October 15, 2023
SOURCE/DOTTIE'S DONUTS
Dottie's Donuts will open a new location of its gourmet donut shop on Frankford Avenue in Fishtown in November. The store will be the vegan donut maker's fourth in Philadelphia.
Dottie's Donuts is coming to Fishtown. The vegan doughnut shop is planning to open a new location on Frankford Avenue sometime during the first half of November, its owner said.
Dottie's started in 2014, when owners Jeff Poleon and Matt Quinn opened their first retro-style, brick-and-mortar doughnut shop near 45th Street and Chester Avenue in the Spruce Hill neighborhood of West Philly. They use non-dairy ingredients like coconut milk, egg alternatives and palm oil to craft a menu of all-vegan doughnuts in a variety of unique flavors. Each Dottie's location offers an ever-evolving daily menu of about 12 items, about half of which change from day to day.
The duo teamed up to start making doughnuts after working together at Blackbird Pizzeria, a beloved vegan eatery that ultimately shut down last year after nearly a decade in business. By then, Poleon and Quinn were already well into their indie doughnut-making career with locations in Queen Village, Wissahickon and the original Dottie's in Southwest Philly. Now, they're getting ready to open their doors of their fourth location.
The Dottie's team is putting the finishing touches on its new storefront at 1764 Frankford Ave. in anticipation of its grand opening next month. Dottie's new store was formerly the site of a bakery and coffee shop called Beehive that closed for good in September after two years in business. While Dottie's has not yet set an exact opening date, Poleon said that they expect to be open by mid-November once the new coffee and espresso machines they ordered arrive and are set up.
Poleon and Quinn have been considering expanding their business to Fishtown for a few years, periodically looking at retail spaces in the neighborhood to see if they would be worthy of housing the next Dottie's location. Nothing stuck, until recently.
"When Elizabeth made the decision to shut down Beehive we went and checked it out and it was too nice of a space to pass up," Poleon said. "We couldn’t be happier with the space and can’t wait to open."
Dottie's Donuts will land in Fishtown in the midst of a bit of a boom in small businesses specializing in baked goods and desserts. Last November, Bagels and Co. became the third bagel shop to open in Fishtown in the last few years, joining Kismet Bagels on Girard Avenue and Philly Style Bagels, which was named one of Food & Wine's top 50 bagel shops in the United States in 2021.
There has also been a recent proliferation of places to get frozen treats in Fishtown. In January, Brooklyn-based ice cream shop Van Leeuwen opened a new location on Frankford Ave., joining Jenni's, Weckerly's and the newly-but-unofficially opened 1-900-ICE CREAM in the neighborhood's apparent ice cream boom.
Doughnut shops, on the other hand, have yet to have their own such renaissance moment in Fishtown. Hello Donuts, an offshoot of Reanimator Coffee, set up shop at Frankford Avenue and Amber Street in East Kensington in 2018. Other than that, Dottie's will be the only independent doughnut shop – at least for now.
