Hello Donuts

This local donut shop offers unique donuts made by someone who’s obviously passionate about what they do! We had donuts like lemon poppyseed, blue moon pie (injected with marshmallow), raspberry, cookies and cream, and 21^st birthday (with a vodka icing)!

After reading so many great things about this place and being a lover of breakfast foods, we decided to get up early on a Sunday morning to make the 20 min hike up to check out Hello Donuts. It’s a tiny and quaint little shop (I stress on the word «little» which would also explain why they sell out so quickly). From what I’ve read from previous posts, I can agree that if you’re looking for a good ol’ fashioned greasy donut, this isn’t the place to go as they only have cake donuts, but the flavors are creative. However, we made the mistake of not eating the donuts all at one time, and very quickly found out that about 4.5 hours later, we had $ 18.50 worth of very stale donuts. We liked the majority of the flavors as they are all very unique, but the S’mores donut, which is supposed to be filled and for a plump as it appeared, very much lacked the filling I so desired and in the end, I just wanted a greasy Long John. Not a bad place to go for a treat every now and then and I wish I had looked at their Facebook for their flavors before we headed up but didn’t realize they posted them a day ahead of time as there’s quite a few more flavors I would have preferred to try. I thought from previous pictures, that they had a larger selection but after arriving, quickly realized that they only make about 6 flavors per day in limited quantities. All in all, a cute place for tourists and that «special treat» but at $ 2.50/donut, I’ll stick with the greasy apple fritter.

I expected DONUTS these are more cake like and I have to say as loaded as they are not a ton of flavor. Rather insipid. If they tasted as good as they looked they would have been better. Got there at 8:30 Sunday morning No line plenty left. Meeehhhh
Next up Swedish bakery?

Great donuts, really friendly staff. Get there early before they run out. Kid friendly.

My husband picked up 6 donuts this morning. The french doughnut was way too sweet (and I like sweet) with the filling. The other doughnut I tried– some chocolate peanut butter cereal concoction– had stale cereal on top and was not good. I think the doughnut shop needs to work on perfecting making a basic doughnut before trying crazy flavors.

I really like this little place. Started with a crowd-​funding appeal, and different than all the rest. Creative recipes and really nice folks. The donuts are super filling, but great flavors. Definitely worth a stop if you are in Harbor Country.

Definitely not your standard donut shop! We discovered Hello Donuts thanks to Facebook and the tantalizing pictures they post. We love Sawyer and make frequent day trips, but never early enough to check the place out.
We decided to take an impromptu morning drive on July 4^th with the sole purpose of sampling some donuts. We arrived around 8:45 and had a few folks ahead of us. The place is located in a tiny cottage along Red Arrow Highway. They obviously have a lot of regulars who are there early.
The donuts are baked and more cake-​like than a traditional one. The flavor combinations are creative and enticing. If it were up to my husband, we would have left with one of every flavor.
We decided to go with four:
Cookies & Cream — chocolaty cake with gobs of crushed oreos on top with a creamy, sugary glaze. Yum!
Tres Leches — this was probably the most standard donut we sampled and we found it to be a little bland.
Firehouse Breakfast — my husband’s favorite! This combined a pancake flavored donut that was topped with a maple glaze and bacon.
French Breakfast — this was a massive donut. The cake was airy, covered in sugar and filled with a sweet, marscapone filling.
The donuts are pricier than most, but worth it. Our four donuts, one coffee and one latte came to $ 16.
This is the perfect example of a niche, local business that is thriving — definitely worth checking out. They were sold out by 9:30 on the day we were there so go early!

Had been looking forward to trying these so got a variety. Very disappointing. First bite was lemon shandy, made with little cal beer from green bush. They are baked, not fried doughnuts which I thought would be a good thing. However this disintegrated into a heavy mush in your mouth. More like a quick bread texture. Yuck. Slight lemon favor,
The sprinkle doughnut was fairly tasteless.
Best bet are chocolate doughnuts. Texture is better though tend to be dry. Best was ‘wake up’.
All told don’t think I’ll be going back, very lackluster for an expensive product at $ 2 – 2.75 per. Not very interesting or full flavor and texture left a lot to be desired.

