Firecakes Donuts

Firecakes' old-fashioned doughnuts have made it a certified Chicago must-visit, and when they call them old-fashioned, they mean it: the closely-guarded recipe can trace its roots back to founder Karen Fox’s grandfather, Billy Hobbs, who fried up fresh doughnuts every morning for workers in northern Wisconsin logging camps back in the 1930s. His “firecakes” were fried in a large cast-iron pot over an open fire, and his original round dough cutter is on display at Firecakes’ first location on Chicago’s Hubbard Street, which opened in 2013.

Nowadays, Firecakes has three Chicago locations and a roaming truck, and they’re making all their doughnuts by hand, fresh throughout the day, using only old-world methods. It’s just as Billy would have wanted it.