, you should be able to get excellent doughnuts for a reasonable price. Webers, Dinkels and Old Fashioned seem to be doing it just fine.

The Chestnut glazed at DV is a damned fine donut.

And if you want a sampling of their large variety and can make it on Friday we'd gladly have a fourth for our donut tasting.

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Can somebody please post some pictures of these donuts? I'm having a really hard time wrapping my head around $30 a dozen donuts.

BTW, my personal favorite is Country Donuts in Schaumburg. They have a few other locations but I've never tried them.

The buttermilk is $1.75, and one is enough for me. I think that price point compares favorably with a muffin or scone or bagel with cream cheese. And I think the vanilla glazed is $1.95. I find that at many places (especially with raised donuts) you need two or three to feel full, so maybe the cost is not that much more.

My office is a block away, so I've dropped by twice now. The first time, I chose the maple bacon and pistachio with meyer lemon glaze. We found the maple icing to be too sweet, but the cruller is my favorite shape/kind of doughnut. (I liked Dynamo Donuts' version of this doughnut better.) The pistachio doughnut was a very light, cake doughnut, but I could not really taste the pistachio or meyer lemon. On my second visit, I wanted to try the chocolate glazed, but they were waiting on the next batch. I opted for the buttermilk and the carrot cake. The buttermilk was really good - crispy on the edges, soft on the inside. The carrot cake was light and well balanced. I liked that the center closed up tight when getting fried, which created the perfect nest for the cream cheese frosting. I preferred the two varieties on my second visit more than my first visit - as they were light, balanced, and not overly sweet. TimeOut Chicago also posted some pictures a couple of weeks ago.

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The $30 dozen. I got these the first week they were open, and I don't remember what all of the different types of donuts were. But the ones I tried were pretty good.

I made it to Do-rite Donuts the other day and got a half dozen to go to take to a meeting.

Do-rite Donuts


I got there a couple minutes after 11, and fresh donuts were still coming out of the kitchen and there was a good selection to be had.

Do-rite Donuts


Although the idea of a mint donut doesn't appeal to me at all, they had some special green mint donuts for St. Patrick's Day. I took a pass.

Do-rite Green Mint Donut


Of the ones I got a chance to try, the chocolate was my favorite. Although the donut itself lacked any of the allspice/clove notes of traditional chocolate donuts, the cake was very good, and the chocolate frosting, made with Valhrona chocolate was very fudgy and rich. This was not your grandma's chocolate donut, but was great in its own rite.

Do-rite Chocolate Donut


In a close second place was the buttermilk old fashioned, a simple and very well made premium version of the classic.

Do-rite Buttermilk Old Fashioned Donut


I also tried the so-called maple bacon cruller. I say so-called because I found no detectable maple taste in the glaze. This donut seemed more like a gimmick than a thought out flavor combo. I think I would have liked it much more if it didn't have the bacon on it (and this from a guy who never says no to bacon). The bacon clashed flavor wise with the sweet, vanilla tinged glaze. In fact, I ended taking the bacon pieces off of this donut.

Do-rite Donuts


All in all, I liked Do-rite Donuts. I'll certainly be back once in a while.

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

I made it in to Do-Rite yesterday, and in short, I agree with stevez. The chocolate was my favorite, with its dense cake and rich frosting, the buttermilk pulled a close second with its perfect execution, and the maple bacon just bored. I also wasn't that impressed with the vanilla bean. The flavor was fine, but I prefer a denser donut.

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That chocolate donut is gorgeous. I went in this morning intending to try one but then they brought out a fresh batch of vanilla glaze and it didn't seem worth the tradeoff in gym time to have a breakfast of both one of those and a cake donut with a violently, deliciously dimensional chocolate topping. The glazed donut was pretty good in a "first hot Krispy Kreme I ever had" kind of way but I'll have to come back at some point to try the Valrhona (and the buttermilk, oh man)

I'm a sucker for buttermilk donuts, anyway, but for me, Do Rite is one of the better ones I've ever had. Everyone has their personal preferences with donuts (I found Do Rite's chocolate cake a little dry for my tastes, for example, although that may have been a timing issue, too), but I've made a weekly stop for another buttermilk on my way from the gym (irony) to work each Friday since they opened. Worth the slightly higher price point. None of the waiting that deters me from a return trip to DV. And, I liked the buttermilk better than anything I had at DV, anyway.

I agree. Donut Vault makes a fine donut, no doubt, but I don't much care for their light texture. Haven't been able to snag a buttermilk from them, though, so that might change my opinion.

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Did the Friday morning donut nosh not happen? I'd be interested to hear the consensus if it did.

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It did & it turned into a comparison of Do-Rite, Old Fashioned Donuts & Doughnut Vault with 20 or so different donuts between the three of us. I'll post more thoughts when I've recovered from the sugar coma.

It did indeed, as Athena mentioned.

