Susan Park smiles as she hands a customer a box of fresh glazed doughnuts at Mary Lee Donuts on Drusilla Lane on Nov. 7. There’s nothing like a glazed donut to start off your morning. It’s pillowy, sugary goodness. Baton Rouge and Lafayette have no shortage of options to get your fix. From hole-in-the-walls to big chains, some are a takeout operation. Others are part of an entire restaurant with many menu offerings. Either way, they’re often the only small businesses open when blue-collar workers are heading to work. You might be asking yourself, "Aren’t all glazed donuts pretty much the same?" Fair question, but no. Donuts are an art. A result of an hourslong process. They are in the case every morning and the product of someone clocking in as early as midnight to mix dough, cut, proof, glaze and decorate them. If the baker doesn’t get in by 3 a.m., they’re late.
Jill Bird carries fresh glazed donuts to the warmer at Meche's Donut King Wednesday, November 6, 2024, in Lafayette, La. “Donut dough is very finicky,” said Vic Dunlap, president of Chef Products Incorporated, which franchises Mary Lee Donuts, a Louisiana-based chain. “It’s sensitive to heat and moisture, and the dough will actually lose percentages of protein as the flour ages. Every time the moisture level changes, you have to change your temperatures and your handling of the product itself to get it to come out correctly.” Frying donuts is a science. There’s only a small window of time you can do it and little margin for error. “If you fry it too soon, it doesn’t come out right,” Dunlap said. “You fry too late, it soaks up the grease.” What makes a good donut? According to Will Hall, owner of University Donuts in Hammond, it’s the glaze. It has to complement the dough perfectly, and some stores put in a little something extra to make theirs stand out. Hall wouldn’t say what he puts in his — that’s a secret. Differences in mixing time and yeasts are responsible for the different textures.
Waldo Moran and his daughter Aniyah, 7, enjoy sweet treats for breakfast before school and work at Meche's Donut King Nov. 6 2024 in Lafayette. To dive into the donut scene in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, I tried glazed donuts at shops local to Louisiana (sorry, Shipley’s). In no particular order, here are 10 glazed options that should be on your radar and what you need to know about them.
Good Morning Donut
For many immigrant families, owning a donut shop is a way of establishing themselves in a new country. It’s a popular food that there’s already a market for, and according to Dunlap, it’s a way of ensuring job security for an entire family and working around language barriers and other challenges new immigrants might face working for someone else. In Baton Rouge, a lot of doughnut shops are Korean-owned. Keum Choi, owner of Good Morning Donuts, speculates that it’s because the shop is a liminal space that checks important boxes in both American culture and Korean cultural sensibilities. It’s a hard job, one she thinks fewer nonimmigrants in America want to do. But among the blue-collar jobs, it looks better for one’s image among Koreans and is safer.
Keum Choi, Good Morning Donuts store owner/manager with her son, Kwon Choi, a teacher at Parkview Baptist School. Choi has been in the donut business for three years. Before that, her family owned a deli, and she was a regular at Good Morning Donut. She took over the shop from the previous owners and changed the recipe with a lot of trial and error. Good Morning Donuts are slightly less glazed relative to their peers. The donuts themselves have a subtly tangy taste — and the glaze is flaky and light on fluffy doughnuts. It’s a small store, to-go only. Cash only for transactions under $5.
Mary Lee Donuts
You can’t talk about donuts in Louisiana without talking about Mary Lee, the local chain, with 22 locations across south Louisiana, dominating the scene. With a crispy glaze outside and chewy inside, it’s a pleasant, uncontroversially good donut.
Lois Park glazes a batch of hot donuts fresh from the fryer at Mary Lee Donuts on Drusilla Lane on Nov. 7. According to Susan Park, co-manager at Mary Lee on Drusilla Lane, the Mary Lee locations are all subtly different. They use different techniques, and even with the same mix, the offerings vary, and one can tell. It’s consistent enough that if you’re craving a Mary Lee doughnut you can go to any of them, but the charm of donut shops might not be in the donut themselves. It’s in having someone who sees you before you’ve had your morning coffee and is nice to you anyway. Park knows her customers. It’s not just, “How’s your day going?” It’s “Did you graduate?” “How is your daughter doing?” “When do you leave for your trip?”
