I grew up in a small town in Central Illinois (4,000 people) and moved up to the city for school. I changed majors three times.  My original background is in culinary arts.  After that I tried enlisting in the Air Force because it was always a dream of mine to serve in the military (as my dad is a Marine) but unfortunately, I was rejected for not meeting the vision requirements.  After a year off from school I returned to get my degree in Automotive Technology, but soon realized I wanted to take it a step further, so I started over for a third time to get another degree, this time in Mechanical Engineering. I’m currently a Systems Engineer at a nuclear facility just south of Chicago.

I really don’t do anything fun! I go to work. I go to the gym and I eat donuts.  When I can, I try to travel as much as possible, not just for doughnuts, but to see new places and cultures. I think that’s been the primary driver that’s fueled this doughnut adventure. Also, I have a cocker spaniel.

The account started as a fitness account when I was in college. I grew up super overweight (265 pounds at age 14), never lifted, never worked out. My doctor basically told me you gotta change. During my Freshman year in high school, I lost 100 pounds and got into fitness. Going into my 20s, I got into physique competing. I never got on stage, though, because I was shy and chickened out. I have all the respect for people who do it, but for me, it was having a negative impact on my relationships. The closer I got to the industry, I realized that it was so heavily influenced by politics and genuine people were very rare.  I just got to the point where I didn’t want to deal with it anymore.

During that timeframe is when the whole doughnut craze came about. Me and my girlfriend at the time decided to celebrate our anniversary in the city at Glazed and Infused (RIP), one of the first big time doughnut shops in Chicago. They’ll always have a special place in my heart because they were the ones that triggered everything for me. We got 6 or 7 that day and I said, “Man, I’ve never had donuts like this!” I immediately Googled Chicago donuts and saw Doughnut Vault, Do-Rite, Firecakes, and so on…So from that point on, her being a bikini competitor and me being just as much into fitness and weight lifting, we’d diet all week and then knock out a bunch of donuts on the weekends.

Soon after, I moved to the city to attend the University of Illinois at Chicago and shortly after that, me and her went our own ways. I didn’t really know anyone in the city so I decided to just keep doing the doughnut cheat meals except it went from just weekends to an almost daily routine.  I just started posting to my Instagram page and things kind of just snowballed from there.

Macros are so popular now because it’s the easier way of tracking calories (grams of carbs, fats and proteins).

People who count calories might say, “I’m gonna go on a diet of 2,000 calories.” Well, you can eat 2,000 calories of Snickers bars everyday if you want but that does you no good.  Basing your diet off of a balanced macro split ensures that you are allowing yourself to consume sufficient fats, carbs, and protein to maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle.

At the same time, it becomes a numbers game. A big problem with counting macros that I too have dealt with is that many people become so focused on hitting your exact numbers and go into each day like, “Oh I can eat whatever I want!” And then halfway though the day you’re like, “This is how many macros I have left: What do I have left in the fridge that fits?” It can result in more stress than anything and high stress means you’re more likely to give up on your diet and in the end does more harm than good. For anyone interested in counting macros, I would suggest consulting an experienced diet coach. 

For me, when I ate doughnuts, I would utilize counting macros just to ensure I wasn’t overdoing things.  For example, if I knew Glazed and Infused released a new seasonal menu that I was going to go try that day, I would plan on eating at least 2 full doughnuts in the process of tasting them all.  Based on my experience and similar nutrition facts like Dunkin’ or Krispy Kreme that I could readily look up, I would estimate that 2 doughnuts from G&I would be roughly 3 to 4 doughnuts worth of Dunkin.  So I’d plan on that day, allowing for about 60g fat, 110g carbs, and 0g protein to come from the doughnuts.  Now keep in mind, those are just rounded numbers but for me that was close enough that I knew any margin wasn’t going to sabotage my diet.  I never counted protein from doughnuts because it’s not a quality protein source either.  Just personal preference.

Well that’s totally dependent on what kind of doughnut we’re talking about. You have cake, yeast, old fashions, cruellers (which are gross…fight me) but all of them are entirely unique to themselves. I’m personally team yeast all day. Cake doughnuts are really annoying to me because MOST doughnut shops popping up nowadays are just frying up premixed vanilla cake doughnut and slapping anything they can on top. Yeast doughnuts require skill to make. My background in culinary arts has really helped give me a better perspective on quality doughnuts. I guess you could call me a doughnut snob, but I just call it having good taste.

