Washington DC's Best Food Tours

Why Is There a National Donut Day? Our Washington DC Donut Tour Has the Answer

During World War I, Salvation Army volunteers in France fried donuts for American soldiers, sometimes in helmets, close enough to the front lines that the troops started calling them the Donut Lassies. That's where National Donut Day comes from. You'll hear the full story on this walk, somewhere between the White House and a box of bomboloni.

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Western Market to Lafayette Square

We gather inside Western Market, the food hall on Pennsylvania Avenue near George Washington University, and open with warm beignets from Founding Farmers. Heading east, the group passes the site of the Seven Buildings, where James Madison lived after the British burned the White House in 1814. Then across Farragut Square.

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On weekdays the next stop is Donisima, whose donuts carry Latin American flavors: arequipe, guava and cheese, mango passion fruit. The granite bulk of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building comes into view, and then the White House itself, with Lafayette Square opening up across the street. Your guide points out the neighbors. St. John's Church, known as the Church of the Presidents. Blair House. The Dolley Madison House, which went on to serve as NASA's first headquarters, a fact that surprises just about everyone.

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Around the Treasury and into downtown

The tastings go international from here. Rosetta Bakery brings Italian bomboloni. Fresh Baguette has French mini éclairs. Meanwhile the route rounds the Treasury Building, watched over by statues of Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin, then passes Riggs Bank and the gaslit front of Old Ebbitt Grill.

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The walking tour ends downtown at Astro Doughnuts, a few steps from Metro Center, so getting to your next stop is easy. Astro rotates flavors every month alongside crème brûlée and PB&J, which means cherry blossom donuts in spring and pumpkin spice or candy apple in fall.

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You'll notice what this food tour skips: the crowded Mall. We stick to the President's Park neighborhood, where nearly every corner has a first lady, a president or a wartime story attached.

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Late November through December, the Washington DC Historic Donut Tour becomes the Washington DC Holiday Donut Tour. It's the same route, now with decorated storefronts and festive photo stops, plus a stroll to the Downtown Holiday Market when time allows.