There's a quiet rivalry simmering along I-70, and it isn't about parking or traffic circles. It's about donuts. Specifically: does the crown for best fried dough in the valley belong to Sweet Coloradough in Eagle, or Northside Kitchen in Avon?
Line up their résumés and you've got the makings of a genuinely difficult choice — the kind that would make a certain yellow, donut-obsessed cartoon dad wander into traffic, eyes glazed (pun intended), following the scent like a tractor beam. If there's ever been a food capable of short-circuiting higher brain function, it's this one, and the Vail Valley now has two separate places willing to test that theory on you.
Sweet Coloradough (Eagle)
Sweet Coloradough rolled into town with pedigree. Founded in Glenwood Springs back in 2014 by husband-and-wife team Aaron and Anne Badolato, the shop built its reputation the hard way — hand-rolling, filling, and decorating every donut, cooked fresh in racks of 24. That labor earned them national attention, including nods from Travel & Leisure and USA Today as some of the best donuts in Colorado.
When they opened their Eagle outpost on Chambers Avenue in 2023, the town responded like donuts were rationed: all 1,000 sold out within an hour of the 7 a.m. opening. They doubled the batch the next day. Sold out again, before 9 a.m.
That's not a donut shop. That's a phenomenon with sprinkles on it — the kind of scene that would reduce a certain cartoon donut enthusiast to a puddle of drool and a low, guttural "mmmm" before he even got in line.
Northside Kitchen (Avon)
Northside Kitchen plays a different game. It's not a donut shop that happens to serve breakfast — it's a full-service restaurant, prime rib and lobster risotto by night, that also happens to make donuts so good they've become the accidental headline act. The bakery churns fresh every single night, and regulars know the drill: get there early, or don't bother.
The local buzz backs it up. Diners describe leaving with boxes of donuts as an afterthought that turns into the best part of the visit — fluffy, still-warm, gone before the car's out of the parking lot. One Tripadvisor reviewer flatly declared the shop brings "killer doughnuts" to the valley. Fruity Pebbles donut and apple fritter fans, in particular, seem to have picked a side.
So Who Wins?
Here's the twist: this isn't really a problem, it's a valley getting spoiled twice over. Eagle gets a donut purist obsessed with the craft. Avon gets a full-blown restaurant that treats donuts as a nightly flex. Nobody's losing here except your New Year's resolutions.
If forced to score it:
Speed of sellout: Coloradough, in a landslide (60 minutes flat)
Range of experience: Northside, since you can follow your donut with a Reuben and a glass of wine
Underdog spirit: Coloradough, the small-batch specialist taking on a full-menu juggernaut
Local sentimental favorite: genuinely split, depending on which exit you take off I-70
The real answer, of course, is to do the field research yourself — one box from each, judged in a single sitting, preferably before anyone in the car has had coffee and can be trusted to be fair about it. Just don't be surprised if halfway through the taste test you catch yourself channeling your inner Homer, forgetting what day it is, and eyeing a third box "for research purposes."
Tell us which one is your favorite!
