Sometimes we don’t know where to begin an ABC adventure, so we will start by letting our fingers do the walking through a Google search. This will often turn up a location to explore, or a great restaurant or shop to visit. Such was how we “discovered” the “doughnut” shop in Traverse City, MI. But which letter to assign to it? Peace, Love and Little Donuts could give us a P, if we went with the name of the location, an E if we threw it together with all the other wonderful places we would eat along our 400 mile mini vacation, or a D for doughnuts. We would photograph all three and decide later where this fit in with our overall journey. Whatever letter we chose, tiny doughnuts just sounded like a fun way to start a day! 
Food is always a big part of our trips. We couldn’t imagine how we had never heard of this tiny shop, after all, we live here! We were very surprised to find that this hole in the wall business, is a franchise and there are actually two of them in the state of Michigan! The other location is in Portage.
Because education is such a part of all of our adventures, we diligently read the story of how this franchise had first begun. Like many small business owners, success had been by accident. It started with the purchase of a doughnut maker, which led to making the tiny treats for a hockey tournament. The size of the doughnuts had been an accident, after a piece of equipment failed to produce full sized doughnuts. The event had begun, so they were out of time. Choosing to go with what they had, they decorated the mini doughnuts. The bite size was such a hit, that the idea for a small business had been born. The shops are now spread across 14 states!
Alan was skeptical, feeling the doughnuts couldn’t be that good if we didn’t already know about them…the line out the door on a Sunday morning, at 9am, told a different story! As I joined others, drooling over the 60+ options, I realized it would be hard to choose just one or two of the delectable delights. There are all manner of flavors to discover. We needed to narrow it down to a dozen. We each chose our favorites, Peanut Nutter and Salted Pretzel for me and Chocolate Chip and Oreo Cookie for Alan. The rest, we agreed to split, so we could sample more. With an employee dedicated to the frier, the doughnuts churned out almost as fast as they were ordered. A second team decorated them. For less than $20, we left the shop to find a beach to “devour” our “delights”. We headed to one of our favorites, Byrant Park. The doughnuts were still warm!
After working our way through about 6 of the doughnuts, our favorite flavors remained our favorites, but we mutually agreed that the “drizzled” Strawberry Shortcake doughnut was our combined favorite.
We were quickly getting full. I dared not start counting calories at this early stage of our trip. I remembered a great sign hung in the shop. Perhaps this was why it had been there! All in all, we enjoyed this little shop. We will be back to devour more of these “decadent” little treats!
Peace, Love and Little Donuts 441 E. Front Street, Traverse City, MI 49686 231-421-5255