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Voodoo Doughnut bakes legendary and fresh fried treats 24 hours a day.

Voodoo Doughnut

Fall under the sugary spell of one of Portland’s most popular late-night destinations.

Updated Aug. 19, 2024 2 min read Downtown

John Patrick Pullen

The magic is in the hole — or, in the case of Portland’s iconic 24-hour donut shop Voodoo Doughnut, the magic is in a bright pink box packed with sugary treats.

A weird Portland favorite, this cozy corner shop in Old Town Chinatown is open seven days a week and attracts lines of doughnut worshippers from breakfast until last call. A social scene unto itself, the line for Voodoo can wrap around the block and is packed with eager eaters.

They come to snap selfies and sink their teeth into raised yeast treats like the Bacon Maple Bar (a multi-flavored handful, topped with rich frosting and crunchy meat candy), the Oh Captain, My Captain (a circular celebration crowned with Captain Crunch cereal) and the Old Dirty Bastard (a guilty pleasure piled high with chocolate frosting, crushed Oreos and peanut butter).

Candy- and sugar cereal-covered doughnuts, slathered in colorful frosting, filled with flavored creams and bestowed with clever names — it’s the kind of inspiration that might strike after a few cocktails (and that you might lose track of before the matching hangover set in). In this case, it was dreamed up by Kenneth “Cat Daddy” Pogson and Richard “Tres” Shannon while they tubed and boozed their way down Oregon’s Sandy River one summer day.

Credit: Justin Katigbak

The result of their daydreaming is an unforgettable Portland experience that has sold millions of wacky snacks since opening their landmark downtown Portland location in December 2003.

Since then, the company has opened other locations in Portland and Oregon, Washington state, Texas, Orlando, Chicago, Nashville, Tempe, Boulder and Denver, with further plans to expand internationally — but none have the same magic as the original.

Inside the original doughnut shop, service is quick, hot and fresh, with new creations constantly shuttled up from the back bakery. Some customers even tie the knot while indulging in doughnuts. That’s right — the shop also performs fully legal weddings underneath a giant “holy” doughnut.

But most customers take their treats outside to enjoy at the picnic tables in Ankeny Alley. Ankeny Alley is a year-round, open-air pedestrian zone that is closed to vehicular traffic, right next door to the doughnut shop amidst the hubbub of bars, clubs and restaurants in the city’s Old Town Chinatown neighborhood. It’s here where families, friends and famished partiers unpack their distinctive pink Voodoo boxes and succumb to the company’s sweet, sugary spell.

Want the custard without the crowd? Voodoo Doughnut has a second location across the river — it’s also open 24 hours a day, and the lines are often shorter than the original Old Town Chinatown location.

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