Curious City’s Doughnut Crawl: Let’s divide and conquer!
By Logan Jaffe

Curious City’s Doughnut Crawl: Let’s divide and conquer!
By Logan Jaffe
Once in awhile we get a question submitted anonymously. Sometimes it’s challenging to answer those questions without following up with who asked it, but this particular question was straightforward enough:
Are there any privately-owned doughnut shops in Chicago? Which is the best?
A quick Google search takes care of the first part. Turns out, there’s a good number of privately-owned doughnut shops in and out of the city, and that number may be rising. Dan Weissmann is delving into the history of privately-owned doughnut shops, but for now, let’s jump to the second part of the question: Which is the best?
This is where you come in. While Curious City producers and editors are up for most challenges, we’re still just a team of humans and — the last time we checked — each of us has only one set of arteries. Our strategy? Divide and conquer! Many of you heeded our call to submit your favorite privately-owned doughnut shops. We’ve turned your list into a map of suggested doughnut shops and bakeries, and we threw in some routes to link them, to boot. Now, it’s time to put your money where your mouth is by joining the first-ever Curious City Doughnut Crawl.
The challenge
To find Chicagoland’s best privately-owned doughnut shop.
How to help




You can certainly take notes at the shop and later submit the form on a desktop computer; however, it may be best to leave this form open on a smartphone during your doughnut journey and submit one survey during or directly after each stop.

Between now and our upcoming story, please send us photos of the doughnuts you tried on your route, the people you meet in the shop, storefronts, anything, really! Tweet us @WBEZCuriousCity, message us on Facebook, or email us directly: curiouscity@wbez.org.
We’ll be sure to post your thoughts and photos along the way.
So stay tuned. Stay in the loop. But above all, stay in touch with your sweet tooth.
The Dan Factor
What’s next? Well, recall that our doughnut-related question has two parts. Dan Weissmann (who you may remember from our adventures at The Morton Salt factory and Chicago and North Western Historical Society) is tackling the “serious” (aka, history-related) part, but it turns out he’s a fan of sugared dough, too, so there’s a good chance you’ll see him on his own doughnut route. On the map, we’ve conveniently labeled it “Dan’s Route.” Dan will judge doughnuts with the same guide and survey that you do, and he’d love to see you during his trip. He’s already committed to hitting the doughnut highway on Friday, August 9, but watch our Facebook page or Twitter feed for more details.
He’ll have his follow-up story ready soon after.
Green=Day Trip Route Red=North City Route Blue=South City Route Yellow=Dan’s Route