Whether you say “donut” or “doughnut,” you’re right. Both spellings label the fried ring of dough millions of Americans have enjoyed since Dutch settlers in New York first prepared the dessert in the 17th century. And Gainesville is no donut dessert desert.  

Here’s a hole-in-one roundup of eight specialty donut place you can get your doughnut fix in town. While we all know donuts are enough to satisfy our sugar cravings on their own, these places offer plenty of other breakfast, bakery, or drink items to wash down the donut glaze. 

1. Baloo’s Donuts and Coffee 
   Location: 1130 NW 23rd Ave. 
   Hours: 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday 
   Named after the bear in Disney’s “The Jungle Book,” Baloo’s will mark one year of serving up customizable, made-to-order donuts in October. Customers can order in person or online signature flavors such as French toast, triple chocolate, jungle samoa and bare necessity, build their own cake-based donut from a variety of coatings, toppings and drizzles, and wash it all down with specialty coffee. Owners Brandon Grabhorn and Jason Garrett opened the part-single-story building, part-food truck shop after working together at Grabhorn’s other business, B’z Gelati, which he hopes to bring into Baloo’s in the future. Grabhorn said even though the made-to-order donuts take a little longer, they’re worth the wait. 
    

2. Mochiry: Beyond the Ring 
   Location: 3822 Newberry Rd. Ste. D 
   Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Saturday 
   Mochiry’s donuts bring the trending blend of mochi donuts to Gainesville. The Japanese dessert mochi combined with the American donut makes these rice flour-based donuts crispier on the outside and chewier on the inside. The mochi donuts are fried inside of a bubble-ring mold to give them their signature waves. On top of mochi donuts, Mochiry also offers other bakery and restaurant treats such as traditional mochi, rice hot dogs and ramen. After only one year in Gainesville, Mochiry’s success stateside has already led one investor to open 10 more locations in Saudi Arabia. 

3. FlatFish GNV 
   Location: 308 NW 5th Ave. 
   Hours: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday through Sunday 
   Nestled next to Gainesville’s historic Old Mount Carmel Baptist Church, FlatFish GNV serves up a variety of brioche-filled and plant-based glazed donuts. With a menu rotating every month, August includes tropical cheesecake, dagel (savory), chocolate velvet, pecan praline, cold brew and fruity pebbles brioche flavors. The plant-based glazed donut flavors are salted brown butter, cardamom sugar, thicc chocolate, pink sprinkles, hummingbird and cherry.
    

4. Donut Connection 
   Location: 5205 NW 39th Ave. 
   Hours: 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 5:30 a.m. to  2 p.m. Sunday 
   Gainesville is this Pennsylvania-based donut chain’s only location in the Sunshine State. Customers can choose from cake or yeast-based donuts, filled donuts and donut holes. They also offer options with extra protein, such as breakfast sandwiches, bagels with cream cheese, and combo options for as many of all the above as desired. 
    

5. Donut NV 
   Hours and location: 2 to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday at the corner of NW 8th Ave. and Newberry Rd., 4 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday at Noble on Newberry Apartments 
   DJ’s Cast Iron Burgers food truck has a new neighbor at the corner of NW 8th Avenue and Newberry Road, and it’s Donut NV. The food truck offers nearly a dozen flavors of “hot mini donuts,” such as maple bacon, strawberry glazed and chocolate Oreo. Customers can sip down a cup of fresh-squeezed lemonade as they watch their donuts being made through a special “watch the donuts” window on the truck.   
    

6. Daylight Donuts 
   Location: 1109 N Main St. 
   Hours: 5 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday 
   In its 71st year as a nationwide company, Daylight Donuts has been serving up the sweet fried rings for over 11 years in Gainesville. According to the company’s website, Tommy and Lucille Day founded the company in 1954 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, wanting to create a new kind of donut mix with a distinctively light texture and flavor. The popularity grew into the Daylight brand, which offers customers plain and blueberry raised donuts, chocolate, blueberry and old-fashioned cake donuts, cinnamon rolls, sausage rolls and Daylight Donuts coffee.  
    

7. Krispy Kreme 
   Location: 310 NW 13th St. 
   Hours: 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Saturday 
   Still the only Krispy Kreme location in Gainesville, the 13th Street location looks as retro as when it first opened in 1968. The company, founded in North Carolina in 1937, has grown into one of the largest donut companies in the world, with its famous experience that customers can have watching the original glazed donuts being made. Krispy Kreme offers both yeast and cake-based glazed and filled donuts and donut holes, with seasonal flavors such as pumpkin spice that’s hitting menus starting this week. Make sure to stop in when the “Hot Light” is on to get the freshest glazed donuts off the conveyor belt. 
   

8. Dunkin’ Donuts 
   This wouldn’t be an editorially-balanced list with just Krispy Kreme or Dunkin,’ so here’s both. With over 10 locations in Gainesville, Dunkin’ leads the race between the two chains as far as more locations nationwide, with around 9,700 compared to Krispy Kreme’s roughly 350; hence the “America runs on Dunkin’” slogan. Dunkin’s customer base tends to lean towards it emphasis on a cakier donut and a larger menu of other breakfast items and drinks.