Voodoo Donut Is Opening Its Most Over-The-Top Shop
UPDATE: May 3, 2018 at 5:28 p.m.
East coasters, you can officially score Voodoo Doughnuts without flying west. The cult donut shop's first Florida location opened this week, and it's got a full-on donut throne sitting outside.
The photo opp spot is built to look like Voodoo's classic rings, including the Voodoo Doll-shaped doughnuts, and gives fans a sneak peak of what's inside. Favorites like Grape Ape, Maple Bacon, and Oh Captain, My Captain are all on this location's menu, along with nearly 50 more over-the-top donuts.
Voodoo Doughnuts is now open every day at Universal CityWalk in Orlando, FL. Head there any time - it's open from 7 a.m. to 12 a.m. Sunday to Thursday and 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. on the weekends, which is basically proof that there's never a bad time for donuts.
ORIGINAL POST: April 13, 2018 at 6:35 p.m.
Lard Lad’s big-as-your-face donut - that oversized replica of Homer Simpson’s favorite treat - may rule Universal Studios, but just outside the theme park, a new donut shop is serving some stiff competition. Cult favorite Voodoo Doughnuts is opening its first bakery east of the Mississippi River, and they chose Universal CityWalk, at Universal Resort in Orlando, FL, to make their mark. And they’re going all out.
“It’s going to be a donut palace,” laughs Tres Shannon, one of the company’s two founders. “We used to joke that we dreamed of opening a donut palace, and we’d say things like, ‘wouldn’t it be cool to have a water slide in it?’ Now there’s one right nearby!”
They aimed to make it the beacon of CityWalk, the shopping plaza that surrounds Universal’s two theme parks.
The bright pink, multistory building features a 12-foot-tall replica of its classic Voodoo Doll donut, along with a treat carousel that gives you a firsthand look at some of the store’s 50 - as in 5-0 - flavors on the menu. You better believe the OGs that made Voodoo famous are there, like the aforementioned Voodoo Doll (complete with pretzel stick through his heart) and the maple bacon bar, a long yeast donut topped with maple frosting and a strip of bacon. When they launched it in 2004 in Portland, it was a gamechanger.
“We were the first to do maple bacon,” said co-founder Kenneth “Cat Daddy” Pogson. “We had the idea to do a savory-sweet donut, but a lot of the savory stuff we were trying, like potato chips, gets soggy on a donut. Then, one day, bacon shows up in the shop, we laid it on there, and it stuck.”
It wound up becoming their bestselling donut, and set the foundation for the company’s off-kilter approach to its flavors.
“We’d wander grocery aisles for ideas for new toppings,” Shannon said. “What about cereal? Then you’d get all your vitamins and minerals in one bite! We’d decide based on what we liked, not on what we thought would look pretty.”
In the company’s early days, the duo admits they had to “beg, borrow, and steal” to launch their first shop, often Dumpster-diving to get used furniture for the 750-square-foot space. They gathered a late-night crowd by being open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., closing on Sundays to reset the shop and clean. That is, until demand really picked up - and they sparked the ire of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, who tried to snag a maple bacon bar once while they were closed. After that, they moved to a 24/7 operation.
The City Walk store won't share those hours, but it will feature another Voodoo signature: wedding ceremonies. (Yes, they’ll have an officiant on hand, in case you love those donuts so much you want to marry them. Or be married next to them.)
The Orlando store doesn’t officially open until later this spring, though it’s been in “preview” mode the past few weeks, as the staff tests out production and workflow.
“To have something like Universal is incredible,” Shannon said. “We get to live out our dream.”
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