The 5th Annual Butler Family (Queens) Donut Hike

My father deftly navigated Manhattan traffic, my mom navigating with Siri in the front, my two (grown) brothers and I smooshed in the middle seat of our minivan. All morning I had felt calm, but now that we were in the car, just a twelve-minute drive from our destination in Queens, I felt every second tick as I breathed in and out. I had waited all year for this day, made it a keystone in my trip home for the holidays, and now that it had come I was sure that a raincloud of disappointment was waiting for us across the bridge.

I was sure all the donuts would be sold out.

Maybe this doesn’t seem like such a big deal to some of you, but if you understand that my life blood is basically icing sugar and that, sequestered in Eastern Europe as I have been, my only contact with what can be appropriately called a donut has been through Instagram, then you can get a glimpse of why this day was so important to me. Every year, for the past half decade, my family and I have completed this pastry pilgrimage, crisscrossing New York (and once driving through Tennessee) in our dough devotion. One time I tallied the number of New York City donut shops we’ve visited throughout our donut hikes and general donut debauchery — I counted fourteen.

It’s nice to be an expert in something.

This year, despite the fact that my two brothers and I would only been in New York at the same time for approximately seventy-two hours, I had spent hours doing research and plotting our route. We only had about four hours free on a Sunday afternoon after church, the day before Christmas Eve, but I was determined to fill every minute with sticky jam and chocolate glaze. Having spent most of our previous donut hikes in Manhattan and Brooklyn, this year we were going to focus finding the best Queens donut, where the artisanal pastry scene was rapidly growing.

(Pst, you can read about our previous donut hikes to learn more about New York City’s best donuts. Spoiler alert: They all end with us being ridiculously over-sugared.)

The Great New York Donut Hike

The 2nd Annual Butler Family Donut Hike

The 4th Annual Butler Family Donut Hike

Stop #1: Comfortland

My parents dropped my brothers and I off on the corner while they drove off to look for a parking spot. We sprinted across the street, a twenty-meter dash and visions of bare donut shelves that left me breathless as we entered Comfortland.

They were not, by a miracle, sold out.

The guy manning the counter was much more at ease than we were, indulging me as I talked up our great Donut Hike tradition. Comfortland is an off-shoot of Queens Comfort, a homey hip restaurant and one of my favorite brunch spots. They would sling up some of the best donuts in Queens on the weekends, and as their popularity peaked Comfortland was opened to keep up with demand.

By the time my parents walked in, we still hadn’t made any firm decisions on our order. Every donut looked divine, but the ones that the employee recommended most we had to strike off because of family allergies. And I did struggle with one disappointment – they were out of cake donuts.

“Will you be making more?” I asked hopefully.

He checked. “Well, the guys said ‘later,’ which means probably it won’t be for an hour or so.”

I couldn’t really be disappointed, not with so many options still available. So we ordered a pecan sticky toffee pudding, a Cap’t Crunch creamsicle, and a raspberry jelly filled. And as they were ringing up our order, one of the chefs came out of the kitchen.

“Hey, we’re making some of the funfetti cake donuts ones right now,” he said. “We think this is a great tradition you guys have.”

We fell on our donuts with enthusiasm. I was a huge fan of the Cap’t Crunch creamsicle, though I think it was a bit sweet for the others. Both my mom and I thought the pecan sticky toffee pudding one was the best of the day.

But then imagine getting served fresh, hot cake donuts with the icing sugar still sliding down the edges, red and green sprinkles adding a festive touch.

My dad looked around the cozy, buzzing shop, nodding. “I know this is early to say,” he said, hand raised in prepared defensiveness, “But this place has already gone right to the top of my list. Of everywhere we’ve been.”

And we have been a lot of places.

Stop #2: Sugar & Water

The one New York donut institution we’ve never visited is the Dominique Ansel Bakery, the original home of the cronut. Still, I had my first croissant-donut hybrid up in Montreal and I knew what pastry alchemy it was. When I found out there was a place in Queens that did something similar, though they called there’s a dossant, I immediately put it on the hike to give my family the same gift.

When we got there, Sugar & Water still had a number of donuts, must to our relief. At this point, though, we were already extremely sugared and still had at least one more stop to go, so we were happy to keep things limited. We ordered a cinnamon-sugar dossant and a Boston cream, a favorite in the family.

Unsurprisingly, the dossant impressed all the way around. “I could eat one of these every day,” my mom said quietly through a mouthful.

The Boston cream ended up being my older younger brother’s favorite of the day and was almost universally dubbed the best Boston cream most of the family had eaten. I also liked it, but felt there was something vaguely off about the cream.

“We should probably try more to see if the others also taste that way,” my father suggested.

Stop #3: D-Lite Café

I found D-Lite on Google Maps and had added it because it looked like a traditional donut-slinging counter, Formica counters and all. It wasn’t just donuts, but a one-stop deli for breakfast and lunch needs (though not a bagel-specializing deli, for you New Yorkers). Someone had left a review that the donuts were good, so it went on the list.

But as soon as we walked in, we knew the donuts were not going to be exceptional. Perhaps we’ve been spoiled. Maybe we’ve become donut bourgeoisie, snobby about our fancy donuts and hipster cafes. But I don’t think so. We are just as happy at Peter Pan or the Doughnut Pub, where donuts are served fast and without fuss, as we are at Dough and the Doughnut Plant.

But donuts at D-Lite Café were regulated to a small shelf behind the counter. They may not have been made on premises. The entire place was humble and empty, though the dead atmosphere might have had something to do with it being afternoon on the day before Christmas Eve.

The donut shelf was pretty bare, but we ordered a cruller, a plain glazed, and an apple spice (the most exotic flavor on offer at the time). The cruller was tough to even cut, and we surmised it might have been a day old. The plain glazed failed to impress. I was satisfied that the apple spice had lived up to expectations, but the rest of the family was dismissive.

Perhaps we were just over-sugared at that point.

Stop #4: The Doughnut Plant

I had added Mom’s all-time fav and a New York donut institution, the Doughnut Plant, to the route just in case we needed one more stop. But after three shops and ten donuts, four out of the five of us were ready to call it quits.

“You all are weak,” my youngest brother said. But he was over ruled.

There’s always next year.

Our Verdicts on the Best Queens Donut

It’s always tough choosing our favorite donut at the end of the day, and each jury member has different criteria. Some choose the one they think was most delicious, some choose the one they could eat every day. I usually choose the one that I would like to eat again as soon as possible.

Comfortland was the run-away winner, with Dad and my youngest brother voting for the funfetti cake donut and Mom and I choosing the pecan sticky toffee pudding as best of the day. My older younger brother was the sole dissenter, voting for the dossant from Sugar & Water. But the margins were narrow, and I think all of us would eagerly accept a donut from either place.