page_title: Voodoo Doughnut
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Voodoo Doughnut / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Voodoo Doughnut - an independent doughnut shop based in Portland, Oregon USA. If used elsewhere, please attribute me as original photographer. -- User:Andrew Parodi 01:31, 29 June 2007 (UTC)
context_page_description: Voodoo Doughnut is an American doughnut company based in Portland, Oregon. It is known for its eclectic decor and pink boxes featuring the company logo with illustrations of voodoo priests. Voodoo Doughnut operates two retail shops in Portland, two shops in Denver, and shops in Eugene, Oregon, Austin, Houston, Universal City, California, and Orlando.
context_section_description: Voodoo Doughnut was founded in 2003 by Kenneth “Cat Daddy” Pogson and Richard "Tres" Shannon III. The company’s logo features a version of Baron Samedi, Voodoo Loa of the dead. 
  In 2008, the mayor of Portland, Tom Potter, declared Voodoo's Portland Cream Doughnut the “Official City Doughnut.”
  The original location closed between April to June 2011 for remodeling after acquiring the space next door to the south formerly occupied by Berbati's Pan nightclub. Much of the expansion was for the kitchen and customer area was not increased by much.
  Voodoo constructed an enlarged version of its signature pink box, which was filled with 3,880 doughnuts weighing 666 pounds, for the Portland Bridge Festival, in August 2011, dubbed by Portland's mayor as the "world’s biggest box of doughnuts”, which was later confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records.
  Also in 2011, Voodoo partnered with Rogue Ales to manufacture its most popular doughnut flavors as bottled beer, including Bacon Maple Ale and Chocolate, Peanut Butter, & Banana Ale, the latter being from its Memphis Mafia doughnut, and a tribute to Elvis Presley. That year, the Los Angeles Times referenced Voodoo is an international tourist attraction.
  In May 2010, the company opened its first location outside of Portland on East Broadway in Eugene, Oregon.
  In December 2013, the company opened its first location outside of Oregon on Colfax Avenue in Denver on Friday the 13th.
  In October 2015, the company opened its first location in the state of Texas on Sixth Street in Austin on October 31st. 
  In March 2017, the company opened its first location in California at Universal CityWalk Hollywood.
  In April 2017, the company suspended it's doughnut eating challenge. This came after Travis Malouff, 42, died from "asphyxia, due to obstruction of the airway" while competing in the challenge at the Colfax Avenue location in Denver.
  In May 2018, the company opened its first location on the East Coast of the United States in Orlando at Universal CityWalk Orlando
  In June 2019, the company opened its second location in Denver on South Broadway on Father's Day. 
  In January 2020, the company opened its first Houston location in the Heights neighborhood on Washington Ave. on January 15. 
  As part of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company received between $1 million and $2 million in federally backed small business loan from First Interstate Bank as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. The company stated it would allow them to retain 331 jobs.
  In 2020, also during the pandemic, workers at the downtown location  unionized, forming the Doughnut Workers United (DWU), which is affiliated with the Portland chapter of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
caption: The former exterior of the flagship location in Portland
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