California Donuts , Los Angeles USA — The Erica Chang, CC BY 3.0

two doughs, fifty states, one pink boxPink Box

cake or raised, egg rolls in the case, and who's been up since two.

📍 Donuts near me The map Cake or raised The other menu The numbers Make some Which shop are you?🎲 Take me anywhere

131

records

shops written up

3,145

independents off OpenStreetMap

7,524

chain locations, kept off the map

476

kin links

donuts by dough

words with roots

Worth the drive

Shops somebody already wrote up in print — a Beard nomination, a newspaper list, a landmark designation, an oral history. The dots count how many different people said so. Find one near you →

Round Rock Donuts ●●●

Round Rock, TX — The local paper or alt-weekly, Bon Appétit, Other named recognition

Allie's Donuts ●●

North Kingstown, RI — Other named recognition, Thrillist

✂ Cut by hand👪 Family-run

Doughnut Plant ●

New York, NY — Bon Appétit

Randy's Donuts ●

Inglewood, CA — The local paper or alt-weekly

🚗 Drive-thru🕓 Open around the clock

Signs

Neon, hand-lettered boards, mascots, murals, hot donut labels. Free to use, licence sitting right under each one. See the lot →

Bellflower Bagels — The donut on the roof — Jengod, CC BY-SA 4.0

Title: Donut shop neon sign on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, California
Physical description: 1 photograph : digital, tiff file, color.
Notes: Title, date, and keywords provided by the pho — Neon and the lit sign — Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain

American donuts in red box closeup. — The pink box — Nenad Stojkovic, CC BY 2.0

Title: Big Do-Nut Drive-in, Inglewood, California
Physical description: 1 photograph : color transparency ; 35 mm (slide format).

Notes: Forms part of: John Margolies Roadside America photograph arc — The donut on the roof — John Margolies, Public domain

Great neon sign. They have great donuts too! — Neon and the lit sign — Jazz Guy from New Jersey, United States, CC BY 2.0

Which donut shop are you?

Six questions about the hour you turn up, what else is on the board, and which dough you defend. A counter takes your order at the end.

Find out →

Styles (15)

The pink box in Los Angeles, kolaches in Houston, cider donuts in October, paczki on Tuesday.

Donuts (21)

Raised glazed, old-fashioned, buttermilk bar, apple fritter, bear claw, maple bar, jelly bismarck, malasada.

The rest of the case (10)

Egg rolls, breakfast burritos, bacon egg and cheese, kolaches, croissant sandwiches, fried rice, boba, coffee.

Out back (12)

Yeast and proof box, cake batter and depositor, the fryer, the glaze table, the 2 a.m. shift, day-old.

Cutting (1)
Cutting by hand
Finishing (3)
Dipping and sprinkles
The filler
The glaze table
Frying (2)
The kettle
What is in the kettle
Holding (2)
Day-old
The case
Mixing (1)
The batter and the depositor
The raise (2)
The proof box
The raise
The shift (1)
The night shift

Shops (17)

Strip-mall counters, drive-thrus, corner windows. Open and gone.

People (8)

Fryers, founders, families, the man who sold the machine, the man who sold the box.

Outfits (12)

Suppliers, associations, box printers, archives.

Days (6)

National Donut Day, Fastnacht Day, Paczki Day, Malasada Day, the first frost.

Hawaii (1)
Malasada Day
Michigan (1)
Paczki Day
North Carolina (1)
Krispy Kreme Challenge
Pennsylvania (1)
Fastnacht Day
Other (2)
Cider donut season
National Donut Day

Words (13)

Sinker, bismarck, long john, fry cake, olykoek, klobasnek, day-old, the dozen.

Signs (6)

The giant donut on the roof, the pink box, neon, the number on the window.

Stories (11)

Cake against yeast, the refugee who sold a thousand shops a pink box, why the egg rolls are there.

Plain writing is cited. Tradition holds — means folks say so; Inference — means we worked it out. It is all JSON too, and the holes are at where we stop.

Pass it on

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