I hadn’t heard of Portland’s Voodoo Doughnut until it popped up on the Brownie Points blog, with a huge photo of the maple bacon bar—yep, you heard me right. That’s a buttermilk bar, maple glaze, and strips of bacon on top. Further investigation showed that Voodoo is no normal doughnut shop.
The wares are quirky, with available pastries including the Triple Chocolate Penetration (chocolate doughnut, chocolate glaze, and Cocoa Puffs); the Grape Ape (a raised doughnut with vanilla frosting and grape powder); and the Memphis Mafia (chocolate chips, banana, peanut butter, and glaze). Another product, called the Cock-n-Balls, is shaped just like the name. It’s chocolate-covered and triple-cream-filled. The website says it’s a bachelorette-party favorite.
Beyond the doughnuts, Voodoo continues to do things its own way. It claims to be open 24 hours (except between 2 p.m. Sunday and 6 a.m. Monday). It books bands to play in the shop (“No whiny rockers or divas will be tolerated”), and it even performs weddings on-site, “by ordained ministers beneath the holy doughnut and a velvet painting of Isaac Hayes” (a ceremony and a doughnut reception for 10 is $175). Oh, and its MySpace page lists 1,447 friends.
I may be late to the Voodoo party, as Jane and Michael Stern raved about the shop last year on the Splendid Table radio show, calling it a “Goth” doughnut shop. “I never felt so old, so square and so out-of-it as I felt at Voodoo Doughnuts,” said Jane, though they both loved the pastries. “Voodoo Donuts [sic] cast a powerful come-back-to-me spell on those who eat them,” reports Michael on the Sterns’ website, Roadfood.com.
But for a taste of the Voodoo magic, you’re going to have to go to Oregon. The shop doesn’t ship its doughnuts “out of respect to them.”
I’m guessing that you must have missed the episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations where he visits VooDoo Doughnuts:
http://travel.discovery.com/tv/bourdain/travel-guide/pacific-northwest.html
Was just there while in Portland a couple of weeks ago, while the doughnuts were spectacular, I guess I wasn’t cool enough to rate better than surly service.
Maybe I’ll get a few tattoos and piercings if I ever decide to return.
Chowhounds have been reporting about Voodoo Doughnuts since 2004.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/12614
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/14940
Voodoo’s gimmicky donuts (topped with cereal or smooshed-up candy bars or, as mentioned earlier, meat) are fine, but the actual donuts themselves are well-made and tasty and don’t get the press they deserve. Lucky Portlanders willing to brave panhandlers and drunk douchebag guys can grab a donut for a late-night dessert.
But I’ve purchased Voodoo donuts from the shop before and found them to be stale. Ick!
And as far as service, I imagine it is difficult to find non-surly staffers willing to sling donuts to the bar crowd at 3am for what is probably not much money.
11AM on in the morning is no excuse for surly though….
voodoo is good. I don’t eat donuts too often but on the rare occasion I come out of a bar downtown at 1am and smell the scent of donuts in the street I usually go home with a half a dozen donuts from voodoo. maple bar with bacon is my fav!