The best donut in New York City costs somewhere between a dollar and two dollars, which, in a city where a bakery cookie runs five dollars, is close to a public service. The shop that makes it opens at 4:30 in the morning on weekdays, takes cash only, and has a curved diner counter with about eighteen stools where strangers get pulled into each other’s conversations. Nobody has redecorated on purpose in a very long time.
Peter Pan Donut and Pastry Shop has held the corner at 727 Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint since the 1950s, and Donna and Christos Siafakas have owned it since 1993. The counter staff wears green and pink uniforms that look lifted from another era, which turned out to be a useful thing to own: when Spider-Man: No Way Home needed a donut shop for Zendaya’s character to work in, the costume was already hanging in Brooklyn.
About twenty varieties get baked daily, and the one everybody actually orders is the honey dip. If you’re working through the country’s 50 best donuts, this is the entry where a working-class neighborhood shop became a citywide institution without changing a single thing about itself.
What to Expect When Visiting Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop in Brooklyn, New York
Get the honey dip first, warm, and eat it standing there. Reviewers reach for the same words every time: “it melts,” and that is not a figure of speech. The old fashioned is the traditionalist’s pick, the blueberry buttermilk is the one Food Network singled out, and the sour cream has its own quiet constituency.
The rest of the case runs deeper than the reputation suggests: red velvet, chocolate frosted, chocolate cake, black-raspberry jelly, coconut chocolate, and a Bavarian cream that reviewers describe with an enthusiasm bordering on alarming. Apple fritters come out crisp outside and still moist in the middle, and the half-moon cookies go fast.
This is also a full breakfast counter, which visitors chasing donuts tend to miss entirely. The bagels are genuinely good, the bacon, egg, and cheese is a real order, and there are shakes, egg creams, hot chocolate, and coffee that people drink at the counter rather than carrying out. Sitting down is the better version of this experience…