Federal Donuts

honey doughnut (comes with any order of fried chicken) in front of the chicken cart

 Before arriving in Brooklyn, we spent a few days in Wilmington, Delaware and in Philly. We returned to one of our favorite doughnut spots--Federal Donuts. Similar to Rise--though it predates it--Federal sells coffee, fried chicken, and doughnuts exclusively. Federal, however, has streamlined the menu to several tempting subcategories: specialty donuts (the cake, in 6 varieties each day), yeast (fried fresh, topped with 3 different spiced-sugar blends), and the dry-rubbed and wet-rubbed chicken in a few flavor choices. The yeast are incredible, but the lure of the new is always the determining force, so we ended up trying all the cake donuts, one yeast (we'd had 2/3 the last visit), and split an order of the Thai-chili chicken (one must be abstemious somewhere, after all).

can't remember all the flavors but I believe this box includes chocolate sea salt, watermelon and basil, cookies and cream, and lots of other deliciousness.

 Each new cake donut is a surprise at Federal. The accuracy and brightness of flavor and moistness of texture are just absurd. I will never stop loving these donuts.

Thai-chili glazed fried chicken

The fried chicken at Federal tends toward the dry-side, due to frying them before fried-chicken service starts (at 11am) and then reheating with spice/sauce. The flavors, however, remain interesting and it's always a treat.