Many locations, see map. Sambath’s Donuts & More
Sambath Donuts and More offers a large selections of pastries, all handmade by owner Kongsamsambath Lim. On top of their donuts, Sambath’s titular “more” is their excellent Thai food. They are the
only local business in Louisiana currently on Too Good to Go, a food waste-reducing app where customers can buy unsold products at a steep discount at the end of the day. If you want a dozen in the early afternoon, this is your place. Sambath’s is perfect for a quick lunch and dessert combo.
Fleur de Lis Donuts
Owner Kim Song poses for a picture with a glazed donut at Fleur de Lis on Nov. 7. Fleur de Lis is home to a firmer donut. It’s not dense — it’s just got more of a chewy texture. Owner Kim Song said that it's due to the mix they use which contains a mix of cake and regular flour. The donuts are slightly bigger and rounder.
Thee Heavenly Donut
Thee Heavenly Donut is the supplier of LSU’s Union Library, law school and business school donut, so the majority of their business is done wholesale. Their glazed offerings have a more yeasty taste and a chewy texture. If you’re nostalgic for your college days, these are a good place to start.
Outside of Thee Heavenly Donut on Nov. 1. Delicious Donuts on Lee Drive
Delicious Donuts is a small shop across from Light House Coffee. The donuts have a less airy dough with a very vanilla-forward taste. The glaze is flaky and pleasant.
Mikey's Donut King
Mikey’s Donut King is a great chewy donut with a delicious glaze. Owner Brad Duckless said they put vanilla and “some other little things” in there to make it special. The recipe is also a secret, but it’s a secret that slaps.
The 'Breakfast Club' at Mikey's Donut King have been going to eat breakfast 'every day but Sunday' (and Monday, because they're closed on Mondays) for many years. From left, are Theora Tyrone, Bridget Matthews, Walter 'Buck' Knight, Charles Scott and Bonnie Pearson. Not shown are Lionel Harris, the group's unofficial president, and Craig Harris. Five out of six days they’re open, you can find a table of regulars sharing breakfast, reading the paper and chatting. It’s the kind of diner vibe they make TV shows about. Mikey’s also serves breakfast; the regulars said you "gotta try the pork chop breakfast and the egg and rice."
Donuts Coffee & Burgers
This relative newcomer to the donut scene has the concept right in the name: It’s donuts, coffee and burgers. The glaze here is sweeter relative to other donuts featured in this article. The location itself has a super cute café vibe, perfect for a breakfast date.
Cajun Market Donuts (also sold at Keller's Bakery Downtown in Lafayette)
Keller’s Bakery in Lafayette is not technically a donut shop, but it’s an institution all its own. One does not simply write about baked goods in Lafayette and not at least make a stop, but donuts are the only thing that Keller’s does not make in-house. They source their donuts from Cajun Market Donuts on Pinhook, and they’re substantially denser than others on this list. Cajun Market Donuts have a bit of a yeasty-sour taste (they try not to make them super sweet), and they serve a specialty cold bun which is a donut filled with ice cream and put into a hot press to let the glaze caramelize. It used to be an afternoon thing, but if you want ice cream for breakfast, they’re not here to stop you.
Ricky Meche's Donut King
Jill Bird dumps a fresh batch of glazed donut holes onto a tray at Meche's Donut King Nov. 6, 2024 in Lafayette. Sometimes things are hyped because they’re amazing, and if you go to the first Meche’s location on Guilbeau Road, you’ll be glad you did. It’s a paradigm-shifting donut experience. The glaze, which tastes distinct due to the butter vanilla they put in it, melts in your mouth and smells vaguely like butterscotch. According to Nicole Domingue, who has been making donuts there for 31 years, they try to make sure they have hot donuts for as long as possible. If you come in after the doughnuts are cooled, they’ll offer to heat it up for you. If you find yourself in that situation, you should take them up on it.
Did we miss your favorite donut? Let us know! You might just inspire another article.
