On April 22, I attended River North Donut Fest held at Old Crow Smokehouse. It was a somewhat spontaneous decision as my friend was given 2 tickets the day before. Not one to turn down a festival of donuts, I gladly accepted. While there were some familiar favorites (Stan’s, Bad Day Donut, and Glazed and Infused), it was nice to see some different bakeries in attendance. Similar to January’s Donut Fest, below are mini-reviews for each donut I sampled. I didn’t get photos of all of them and I apologize for the bad quality. The lighting wasn’t super great!
Bad Day Donuts: Sugar Donut & Mango Donut
If you’re not familiar with Bad Day, they are a vegan bakery. These 2 flavors were pretty good. My friend said she couldn’t even tell they were vegan (I told her after we ate them).
Glazed and Infused: N/A
They actually ran out of donuts by the time I made it to their table!
Cake: Cake Donut
Passed on this because I don’t like cake donuts, but they did have an espresso brownie that I tried. It was very interesting! Don’t know if I would
Roeser’s Bakery: Cake Donut holes
Also passed on these because they make cake donuts, but my friend really likes them
Stan’s: Assorted mini donuts
I was kind of disappointed that it was just their spread of mini donuts and not a specialty one (still dreaming about that Butterfinger Pocket from January). I grabbed a small glazed and it was nice.
Oak Mill Bakery: Paczki
Except it was part of a paczki with no filling. So it wasn’t that great.
Krispy Kream: Glazed Donut
Feelings of nostalgia hit me when I saw Krispy Kream. I had flashbacks to going to the store at home and getting a fresh one straight from the fryer and how it just melted in your mouth. This donut wasn’t that fresh, but still a great donut nonetheless.
Dinky Donuts: Cinnamon Sugar
These mini donuts are similar to Beavers, but slightly denser. These delightful donuts had the perfect balance of cinnamon and sugar and were fresh as hell. No complaints here!
Dat Donut: Glazed
I was pretty unimpressed with this donut. Tasted pretty average.
Moe’s Cantina: Apple Empanada with caramel drizzle
Not technically a donut, but it was delicious. Tasted like an apple pie!
Old Crow Smokehouse: Savory donut with chocolate drizzle
This may have been my favorite donut of the day! It was seasoned with Old Crow’s spice blend used on their french fries and then just a little bit of chocolate sauce on it. If you like sweet and savory, this is the donut for you. Do I hope this makes an appearance on their menu? Absolutely!
Allegretti’s Bakery: ?
I don’t remember what I ate here! I guess it wasn’t that memorable…
Donut Daze 