When you’re a freelance writer, it helps to carve out a niche. For a decent run, I was exclusively a beer writer. Great timing as it was during the era when craft beer was ascending to the mainstream. Bad timing as it was during the era when print media publications were decimated. Along the way, I folded another topic into my repertoire: doughnuts. It was more than a natural fit as I’d launched what I believe to be the world’s first beer-and-doughnut festival, Baker’s Dozen, in 2015. It’s still my flagship event. I even publicly announced that I’m writing a book about doughnuts (that, like “Red, White, and Brew” which was a beer book not about beer but about people, is a doughnut book that’s about people, specifically immigrant bakers.)

All that to say, I hoodwinked my editor at Bend Source Weekly to grant me a quarterly round-up of doughnuts found in Bend. I kick it off with a deep dive into a favorite classic, the maple-glazed. Have fun sinking your teeth into this.