Chicago's Best Food Tours

Two Chicago Donut Tours, Two Very Different Neighborhoods

Chicago takes dessert seriously. Paczki in February, cider donuts in October, specials rotating the rest of the year. We run two walking tours here, and they barely overlap.

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The Downtown tour: skyline, river, four shops

It opens at Doughnut Vault on Franklin Street, a tiny shop that started with a pickup window and built a cult following from there. Next is Firecakes, known for scratch made yeast donuts and rich glazes. Between bites, your guide points out the steel and terra cotta buildings that turned this part of the Loop into an outdoor architecture lesson, and tells how the Great Chicago Fire cleared the way for architects to rebuild the city taller than before.

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The route swings toward the river and the Magnificent Mile, with a couple of stops at lookout spots where craning your neck at the skyline is mandatory. Watch for the bridges; they lift. On Michigan Avenue you duck into Stan's Donuts, which is roomy and warm and good for sitting down. The finish is Do-Rite Donuts on Erie Street, with buttermilk old fashioneds and French crullers.

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Start here if it's your first time in Chicago.

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The West Loop tour: Fulton Market

Fulton Market used to be meatpacking warehouses. Now those same buildings hold chef driven restaurants, one after another, and this donut tour walks right through the middle of it. You'll visit Voodoo Doughnut, Do-Rite's Fulton Market shop and Sawada Coffee. Levain Bakery is on the list too, for cookies so thick they barely qualify as cookies. It's more food tour than architecture tour, and it suits anyone who's already seen downtown or simply wants coffee and cookies on the same walk as their donuts.