Double Do-Rite Donuts

After our less-than-satisfying char dog, we spent some time enjoying the sunny weather in Millennium Park and took a walk up the lakeshore to our old neighborhood of Streeterville. Our plan was to get lunch from Do-Rite Donuts, which we had visited in the Loop on an earlier trip, but which now had chicken sandwiches that sounded delicious. (Funny coincidence, on that earlier trip, we had gotten Do-Rite and then Gold Coast Dogs later in the day, while on this trip we had Gold Coast Dogs and then Do-Rite later in the day, something I never even realized until putting this post together.)

On our first visit to Do-Rite a couple of years earlier, we were kicking off the morning with some coffee and doughnuts. I don't know when it happened, as it wasn't the case when we had moved out of Chicago seven years earlier, but by the time we made this visit in 2012, Chicago had become a serious doughnut city. We hit up quite a few of the big players on the trip, and Do-Rite was one of them. A picked up a Dark Matter coffee (which he thought wasn't bad, but he was expecting a dark roast because of the name and it turned out to be lighter and not as bold), and then we got three doughnuts to split.

The three doughnuts we got were the valrhona chocolate glazed, the maple bacon, and the special of the day, which had a pineapple glaze, shredded coconut, and nuts. It's been about five years, so we don't really remember that many details, but we do remember that we thought the doughnuts were quite good. If I had to guess, I'd say that my favorite was probably the daily special since I love pineapple and shredded coconut, but A thinks we might have liked the valrhona chocolate the best because the chocolate was excellent. (This is the problem when you don't take notes and don't write a post while the memories are still fresh.)

And now back to our 2015 road trip visit. We knew we would eventually get doughnuts from Do-Rite since we knew they were good, but first, it was time for chicken sandwiches. We split two for lunch, the "original" and the CBR. We had considered getting the one called "The Sweet Heat," which was a fried chicken sandwich with spicy maple aioli on a glazed doughnut, for the novelty of having a fried chicken sandwich on a doughnut "bun" (although we have seen that concept elsewhere since), but decided not to and to get "regular" chicken sandwiches instead.

The original chicken sandwich contained a fried chicken breast, special mayo, lettuce, and dill pickles. This sandwich was good, very basic, but a little bit bland in flavor, especially compared to the other sandwich. The texture of the fried chicken was good. The lettuce was a little more like cabbage, which was something we weren't expecting, and we weren't really sure what made the mayo special but it seemed nice and creamy.

The CBR stood for (aged) cheddar, bacon, and ranch (mayo), and we got the spicy version of this sandwich. This sandwich had much more flavor than the other one, probably from the bacon, but we wouldn't really call it spicy. Cheddar, bacon, and ranch is usually a good combination, and that was the case here as well. The CBR is still on the menu online, which is nice to see.

Considering we eat a lot of fried chicken sandwiches (especially in 2015, which was kind of the year of fried chicken sandwiches for us personally and they seemed to be everywhere), these probably fall in the middle part of the list for us. They were good and we enjoyed them, but we definitely have others we like better at home (like Hill Country Chicken, Bobwhite). We would try more varieties at Do-Rite though. Who would say no to more fried chicken sandwiches?

After we finished our chicken sandwiches, we went back in for a doughnut, this time choosing the cinnamon old fashioned topped with cinnamon sugar. This was a good cake doughnut, very soft in texture, with good cinnamon flavor. Do-Rite definitely does doughnuts well. We've had good experiences both times we've visited, so we would return.