Up in new buffalo for a girls weekend and we were looking for breakfast. We found this donut shop started with a kickstarter on a local «must try» website. We loved it! Baked donuts with 9 different choices. Get here early as it’s a limited supply! Cute but very small, 4 seats inside so plan on taking your order to go. The best tasting was a tie between firehouse breakfast and French breakfast donut.

Only reason for 4 stars is I am used to $ 1 donuts. These are $ 2 donuts, but also really good. I actually kind of like that they are a bit more of a delicacy than just a donut, makes for a good place for a fun and special outing with one of the kids. Great spot for a dad-​kid date.

Stopped in because I found them on Unilocal and bought a couple donuts. The concept is great and the owner was very friendly. Small selection and all of the donuts are cake donuts. Prices ranged from $ 2-​$ 3 per donut and this is a place I’d stop in to try a specialty one or two donuts.
I really like the concept and supporting a local stand alone business.

We LOVE Hello Donuts!
It is one of our favorite special treats.
Every flavor we have tried has been amazing. My favorite is the french breakfast donut.
Every time we go there, it is such a pleasant experience.
The owners are so friendly, and remember my kids and I.
I only wish they were a little closer to Saint Joe, but we will happily continue to drive down to Sawyer to get our donut fix.

These aren’t quite donuts so if you are looking for a sugary sweet traditional donut, so elsewhere. If you are willing to try something delicious and creative, this is the place to go. The owner has quite the ability to put together combinations you would never imagine and make them taste wonderful. I agree with others that it is more of a tiny bundt cake but who the heck cares because that tiny bundt cake/​donut is great. My favorite was the firehouse which is a combo of my favorite two items: bacon and maple. The cake itself isn’t overly sweet but it is the toppings and additions that make it. It is worth stopping in.

I was so excited to try these and I bought a dozen for our vacationing crew back at the beach house. The owner was very nice and the doughnuts looked awesome! Then I (we) took my second bite (s) and (were) was shocked when I experienced the utter and complete blandness of the naked cake portion on the bottom ½ of each and every flavor of the 5 flavors we tried. I had the same feeling when I test drove an Alpha Romeo Spider in the ‘80s –aesthetically the bomb, but the door handle came off in my hand. So back to the donuts. The litmus test was that the kids didn’t finish theirs nor did they come back for more. Bravo on the effort, but the bottom ½ has to deliver as well (or at least nearly) as well as the top. Disappointing at $ 2.50 a pop, too!

SO thankful for social media for telling me about this adorable and fantastic donut shoppe! Was served by Stacy, one of the owners, and was blown away by the genuine nice-​ness and of how hard she works every day chasing her own dream of making out-​of-​the-​box donuts for her town! Donuts like the monte cristo, churro, bananarama, George Bailey, salty hazel… all amazing and all hand — made by Stacy and her mom! Definitely coming back again and again to see what she thinks up in the donut world! :)

If I owned this business, I would want this feedback, not just the glowing reviews from someone who has stopped once or twice, that is why I’m leaving it. The owner is VERY sweet (I thought I read sisters owned it, but I’ve only ever been helped by the same woman when I’ve visited) and may value this review update.
After a few more stops at Hello Donuts I am wondering if anyone else out there wishes there was at least one selection each day that was a «regular» donut flavor? I would certainly appreciate a simple chocolate glazed yeast or cinnamon sugar donut. Maybe they’re too simple to charge $ 2+. I just haven’t had a donut yet that has lived up to what I thought it should taste like based on the description… and at over $ 10 for four donuts, I think we will be taking a bit of a break. Goodbye donuts.