TRUE Brioche yeast doughnuts are the unicorn of the doughnut-verse. If you’re not familiar with brioche dough, it’s a very rich dough that requires two days to make. It’s a meticulous, time consuming process that is also very expensive as it is high in butter and eggs. Many doughnut shops claim to use brioche dough but use “quick” brioche recipes that just aren’t the same. The key to tender baked goods is fat and with the amount of butter and eggs brioche dough needs, you get a super buttery, super tender, super flavorful doughnut! The best example of brioche doughnuts that I have ever tasted of the over 100 doughnut shops I have been to is PVDonuts. They are the GOAT. PERIOD. If anyone disagrees I respect that, but they’re wrong.

To piggy back that onto the original question, buttermilk old fashion doughnuts are my second favorite type of doughnut and what makes a great one is how they’re made. The folks at PVDonuts hand roll and hand cut — they’re made from scratch old fashions and I swear on my dog’s grave that they will redefine everything you ever thought you knew about old fashions. You see, most doughnut shops (I’m talking like 90%) use premixed old fashion doughnut mix. From there they slap some ingredients on top or incorporate things like blueberries into the batter. To be honest, I still love these style old fashions, but the product that you get from hand rolling them is unreal! First off, the premixed stuff is a batter. This gives the doughnut a crispy edge due to the moisture content in batter sizzling out as it hits the hot oil. Kind of like when you sear a steak. The inside then tends to be “silky smooth” and not always very set. The inside just doesn’t tend to have much structure. When you hand roll them, the base is formed from a more dough-like product that can be worked on the butcher block and cut and scored for that signature “bloom” affect. With this method, you get that initial sear on the outside that gives you an awesome crust, but the crust layer is a little bit thinner. The inside is where the big difference is made. It has way more structure but because of the acid in the buttermilk, it is SOOOOOO tender and moist!

If you can’t find your way over to Providence, RI, my friend Liz, owner of Orlandough in Orlando, FL, actually interned under Paul and Lori at PVD and has created her own brioche dough that rivals the doughnuts of her mentors!


Haha…well you seeeee, I totally slid into her DMs about two years ago. I was working at Firecakes and I checked the Explore page one day. She was just blogging about donuts at the time, and I noticed she had a picture on her IG that said something along the lines of, “Headed to Chicago for the weekend.  Need donut recommendations.” 

I think I commented something suave like, “I might know a guy (winky face)” and told her I worked at Firecakes. That Friday night I was working and she came in and I totally didn’t even recognize her. She was like, “Are you Steven from Powered by Doughnuts?” And I sort of stared at her blankly. Then she was like, “I’m Liz…” It was funny.  I took her on a donut crawl the next day and hung out. We just really clicked and we’re super close friends now. 

I later went to visit her in Orlando and she returned the favor of taking me on a doughnut crawl.  Like I mentioned before, she also interned at PVDonuts and I visited her while she was there too.  We did a Boston/Providence doughnut crawl and even managed to get kicked out of Union Square Donuts.  She’s honestly become one of my closest friends and the perfect example of what Powered by Doughnuts really means to me.  Doughnuts have really become a secondary interest as to why I travel with the main reason being to just experience new people and places.  We live in a totally different world than what I think any of our millennial generation expected to be in 10 years ago, but the ability to connect with complete strangers across the world and learn and understand each other is in my opinion, the best part about social media.

San Francisco has always been on my list of cities to visit and I was super excited when I found out that my job was going to fly me out there for some training!  Immediately when I landed I went to Bob’s Donuts, one of those old school, mom and pop shops. When it comes to traveling, I usually don’t go to mom and pop shops because they really don’t have anything to offer that’s going to “wow” me. If they’re doing it well, they’re all kind of the same…but Bob’s offered a giant donut challenge where you had to eat a massive doughnut in 3 minutes.  I ended up just not being in the mood, so I didn’t really get anything.

Mr Holmes was super good, and I’ve already had Supermoon in NYC, which is essentially the same thing since the owners are business partners. The one that I really liked was the Strawberry Jalapeño. They take out all the seeds, so it wasn’t spicy, and you just get all of the flavor. I’m pretty sure they use a brioche dough too because it was super soft and bright yellow — that’s usually a big indicator of brioche dough because of all the butter. The croissants were all good too.