I'm not sure how/if photos can be uploaded to here but thus far this weekend I've tried:

Do-Rite, Donut Vault, ABUNDANCE (edit), Old Fashioned, Nightwood, 2 Sparrows doughnuts and all I can say is that Donut Vault still reigns as the best in my opinion and the Apple Fritter at ABUNDANCE (edit) actually trumps that at Old Fashioned.

Comparing just the buttermilk options from DV vs. DR vs. OF I actually liked Do Rite the least in that it was the most "Airy" - something I don't fancy in a buttermilk as I expect them to be more "butter cake" or "pound cake" in texture - something DV pulls off with aplomb and OF does very well, as well.

In terms of "special" donuts, the carrot cake at Do-Rite is awesome as was the St. Pattys day Special at Do-Rite (chocolate with chocolate pudding center, mint glaze and crumbled thin mint cookies) and the Bailey's glazed old fashioned at Donut Vault. I also really liked the PB+J Bulls-Eye at Do Rite and my favorite donut of the taste-off was the Chestnut from Donut Vault.

For the other places - 2 Sparrows Bacon/Maple donut absolutely owns the one from Nightwood in terms of textrue - more dense, better bacon flavor, less oily while the "Shamrock Shake" brioche donut stuffed with mint cream and topped with Chocolate ganache at Nightwood was really quite impressive.

For ABUNDANCE (edit) - just go. Get there early. The guy is super friendly, the apple fritter is warm, gooey, and loaded with fresh apple (as opposed to canned at Old Fashioned) and enormous. The caramel upside down cupcake and the bread pudding were also sublime.

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On net my vote goes to Do-Rite.

Even though Donut Vault produced one of my top doughnuts (the chestnut, tied with Do-Rite's carrot cake version) it also produced two of the doughnuts I disliked the most (a Baileys one, absolutely hated the Baileys flavored green glaze on this one, & a gingerbread version, the ginger tasted raw).

From Do-Rite, we sampled:
Carrot Cake - just stellar, right amount of sweetness, with the perfect amount of frosting
St Paddy's Day Special - I'm not a mint fan, so passed on this. Chocolate pudding topped with chopped mint thins sprinkled over.
Peanut Butter & Jelly - this was the biggest surprise for me, I enjoyed this despite expecting the peanut butter to be cloying & too much. Instead there was the small amount of peanut flavor infused into a moderate amount of cream filling with a little, not too sweet jam. I thought it was excellent & I don't even like the PB&J combo.
Buttermilk Old-Fashioned - very good, but also not the best of the bunch as I think it was poorly fried and/or drained, due to the rush to get it to the counter. A number of customers were waiting on these (including us). It was still warm 10 minutes later & very good, but a tad greasy with a slightly too sweet glaze for my taste.
Maple Bacon - the one dud from Do-Rite. Too smokey bacon with okay, but pretty basic maple frosting & a bland crueller just wasn't a good combo (I'm a fan of the Nightwood maple-bacon version, I like their less smokey bacon & the syrup drowning the bun but it's the only other version of this I've sampled.)
Boston Creme - very good, but over-filled, nice almond & chocolate combo. Given the option of a creme filled doughnut, I'll stick to the
Coconut Creme - also very good, I'm a fan of the flavor, but it was also slightly over-filled for my taste.
Valrhona - excellent, but very intense with the ganache topping. A quarter of one of these with a bowl of berries & an expresso would be a nice way to end the day.

From Donut Vault we also sampled their buttermilk - much lighter than the Do-Rite version, with a glaze that tasted slightly of honey which was a nice change. Enjoyable, & definitely better than the Do-Rite offering, but a toss up whether its better than the best Do-Rite buttermilk. The Donut Vault version was at room temperature, not warm, but had been fried properly. I suspect Do-Rite can do better on this one than our sample, so I'm reserving judgement for now, party because I prefer a denser doughnut of the Do-Rite variety & the above comments from others lead me to believe we didn't have an optimal sample.

Also sampled the apple fritter from Old Fashioned. A winner in my book, very much an evocation of my childhood. There's a chunk of this now sitting in my freezer. Their other doughnuts were fresh & tasty, but fairly basic, including the buttermilk. I'm willing to spring the extra for a Do-Rite doughnut once in a while, particularly the Dark Matter coffee they offer, so I'm happy to make the trek over, despite living near to Donut Vault.

Strange how different perception can be - I found the Doughnut Vault Buttermilk substantially lighter than the Do Rite version and all the better for it - like the best Do-Rite couldn't possibly compare in texture......then again, I also find the gingerbread stack at Doughnut Vault to be perfect - an over-the-top amount of ginger balanced nicely by the sugar.

I also was not wowed by Do-Rite's Maple Bacon and agree the Nightwood version is better (though it is Butterscotch and Bacon, not maple) but regardless I found the 2 Sparrows version the best of the three.

I also found the Valrhona FAR too dense. Not a "bad" thing, per se, but more a cake/ganache than a morning donut.

I also found the Dark Matter coffee to be good, but I'd rather spend the extra money and walk down to Intelligentsia for some single origin pour over (or if I really wanted to spend, the chemex.)

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