Indiana’s best donut shop will not take your card. Not because the machine is broken, and not out of nostalgia for its own sake. The bakery says outright that being cash-only is what lets it keep the best price in town on the best donut in town, and after 70 years, nobody in Indianapolis has successfully argued with that math.
Say hello to Long’s Bakery, opened in January 1955 by Carl and Mildred Long on North Tremont Street on the city’s west side. Carl had worked in a German bakery and used what he learned there to build a new dough recipe, lighter and fluffier than the standard yeast donut. That glazed yeast donut is still the bakery’s most popular item, and the fifth generation of the family has begun learning the craft.
The famous part is the sign. Long’s “Hot Do-Nuts” lettering has been a fixture of 16th Street for decades, and it means exactly what it says. If you’re working through 50 donut shops worth the drive, this is the one where the donuts come off the bench warm all day rather than once before dawn.
What to Expect When Visiting Long’s Bakery in Indianapolis, Indiana
Order glazed yeast donuts and order more than you think you need. Reviewers describe them as thin yet fluffy and only delicately sweet, which is why people report eating two without regret. Getting them warm is the whole experience, and the bakery fries throughout the day specifically so that stays possible.
The powdered sugar yeast donuts are the insider pick, and they come with a warning attached: the bakery makes a set number each morning, and they sell out early. Beyond those, the case features blueberry cake donuts, chocolate-dipped yeast, raspberry jelly, cream horns, and old-fashioned apple pies.
Know the limits before you go. There is no gluten-free or vegan option, peanuts are present in the facility, and the bakery does not deliver or ship because the products contain no preservatives. It has also said plainly that it is not interested in DoorDash or Uber Eats, which, for a donut this fragile, is a defensible position…