[content_slider]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[content_slide]
[/content_slide]
[/content_slider]
PORTLAND | Blue Star Donuts are considered by many to be the best donuts in Portland. Visitors who don’t know what they’re doing will head straight for the line at Voodoo but if you want the good stuff you’ll be lining up with the locals in the much shorter line outside of Blue Star. What makes Blue Star donuts so good? It’s all about the brioche base, which takes 18 hours to prepare and is made fresh each day. Inspired after visiting bakeries and patisseries in Paris and Rome, owners Micah Camden and Katie Poppe, no strangers to the Portland food scene, decided to develop a brioche based donut (along with the help of pastry chef Stephanie Thornton). Think the yeast based donuts you’re used to but with less air and more eggs and butter.
You can get cake donuts too nowadays, but the brioche creations are still the most popular and it’s easy to see why – they’re springy and dense yet somehow light and not at all greasy. The ingredients are locally sourced where possible and of the highest quality and this continues through to the toppings, which are decidedly grown up and contain a selection of core and seasonal flavours. We tried 6 of the flavours on offer when we visited and they were all fantastic. Our favourites were the Passion Fruit Cocoa Nib, Blueberry Bourbon & Basil, and the best of the lot, the Raspberry Rosemary Buttermilk with the intense, slightly sweet raspberry blending wonderfully with the contrasting herbaceous rosemary.
The flavours of all of the donuts are perfectly balanced and because real, fresh ingredients are used, everything tastes the way it’s actually supposed to – no fake candy tasting flavours here. Special mention also has to go to the Meyer Lemon and Key Lime Curd – it’s one of the simplest donut flavours done perfectly – a nice citrus tang and not overly sweet. In fact, none of the Blue Star donuts are overly sweet.
The team at each store starts making the donuts at 3am and when they’re sold out for the day that’s it. Our advice? Get there early.
The address below is for the original Downtown location which opened in 2012. There area further 3 locations in Portland, along with a Los Angeles store and 2 stores in Japan.
Blue Star Donuts
1237 SW Washington Street
Portland
Oregon 97205
United States
Telephone: 503 265 8410
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.bluestardonuts.com/
Open
Mon – Fri: 7:00am until sold out
Sat – Sun: 8:00am until sold out