There is so much to like about Hello Donuts.
It’s a donut shop.
It’s an underdog story.
It’s cute.
It’s social media-​savvy.
It’s got tons of interesting flavors.
So it pains me to say that of the ten (yes, ten) different donuts I tasted, none really blew me away. I mean, they’re pretty good. They definitely don’t taste like other donuts. And I think if I hit on a flavor I did like, I would marry it and make donut babies.
Here’s the deal. Every day, the super-​nice chef posts the next day’s flavors on Facebook —
Then you need to check Facebook that morning to see if she’s sold out. (She does sell out often.)
Here’s my take on the flavors I tasted…
* Bananas Foster — (Bananas, brown sugar, rum) Not a banana fan. I disqualify my opinion here.
* Fluffernutter — (Peanut butter, marshmallow, raised donut) The texture of this is really interesting. It’s so soft, almost like a dinner roll. If you like peanut butter and marshmallow (not really my thing), you’d probably love it.
* Wake Up Call — (Chocolate cake donut, espresso glaze) Not a coffee fan. I also disqualify myself.
* Salty Hazel — (Cake donut with a salted Nutella glaze.) I liked this one. The donut was very moist and the Nutella was a good touch. Couldn’t really taste the salt, though.
* 21^st Birthday — (Whipped Cream vodka glaze and tons of sprinkles!) Too sweet for my tastes.
* Churro — (Dulce de leche swirled cinnamon donut) Big disappointment. A churro is crispy, but this donut was kind of soggy from whatever was used to adhere the cinnamon. Needed way more cinnamon and maybe a dusting of sugar, too.
* Tiramisu — (Espresso-​soaked donut with a whipped mascarpone glaze, and a dusting of cocoa.) A delicate treat, but not really my jam.
* Firehouse Breakfast — (Maple glaze, bacon) I liked this one a lot. The bacon was excellent. Wonder if it would have been better chopped up and mixed into the batter instead of sitting on top.
* French Breakfast — (Raised donut, filled with sweet mascarpone cheese and rolled in cinnamon sugar.) This is what the churro donut should have been. Don’t be thrown off by the cheese filling. It tastes more like cream. The raspberry on top was a nice touch.
* Summer Shandy — (Bell’s Amber Ale, lemonade) I love donuts, Bell’s Amber Ale and lemonade. This resembled none of the three. Big disappointment.
* Muddy Doctor — (Chocolate cake donut, with a Dr. Pepper glaze and toasted coconut.) Can’t really taste the Dr. Pepper in there, but I liked the chocolate and coconut. Really spongy.
I am straight-​up amazed that one woman does all this herself. It’s so admirable. I’d love for her to succeed. Drop by and sample a few flavors and you may fall in love.

Hard working ladies (sister’s) who are following their grandmothers tradition of making doughnuts. It isn’t a large establishment and they’ve just have been open a week. If you want to have one, get there early… What they are making is high quality product. If you want crap go to DD, they are open all day.
Don’t complain, enjoy.
Here for more info:
*Note* I am the one who reviewed first on another listing for Hello Donuts… and also spelled donuts wrong in the title (I’m a smart one I tell you). All the same I wanted to move my review here and Unilocal has been told to delete it.
–M

Wife has been talking about Hello Donuts now for two weeks and how they sell out by 10am. So on mothers day were up by 6am and drove 20 miles one way to get a ½ dozen donuts. The french breakfast are outstanding. Could not even wait to get home to try them. Stopped at Weko beach to watch the lake and saw two deers enjoying the fantastic morning. Loved the donuts. Would have given them a 5 but i had to drive 40 miles round trip. But it was worth it.

«Hello Donuts!»
I’m adding that phrase as my new favorite way to greet Sunday morning.
One of the toughest losses moving to SW Michigan from Chicago was my Sunday morning tradition of driving downtown to Do-​Rite Donuts to pick up a 6-​pack of their scrumptious, high-​art sweet breakfast concoctions. Somehow the local DD can’t fill this hole in my donutgut.
Hello Donuts is a much-​needed addition to our local food scene: handcrafted, family-​history-​driven, spectacular breakfast treats to suit the discerning palate. They switch the batches out daily to show off their 35+ (and growing) flavor combos…
Today I grabbed 3: a Churro (fluffy, cinnamon goodness), a Carrot Cake (moist creaminess in an o shape) and their Cinnamon Roll (slurped down with a munchy sweet icing splash).
Loved the sisters running the joint and well-​worth the 17min drive from St Jo! Now I just need them to put out a gluten-​free donut to keep my wife at bay :)