North Dakota's Best Donut Shop Started With a Layoff

North Dakota’s best donut shop exists because a man in his early fifties lost his job and a friend made an unusual suggestion. Open a donut shop. It sounds like bad advice until you know the rest: as a child, his mother had taught him to fry buttermilk donuts in a cast iron pan on a coal-burning stove, and he had spent his adult life making them for friends and neighbors anyway.

Sandy Ostlund and his wife Donna opened the doors in West Fargo on September 13, 1983, taking over a building where the old neighborhood bakery had just closed. Forty-plus years later, the operation makes close to 10,000 donuts a day across more than 75 varieties, with new flavors added every month and a specialty section that never stops rotating. Sandy’s original recipes are still the ones being used.

Everyone starts with the maple bacon long john, though the case also carries classic bismarcks, apple fritters, old-fashioned sour creams, cronuts, rhubarb fritters, six mochi flavors, and something the kids call the blue monster. If you’re working through our 50-state donut ranking, this is the entry where a layoff turned into a regional institution.

What to Expect When Visiting Sandy’s Donuts in Fargo, North Dakota

Get a maple bacon long john and an old-fashioned sour cream, which covers the shop’s signature and its most traditional strength. Past those, the cronut and the rhubarb fritter are the two items reviewers describe as genuinely surprising, and the rhubarb in particular is a very North Dakota thing to find in a donut.

The caramel rolls deserve their own mention because they are a regional staple in this state, and Sandy’s makes them. Butterfinger and M&M versions pull in the kids, six mochi donut flavors cater to the newer crowd, and the specialty board changes often enough that regulars check before deciding.

Coffee is roasted weekly rather than bought in, with lattes and mochas available alongside the drip, and the downtown shop pours Stumbeano’s. Weekends are billed as family days, which, in practice, means the place fills with people who bring children specifically to stare at the case.

Two honest notes. Popular flavors run out, which is what happens when a shop sells 10,000 donuts a day, and a minority of reviewers find some varieties dry or thick. Fargo has other strong options if you strike out, including a mom-and-pop bakery going since 1985 on the south side.

How One Buttermilk Recipe Built Three Shops

The flagship is still the West Fargo store, which started in a small building just down the street from where it sits now. A second opened in September 2014 on Broadway in downtown Fargo, right beside the historic Fargo Theatre, and a third followed in south Fargo. All three are in the same metro, which is unusual restraint for a business with this much demand.

Wholesale is how the donuts reach the rest of the region. Sandy’s supplies accounts well outside Fargo-Moorhead, including Grand Forks, Valley City, Casselton, Hillsboro, Detroit Lakes, and Pelican Rapids, so a Sandy’s donut turns up in towns two hours away without the company opening a storefront there.

The charitable side is consistent and quiet. Unsold product at the end of each day goes to area shelters and food banks rather than into a dumpster, which for an operation producing 10,000 units daily is a meaningful amount of food.

Sandy himself is gone, and the company is direct about the fact that what continues is his recipes and his staff rather than a family dynasty. That is a more honest framing than most legacy businesses offer. The shop has long been the one Fargo locals name first, and downtown has plenty else worth a stop, including a restaurant inside a landmark hotel.

Plan Your Visit

The downtown Fargo shop is at 300 Broadway, reachable at 701-478-1155, open 6:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and closed Monday. The south Fargo store at 4215 45th Street South runs 6 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. seven days a week.

The West Fargo flagship is the one to visit if you want the full experience, and it has a drive-thru for anyone in a hurry. That said, the staff will tell you to come inside, because choosing among 75 flavors through a window is not really possible.

Everything closes early in the afternoon, so this is a morning stop in every case. Online ordering covers pickup at any of the three shops and delivery across the Fargo-Moorhead area, which is the move for a meeting or an office.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I order at Sandy’s Donuts?

The maple bacon long john is the one the shop is known for regionally. Add an old-fashioned sour cream and a caramel roll, which is a North Dakota staple done properly here. Ask what is on the specialty board, since it turns over monthly.

Where is Sandy’s Donuts located in Fargo, North Dakota?

Three shops cover the metro, all in Cass County: the original out in West Fargo, one downtown, and one on the south side. Only the West Fargo flagship has a drive-thru, and it remains the one locals mean.

What makes Sandy’s Donuts worth a visit?

A laid-off 1983 founder built it on his mother’s buttermilk recipe, and those recipes are still in use. The shop now turns out roughly 10,000 donuts daily, roasts its own coffee weekly, and sends everything unsold to local shelters.

Selection note: The editorial team at Only In Your State chose one independent donut shop in each state based on editorial research, local and national awards, longevity, and community reputation. No national chains.

Want to discover more hidden gems in your own backyard? Get your daily dose of travel inspiration from Only In Your State sent straight to your inbox.