The next day I went to Johnny Doughnuts. I loved the store atmosphere. The workers were really nice, and the flavors were good too. Their dough was really unique because they use potato flour which reduces the amount of gluten. The flavor was a little different and the texture I felt was a little bit tougher than a traditional yeast doughnut, but I didn’t mind it.

The unicorn on this trip was The Rolling Pin Donuts.  I actually had a follower reach out and give me the recommendation and it was kind of funny because I had actually met him back when I was working at Firecakes 2 years prior to that. He was on a cross-country road trip from SF to NYC and happened to stop in Chicago for a few days to sightsee. People like that I think are the coolest. I took his recommendation and brought in a few boxes for my colleagues and they were BANGIN! This was a local mom and pop style shop so I was totally taken back how great they were. My favorite was the massive cinnamon roll doughnut. The center was so incredibly luscious and buttery!

Mi Gente, I rarely and I mean RARELY, as in basically never entertain the idea of wasting my time on simple old school shops when I travel. Nothing against them but they just lack that WOW factor that Im looking for. However, during my San Francisco trip a few weeks ago I got a recommendation from a local that I met a few years back in a doughnut shop. @detectivejohnny came strolling through the doughnut shop I worked at back in college on a cross country trip and I knew right away he was a cool dude. So when he recommended @rolling_pin_donuts in San Bruno CA I trusted him and HOE LEE SHIT! THESE DOUGHNUTS WERE STRAIGHT UP 🔥🔥🔥!!! Like im talking straight up dough perfection! Soooo buttery but probably the lightest and softest dough ive ever tried! These are 1000% in my top ten doughnuts in the country.

674 Likes, 23 Comments – THE DOUGHNUT GUY (@poweredbydoughnuts) on Instagram: “Mi Gente, I rarely and I mean RARELY, as in basically never entertain the idea of wasting my time…”

I also got to spend a day with a friend of mine that grew up in SF and was in town visiting an old friend.  We actually met at one of the donut fests in Chicago and have stayed close friends since.  We checked out Dynamo Donut which was pretty cool, but a little bit weird.  I didn’t realize they were a vegan doughnut shop until we got there so the dough was “unique.”  The flavors were really good I thought but the dough just wasn’t what I had expected.   I’ll give them a pass though because they’re vegan.

Well speaking of Liz, I was able to visit her recently while in Orlando for my Mom’s birthday.  When I was younger, my parents saved up for years to take me and my sisters to Disney World.  At the time I was 10 years old and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  With all that I’ve been able to achieve as far as my career, I owe it all to my parents. So, I decided to return the favor 17 years later and take my Mom to Disney World for her birthday.

Incase you were wondering where I get my hair from lol. Happy birthday mom!

269 Likes, 14 Comments – THE DOUGHNUT GUY (@poweredbydoughnuts) on Instagram: “Incase you were wondering where I get my hair from lol. Happy birthday mom!”

We made a pit stop in Atlanta for a day to visit some family and that gave me the opportunity to check out the new Five Daughters Bakery. FDB is one of the most incredible doughnut shops I have ever been to and it was actually part of the birthday present for my mom. Of any box of doughnuts I’ve ever brought home, her all time favorite has been FDB. While in Orlando, Liz was able to set up an Orlandough pop-up shop at a local spot and had me as her “guest appearance,” which was really fun. It’s really funny when I think of having a large following on social media because when people come up to me and tell me they follow me and strike up a conversation, it’s just a really cool experience to get to connect and meet with total strangers about something as simple as doughnuts. It’s definitely something I value about the page.

Super behind on editing and sorting pictures from all the traveling this last month but I wanted to take minute to say thank you to everyone that came out to the @orlan_dough pop up at @thenookonrobinson last week and huge thank you to @thenookonrobinson and my friend @lizoforlandough for letting me be apart of it! I had an awesome time meeting everyone and @orlan_dough nailed it with the doughnuts!

