Spot Check

Spot Check: Federal Donuts

Some parents parked their strollers outside.
Some parents parked their strollers outside. Photo: Collin Keefe

You’ll have to get yourself out of bed early if you want a taste of the Nutella-Tehina-Pomegranate number that Federal Donuts has been teasing in the run-up to its opening this morning. By 8:30 a.m., about an hour-and-a-half into its maiden voyage, the donuts and fried chicken joint had already run out them. Within just a few minutes, they had been picked clean of all the other glazed and stuffed offerings too. While a steady stream of contractors, neighborhood folks, professionals in suits and young parents who parked their strollers outside, filed in and out of the cozy space, co-owner Steven Cook and his crew furiously fried sweet rings of dough to order, dusting them in various sugar and spice blends and serving them still piping hot, and Thomas Henneman ground, brewed and poured the Fed’s custom coffee blend. Round two of the madness begins at 11 a.m. when the chickens start coming out of the fryers.

Earlier: Federal Donuts Passes on Stumptown Coffee

Spot Check: Federal Donuts