Sunday, February 7, 2010

Top Pot Doughnuts



















Raspberry Glazed Chocolate Cake Doughnut
Top Pot, $1.49

Top Pot has been suppling Seattle with "hand-forged" gourmet doughnuts since 2002. Their pleasingly symmetrical name was a happy accident courtesy of a recycled neon sign from the derelict "Topspot" Chinese restaurant, which lost its "S" along the way. Actually, most things about Top Pot have that retro/recycled feel, from the melamine-topped tables and vintage books at their 5 stand-alone cafes to their recipe itself, which dates from the 1920s. When they start a mobile doughnut cart later this summer it'll be housed in--what else?--a Airstream trailer.

Top Pot offers more than 40 vintage varieties, including "old-fashioneds", crullers, cakes, fritters, and the coconut-covered "boa". Doughnuts are grouped and priced in three categories (in ascending order of extravagance): standard, premium, supreme. My "premium" chocolate cake with raspberry was lovely: soft and fresh with a comforting cocoa warmth and bright little bursts of raspberry.

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