977 Likes, 21 Comments – THE DOUGHNUT GUY (@poweredbydoughnuts) on Instagram: “Super behind on editing and sorting pictures from all the traveling this last month but I wanted to…”

Most recently, I came back from NYC on a bit of business with The Doughnut Project.  For those that don’t already know, I was able to put together a pop-up doughnut shop featuring TDP with the host venue being Longman & Eagle. L&E has become one of my favorite spots in Chicago as far as doughnuts go because they have an extremely talented pastry chef in Chef Juan Gutierrez.  L&E does their own weekend doughnut shop where Chef Juan creates his own original flavors, usually changing the entire menu every single week.  With the upcoming pop-up, The Doughnut Project is going to be taking over the spot and slinging their dough for the weekend.  For anyone that’s in Chicago on the weekend of November 10^th and 11^th, I would highly suggest getting there early as the doughnuts will be on a first come, first served basis.

Nope. That’s one thing I take pride in. I don’t want doughnut shops or restaurants to know who I am because I don’t want them to treat me any differently.  I understand the influencer culture, but I’m not a fan of it.  It creates a very disingenuous culture of people giving false reviews of food, products, etc.  I also don’t get paid to do this.  I do this for fun and as I said before, the thing I value most of this whole doughnut gig are experiences I’m able to share with people.  I’m also not a big fan of putting a business down, but I still give my honest opinions of places that I don’t feel are very good.  I’ve run into instances where businesses lash out at me for saying their doughnuts aren’t very good, but the way I see it, if you’re that concerned with some random guy on IG that doesn’t like your product, you have bigger problems.

When you’re behind the counter you have a sense of pride in what you do. For me, it was the best job ever because I knew the menu like the back of my hand and I loved talking doughnuts with people. People would come in with boxes of other donuts, trying to hide them from a donut crawl or something. I would really interact with the customers and ask what they tried, gave them recommendations like the doughsant from West Town Bakery.  I would always give the recommendation of Do-Rite Donuts and when people would come in and tell me they had just tried the pistachio old fashion from Stan’s Donuts, I would literally hand them a free pistachio old fashion and apologize to them for having to experience Stans’ pitiful version haha!  Anytime you go to a restaurant, the food just tastes better when you’re treated well.

When I was at a doughnut shop in San Francisco, the girl behind the counter was a way bigger person than I’ll ever be. The lady in front of me ordered a box and afterwards goes, “Wait, do any of these have nuts?” The employee basically said that cross contamination was possible, so maybe not get them if there were any severe allergies. The lady ordered her to put them all back then stormed off. A few minutes later she comes back and goes, “You know what, just give me all of them!” Turns out one of the donuts she picked out actually had nuts. The employee said, “Hey, do you want me to put this in a bag or something, this one has nuts…” and the customer goes “No, just give it to me. I said give it to me!” The employee kept a smile on her face.

For me, if there is one thing that I don’t tolerate and it’s disrespect.  I found myself in her situation many times and I just kick the people out.  I once had a man come in and he was clearly in a bad mood.  He ordered my employee to make a fresh batch of coffee because he said “I guarantee that’s been sitting there all morning.  I’m not stupid.”  I immediately stepped in and asked if he would like a doughnut with his coffee and he said yea.  I asked, “What flavor would you like?” He responded with a mumble and as I stood there waiting for a clear answer he barks, “Are you deaf?  I said vanilla.”  I responded with “No sir, you just didn’t make sense.”  As he looked up and glared at me, my coworker handed him his fresh coffee, told him the total, and he starts going off on how ridiculous it was to have to pay 3 dollars for one doughnut.  To this I simply responded, “Well then sir, take your coffee and get out.  Don’t worry, it’s on the house in case you can’t afford that too.”  I hate stupid people.

Aside from shitty people I also had the creeps.  I once had a girl DM me some weird creepy shit which I left on “read.”  The next day I was working and she came in!  She asked if she could eat her doughnut there (there’s no seating…).  I just said sure and went to hide in the back because I thought she was going to murder me haha.

I also got a taste of what I think girls probably have to go through anytime they’re out and about.  My buddy Andre would work nights and weekends because the area was very busy due to the night life in the area and us being open until midnight.  For the most part it was like a bartending job and we’d work it, giving girls free doughnuts or sweet talking customers into deals and we’d make a killing in tips haha.  Honestly, the income I made per hour at Firecakes was nearly that of my current engineering job.  However, we had to deal with some pretty inappropriate customers as well.  Let me tell you, you think men are dogs…pfff ya’ll ladies can get real dirty too!  We’d usually just laugh it off and wouldn’t take it too serious — although some of the comments from intoxicated women were just a tad bit uncomfortable.

