Days and nights of nonstop doughnuts at the base of Capitol Hill just above downtown Seattle will begin next week. The Capitol Hill Voodoo Doughnuts has announced an opening date.

Word was already spreading from people interviewing for jobs at the new shop of a planned December 10th debut. The Portland-based company made things official Tuesday afternoon:

Join us on 12/10 at 8AM for the grand opening of our Seattle store! 🍩🎉

Voodoo says 20% of the first day’s sales will go to support the FareStart nonprofit. There will also be an “exclusive gift” for the first 50 people in line.

UPDATE: As pointed out in the comments, the “grand opening” is planned for Tuesday — watch for a soft opening for locals (and a few thousands more people from social media) over the weekend.

You can probably expect those lines to continue. In addition to the anticipation for the popular chain finally coming to Seattle, the 24×7 hours are likely to make the doughnut shop a round-the-clock destination.

The opening has been long delayed. Voodoo had been planning for a spring opening for the much anticipated chain.

CHS first reported on the arrival of Seattle’s first ever Voodoo in October 2023 after construction permits revealed details of the new Capitol Hill shop in the Booker Building at the corner of Pine and Minor next to Melrose Market.

The corner had been home to Lan Hand-Pulled Noodles and Pho 4 U. CHS reported on the “unfortunate, but amicable” shift as the two small restaurants lost their spaces to make way for the new project.

Voodoo’s new block at the base of Capitol Hill has undergone significant change. CHS reported here earlier this year on the exit of neighborhood favorite Machiavelli and turnover for the property under San Francisco-based real estate company Prado Group after it acquired the building for $5 million in 2022. New additions to the building include Cheese Room from the MEET BBQ food and drink family in the old Machiavelli space and The Plant Store live plants shop that moved from White Center to join the block.

Voodoo is joining a robust doughnut community on the Hill. Ubiquitous Seattle doughnut presence Top Pot was born on Capitol Hill and celebrated 20 years at its Summit cafe in 2022. Mighty-O filled in the vegan category with its Capitol Hill store at 12th and Madison in 2015 though it has never really been able to put the former pie bakery to full power after condo residents in the building reportedly raised a fuss about the ovens. A glossier vegan option emerged on upper E Pike with the 2022 debut of small chain Dough Joy. For upscale, filled-doughnuts, there is General Porpoise’s first shop which opened on E Union in 2015. For craft doughnuts, head to 23rd and Union where Raised Doughnuts moved into a lovely new space in the new Midtown Square development in 2022. There are also lots of smaller options like the surprise Polish paczki at First Hill’s George’s Delicatessen which marked 45 years of business on Madison last year. And the circle comes round on E Pine where Top Pot co-founder Michael Klebeck got back to his small-batch roots with Half and Half Doughnut Co. in October 2019.

Voodoo Doughnuts, meanwhile, has grown in its 20 years of business with shops across nine states including its four Oregon locations. The growth has also brought efforts to organize. Doughnut Workers United formed to represent Voodoo employees at its downtown Portland store.

Construction on the Capitol Hill Voodoo has mostly been complete and the corner of Pine and Minor has been painted “Voodoo pink” for months but the first Seattle foray for the Portland-base doughnut giant had to be put on hold. City permit records showed some extra construction work involving a ramp and a demising wall being partly to blame.

Next week, the real 24×7 doughnut work begins.

Voodoo Doughnuts opens soon at 1201 Pine. Keep track of updates at voodoodoughnut.com.

HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.