Whoever asked the question behind this Curious City segment didn't leave a name or a working

email address. But I, reporter Dan Weissman, begged for this story, partly because it involved

eating a lot of donuts and partly for more personal reason. Here's the question Curious City got.

Does Chicago have any more privately owned

donut shops and which is the best? I want to answer it in honor of my old roommate Howard Greenwich.

He left Chicago years ago, but I still remember his laments about the city's donut situation.

I came to Chicago in 1992 and the donut was my favorite guilty pleasure.

And I just remember I traveled all over Chicago for my job, and everywhere I was,

with Dunkin Donuts or pretty much nothing.

Which meant, as far as Howard was concerned, pretty much no donuts worth actually eating.

You know, if you're going to do that much damage to your body, it should be good.

Howard was disappointed and kind of mystified.

You know, I grew up in a small town.

Like 5,000 people, that small.

And our local donut place was great.

Howard had expected that a big city, like Chicago, would offer amazing donut possibilities. So this question is for Howard,

because this question contains another question, a deeper mystery, what happened to all of them?

The obvious answer is Duncan Donuts killed them all. But the real answer turns out to be

more complicated and more interesting. I talk with the guy who brought Duncan Donuts to Chicago.

His name is Bob Rosenberg.

In 1963, at age 25, he took the company over from his dad, Bill Rosenberg, right after he graduated

from Harvard Business School.

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