Try these 8 Knoxville doughnut shops when you need a deep-fried pastry fix
Whether you're craving something glazed with chocolate, filled with blueberry jam or sprinkled with Fruity Pebbles, Knoxville has plenty of places to find fresh doughnuts.
When you're looking to indulge in a deep-fried pastry, here's where you can find classic yeast doughnuts, sweet and savory doughnuts and even gluten-free ones.
Did we miss your go-to spot to get a dozen doughnuts in Knoxville? We can't include them all, but please send an email to Devarrick.Turner@knoxnews.com if you think someplace should be added to the list.
The Donut Palace
Whether topped with Fruit Loops or M&Ms, or filled with raspberry or lemon, The Donut Palace has a broad assortment to find the perfect pastry. There are yeast and cake doughnut varieties, as well as options like apple fritters. The Oak Ridge location was opened by Rom Ouk, after arriving in the United States in 2007 from Cambodia. The Powell location opened in 2019.
Locations: 2810 Schaad Road (Powell); 1021 Oak Ridge Turnpike (Oak Ridge)
The Donut Shop
Brownie batter, blackberry filled, or maybe sprinkled with Fruity Pebbles, whatever doughnut you’re craving, The Donut Shop just might have it. The shop opened in 2020 and has a rotating menu of flavors, including maple bacon, chocolate ganache with sea salt and its signature Scruffy City donut, covered with Nutella and topped with toasted coconut and caramel.
Location: 724 N. Broadway
National Donut Day 2023 deals: Get free donuts at Krispy Kreme, Dunkin' and more Friday, June 2
The Donut Theory
The Donut Theory specializes in gluten-free doughnuts. Recent flavors have included butter and salt, lemon, blueberry lemon, chocolate and double chocolate. You can catch the signature pink food truck (bus) at various locations in the Knoxville area.
Weekly flavors and locations are posted on facebook.com/TheDonutTheoryKnox and instagram.com/thedonuttheory.
Dough-Joe
At the 2022 Tennessee Valley Fair, Dough-Joe’s doughnuts were award-winning, sweeping the best yeast donut, best cake donut, best specialty donut and the Policeman’s Choice categories. There are three Dough Joe's locations, each shop named after the school mascot in the area. They offer a variety of sweet, deep-fried pastries, glazed, sprinkled or filled.
Locations: 7650 Oak Ridge Highway (Beaver’s Dough-Joe); 11665 Parkside Drive (Admiral’s Dough-Joe); 1902 W. Emory Road (Panther’s Dough-Joe).
Richy Kreme
If you’re looking for unusual and creative doughnuts, you might want to try Richy Kreme Donuts. The doughnut shop often has a variety of specialty doughnuts that are available for one day only. You can also enjoy cronuts, churros and their signature orange and white pastry for game days.
Locations: 7699 S. Northshore Drive; 2601 E. Broadway Ave. (Maryville)
Status Dough Doughnuts & Coffee
The doughnuts at Status Dough are special because they’re all derived from co-owner Joe Seiber’s family recipes. Yeast, cake and buttermilk varieties are all available, along with jelly-filled pastries and fresh fruit fritters.
Locations: 6535 Kingston Pike (Bearden); 418 S. Gay Street, Suite 101; 10943 Kingston Pike (Farragut)
The Sugar Queen
The Sugar Queen offers original, yeast doughnuts made from scratch to the greater Knoxville area. Candied maple, Amish peanut butter, Boston cream, blackberry cream, and more can be found on the menu.
The food truck has been stationed in Dollywood since March, but the Sugar Queen summer schedule will be announced via their socials on facebook.com/TheSugarQueenDoughnutry and instagram.com/thesugarqueendoughnutry.
The Ultimate Doughnut Shop
Topped with cinnamon sugar, maple frosting, chocolate glaze or filled with raspberry, blueberry, lemon, custard, white cream or chocolate, the Ultimate Doughnut Shop lives up to the name. “Fancy donuts” are also on the menu, which includes fruit fritters, cinnamon rolls and bear claws.
Location: 7815 Oak Ridge Highway
Devarrick Turner is a trending news reporter. Email devarrick.turner@knoxnews.com. Twitter @dturner1208.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Best donuts in Knoxville: Which shops made our list