Chicago:

• Do-Rite is the best no doubt
• Mindy’s Hot Chocolate Bakery – Great brioche doughnuts! End of story.
• Longman & Eagle – If this was an actual doughnut shop they’d be number one, but since they’re only a restaurant, I’ll let Do-rite have the crown for now.
  

Word of advice: Dont make @doritedonuts your screensaver at work because then your coworkers will be expecting you to bring them in on the regular 🙄

947 Likes, 40 Comments – THE DOUGHNUT GUY (@poweredbydoughnuts) on Instagram: “Word of advice: Dont make @doritedonuts your screensaver at work because then your coworkers will…”

Not Chicago:

PVDonuts and Five Daughters Bakery are in my top 5 overall. Check out the full Power Rankings list here.

If you’ve never had a 100 layer donut from @five_daughters_bakery, I can guarantee it would be in your top five favorite doughnuts of all time. As a matter of fact, momma PBD aka my mom has named them her all time favorite and specifically, this here Raspberry cream as the “Best Doughnut she’s ever eaten”! If you haven’t already, check out the new website and see what a true Doughnut Expert ranks as the Best doughnuts in America! LINK IN THE BIO!

1,094 Likes, 52 Comments – THE DOUGHNUT GUY (@poweredbydoughnuts) on Instagram: “If you’ve never had a 100 layer donut from @five_daughters_bakery, I can guarantee it would be in…”

Probably Gordon Ramsey because we would get along with my “no bullshit” approach to reviews.  Many times I get doughnut shops reach out to me to come try their doughnuts and I take a look at their IG and they look terrible haha.  I just think of how Gordon Ramsey trolls people on Twitter and I think I’d probably be exactly the same haha.

1. Yeast vs. Cake
2. Coffee vs. Tea: Iced Americano with 3 or 4 shots.
3. Vanilla vs. Chocolate 
4. Ranch on Anything? It’s probably my go-to salad dressing.
5. Thin Crust vs. Deep Dish: Thin Crust, but if I had to choose a Deep Dish it’d be Lou Malnati’s. I’ve never tried Pequod’s, but everyone says it’s amazing.
6. Favorite City: Outside of Chicago, probably San Francisco, although I had a bad first impression. It’s so big and so beautiful. The architecture is amazing and there’s so much I didn’t get to see.
7. Favorite Movie: I don’t really watch TV or movies, but probably Twister. I could watch that all day.
8. Favorite Song: Any sort of Reggaeton. I don’t speak Spanish super fluently, but I always work out to it.
9. Favorite Person on Instagram: You know, I really don’t think there’s anyone that I ever care to follow regularly.  The one thing that I do follow though is a lot of poetry accounts.  I love poetry and love stories.  Probably a little bit of surprise to most considering my childish, joking personality on IG but if there’s a topic I could talk about for hours it’s love.

CHICAGO PSA: The cat is finally outta the bag! Im super excited to announce that @thedoughnutproject is coming to Chicago! For one weekend only, I’ve brought together one of the best doughnut shops in the country and personally one of my absolute favorites, with one of Chicago’s hottest restaurants for an epic collaboration! Who? Well the folks @longmanandeagle have opened their doors to host one of the most epic pop-ups Chicago has ever seen! November 10th & 11th, @longmanandeagle will be turning their very own weekend doughnut pop-up at the OSB into @thedoughnutproject! Im telling you now YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS! Stay tuned for more details to come!

1,128 Likes, 75 Comments – THE DOUGHNUT GUY (@poweredbydoughnuts) on Instagram: “CHICAGO PSA: The cat is finally outta the bag! Im super excited to announce that…”

Yooooo I just got off the phone with the President of Engineering of my company! It was wild! Long story short, ive been working like 60+ hour weeks now I get to go in and work the weekend! So excited!….😁🔫. On the bright side, we’re only 2 weeks away from @thedoughnutproject taking over the OSB at @longmanandeagle! Dont forget to clear yo damn calendars!

509 Likes, 14 Comments – THE DOUGHNUT GUY (@poweredbydoughnuts) on Instagram: “Yooooo I just got off the phone with the President of Engineering of my company! It was wild!…”