A little background

Started in 1969 by Merieta Altrichter, World’s Best Donuts has become a repeat stop for travelers with a hunger for fresh, warm donuts.  When Merieta began the donut business, she would make the donuts by hand every morning.  In addition to making her donuts, she had a day job in a department store.  In 1975, she was able to quit her minimum wage job and work full time in her donut shop.

Skip ahead to the present day, and four generations of her family later, the donut shop is still there.  Located in Grand Marais, MN, World’s Best Donuts is open during the summer from May to September.  They serve a variety of donuts, both cake and raised, and much more.  All donuts are made fresh daily.  They also offer coffee, a perfect pairing to a warm donut.  Be sure to try their signature Skizzle.

To see the donuts being made and meet the family that make it happen, check out their video.

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 My thoughts

Both my fiance and I can agree that World’s Best Donuts really does have the “world’s best donuts.”  We enjoy section backpacking along the Superior Hiking Trail and we make a point to stop here for breakfast every time we cross through Grand Marais.  The bakers at World’s Best Donuts continue to deliver awesome donuts every time.  We’ve never gotten a cold or hard donut.  Warm, soft, and incredibly delicious, it’s a guilty pleasure that I can’t stop bragging about.  If possible, we even bring some home for our buddies in the Twin Cities.

My fiance ordered a skizzle the last time we were there.  Again, I had to sneak a piece of this one.  One skizzle alone can easily satisfy a donut craving for two people.

Yep, that sugar-coated saucer is a skizzle.  I urge you, try it!  Below you’ll find the rest of our spread that day (no we did not eat all of them at once).  We were able to save them for our hike for the weekend.  We ordered two of their chocolate-covered knots, a standard glazed cake donut, a chocolate-covered cake donut and coffee to top it off.  Can you tell we both like chocolate … a lot!

Being in this donut shop alone is an experience.  Once you take your seat in the back room, you’ll notice open shelving along the walls with coffee cups in them.  Take a closer look and you’ll see that they are the cups of visitors that frequent World’s Best Donuts.  The table tops offer up their own stories.  Underneath the glass, you’ll find images and brief stories of World’s Best Donuts traveling coffee cup.  It’s a goal of the staff to collect pictures that include their branded coffee cup.  What better way to do this than asking fans to send in pictures from around the world.

Overall, we highly recommend World’s Best Donuts to anyone willing to take the trek up to Grand Marais, which you should visit because the scenery all the way up is gorgeous.  The bakers are always friendly and ready to serve you a piece of their family’s 4-generation history.