portland places: blue star donuts.

Donuts are my favorite.
I can trace back my love for donuts to a very specific event in my life – the day my younger brother Matt was born. I was pretty upset about sharing my mom with another human being and in an effort to console me, my aunt bought me a package of those mini chocolate donuts. Yep. “Eat your feelings”. That’s a great life lesson for an almost two-year-old. But, from that moment on, donuts and I have had a special bond. And even though they’re “trendy” now, I’ve always loved donuts. I’m not much for trends when it comes to food. I just eat what I like. Cupcakes? Never liked them…even when they were a fad. Eat good food. That’s my motto.
Anyway, this weekend I finally had a chance to check out the new donut shop on the scene here in Portland: Blue Star Donuts.
The verdict: 18,000 times better than Voodoo Donuts. I’m not a Voodoo fan, which is almost sacrilegious to say as a Portlander, but it’s true. I find the donuts to be rather gimmicky myself and I’m more of a donut purist – my favorite is a plain chocolate cake donut with a layer of glaze, so Voodoo’s crazy cereal toppings and odd shapes don’t really appeal to me.
But, these were SO good. The donuts are made fresh and not just sitting out on a tray – they have one sample donut sitting out and then glaze your donuts as you order. The donuts are of the yeast variety (a’la Krispy Kreme), but not super light and fluffy like you’re eating cotton candy – they have a perfect texture. I’ll admit that some of the toppings were a bit too sweet for me – the coconut topped chocolate ganache was definitely a donut that was so sweet you’d be best to take only a couple of bites, but the others had very well-balanced flavors. The Meyer lemon and key lime curd donut was lovely and the blueberry bourbon basil was quite possibly one of the best donuts I’ve ever had. I loved that I could taste all the different flavor notes and the basil was perfect.
Here’s a run down of some of the other offerings on the signature menu – I am definitely intrigued by the fried chicken donut and intend to try it soon!
Here is a quick photo I snuck of my mom and Fern through the window of the shop. I didn’t notice until just now that Carrie Underwood, Darius Rucker and some other country singer appear to be floating oddly above their heads – thanks for ruining my picture country music billboard. Also…don’t be fooled by Fern’s bib…she didn’t get any donuts (OK, I did let her taste a few nibbles of the bread part) – she was just eating her organic blueberry and purple carrot baby food pouch…yum. Man…it must suck to be a baby and have to miss out on all the delicious food around you. Don’t worry…one day Fern. I have no doubts that you and I will have lots of mommy daughter donut dates to come.

So, in summation: basically, if you’re in Portland you should go here…STAT, because who doesn’t love delicious donuts. Do it!

xo
Lauren

Comments

  1. i’m so jealous that you live there. i love donuts and these are making me hungry.

  2. I need to go to Portland IMMEDIATELY, I LOVE donuts and those look SO GOOD.

  3. I am so glad to hear you aren’t a Voodoo fan. My mom and I went there while we were in Portland this fall and I was rather underwhelmed. Like you say, gimmicky! These donuts looks WAY better.

  4. Yummm donuts! One of my favorite foods of all time! And I agree with you, the less junk on a donut, the better. (I’m not really a fan of VooDoo either.) I’d take a maple bar over a cereal topped donut any day!

  5. Definitely on my list of little places to go next:-) Sounds amazing! xoxo

  6. we had some this morning! blueberry bourbon basil and the Meyer Lemon/ key lime curd are my favorite!

  7. I’m also not a voodoo fan, they weren’t good, quality donuts. These however look amazing!! I need to go ASAP!

  8. Oh my gosh, these sound heavenly! And appeal much more to me than Voodoo.. When we went there I got basic cake donuts.. Was not into the gimmicky ones either.

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