Hole-Y Crap! Top Pot Doughnuts Are Going National!

By Rachel Belle

Listen to Seattle’s Top Pot Doughnuts Go National

Local ingredients may be all the rage at many of Seattle’s most popular restaurants, but the latest and greatest, trendiest trend for Seattle restaurants and cafes isn’t local at all. Cafe Vita, Via Tribunali and Beecher’s Cheese have all opened branches in New York City and within the year, Seattle’s beloved Top Pot Doughnuts will be joining them.

“We had a lot of great success from The Travel Channel and the Food Network and with that we’re going to open up some stores in midtown Manhattan, hopefully within the year,” says Top Pot’s co-founder Mark Klebeck. “Then, from there, in other cities such as San Francisco, Chicago and maybe even Los Angeles.”

Some people instantly cringed, imagining their precious, local doughnut shop will transform into a Starbucks behemoth. But Klebeck says they plan to expand without losing the charm of Top Pot.

“We always have approached this as slow growth, but very controlled. I think it’s important to really maintain everything with your brand identity and the culture. Then the people that you employ, whether it’s in Seattle or it’s in Manhattan, to make sure that they understand exactly what it is that you’re trying to put forth.”

What they’re always putting forth are yummy hand-forged doughnuts.

“The apple fritter: We’ve really hand chopped each and every one of these ingredients into the doughnut. We’ve got a pink feather boa doughnut, which is toasted coconut flake on top of a pink icing. So popular that Vera Wang actually ordered six dozen for a wedding show.”

In order to keep the culture, and the local doughnut shop feeling in tact, Mark says they’ll be making some special regional doughnuts in the new locations.

“We talked about things like paczkis (punchkies), which are a popular doughnut in places like Michigan and Chicago during Fat Tuesday. Then you get into things like Sufganiots [jelly filled] doughnuts during the Jewish holidays.”

Just a fun little fact about how Top Pot got their name, Mark says his brother bought an old, vintage sign for $500 in the Rainier Valley that seemed perfect when they decided to open shop years later.

“The sign said ‘Top Spot,’ t-o-p-s-p-o-t. So when we were taking the sign to get it refurbished, the ‘S’ which was in the very center of the sign blew off on the freeway. That’s the truth of how we came up with Top Pot as a name.”

The name that will soon be known across the country!