Donald’s Donuts in Zanesville was recently voted the number-one donut shop in the country. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

By Ken Drenten

Whether you call them donuts, doughnuts or do-nuts, folks in Ohio love these pastries for breakfast, lunch, snacks or anytime.

Now is probably not the greatest time of year to discuss donuts, but hey, they’re not going anywhere, and your New Year’s resolution will probably be broken before January is over, right?

There are approximately 1,300 donut shops across Ohio, with the heaviest concentrations in big cities like Cleveland, Columbus and CIncinnati. You can go donut-hopping in Butler County, near Cincinnati, where the Butler County Donut Trail promotes 12 donut shops across the county.

If you’re in a hurry, you can choose the chain retailers like Tim Horton’s, Dunkin, Krispy Kreme and others, but the best donuts are usually from independent donut fryers. Whether you like cake, cream-filled, jelly-filled, sprinkled, frosted, cinnamon sugar, apple fritter or just plain, donuts are the perfect cold-weather accompaniment to a mug of hot cocoa or coffee.

One independent shop, Donald’s Donuts in Zanesville, was recently voted the number-one donut shop in the country by readers of USA Today.

Donald’s Donuts was founded in 1960 by Donald Warne. Now the second and third generations, Tom Warne and his daughter Frances, continue to feed the people what they want. Donald’s Donuts is located at 2622 Maple Ave. in Zanesville.

Donald’s has fervent followers, including those who travel miles out of their way to buy a baker’s dozen. Zanesville itself is something of a donut magnet, with two other independent establishments that compete very well with Donald’s.

Happy Donuts has two locations in Zanesville. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

Happy Donuts has two locations, 1825 Maple Ave. in Zanesville and 1 N. Maysville Ave. in South Zanesville. In addition to donuts, they offer croissants, muffins, kolaches, biscuits and breakfast sandwiches.

Darrell’s Donuts, 2355 Shaw Road in South Zanesville, also has a wide selection of donuts and other pastries and faithful customers. Darrell’s has been in business since 1978.

Both Happy Donuts and Darrell’s Donuts are locally owned and operated and make donuts fresh daily. Customers of all three businesses talk about their great service as well.

My family also tries to travel up to Amish Country several times a year, and when we do, it’s common for us to stop at Miller’s Bakery in Charm and Kauffman’s Country Bakery in Bunker Hill. Most of the Amish restaurants in the area have excellent bakeries as well.

Dusty Tires lists dozens of donut shops and bakeries — why not create your own donut trail and check some of them out?

Ken Drenten is creator and editor of Dusty-Tires.com, a travel blog for out-of-the-ordinary places in Ohio.

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