Tuesday, October 4, 2022

One Potato, Two Potato (UPDATED!)

While we have known a food concept was coming to the former Urban Grill space at 1132 West Wilson for a little while, we had no idea it was DONUTS

Downstate Donuts (Facebook)


UPDATED October 5, 2022:

We reached out to the company and they can't wait to open in Uptown. No firm opening date yet as they do the build-out of the space, but we'll keep you informed.

Here's what they say: "The new retail location will have even more specialty donut flavors, serve Vietnamese coffee, and may partner with other independent vendors to sell their specialty items as well. 

Our famous "trikes" (donut tricycles) will be out serving other neighborhoods and available for event rental.  Those interested in booking for the holidays can reach out now to dsdevents@downstatedonuts.com.

As a black-owned business, we look forward to working with non profits in the city such as the local Chamber of Commerce, Inspiration Corporation, and Farmers Markets to bring jobs and smiles to Chicago."

ORIGINAL POST:

More donuts? Ohh, our wallets and waistlines!

Owner Virgil Roundtree announced earlier today that he is opening a brick and mortar version of his popular pop-up Downstate Donuts at the corner of Wilson and Clifton. And what's cool is that the donuts in question are potato donuts

Born in Chicago, with a detour to Memphis and back to Chicago, Roundtree holds several degrees and considered law school, but found himself drawn to the culinary world. After starting a couple of food adjacent companies, Roundtree started experimenting with cooking food himself in 2017 and moved full time to making donuts in 2018. Just four months after starting making donuts, Downstate won first prize at Donutfest with his "simple" vanilla glazed donut, and has gone on to a lot of success since, including multiple pop-ups at local events (with the "Donut Trike"), as well as in store sales at local markets like Foxtrot and Andale. 

We miss the amazing couples who were behind Urban Grill (a huge loss for the community) and Uptown Donuts (before the owners moved to Texas). We are thrilled to see a great business take over in their former space, as Downstate is in an ideal location just across from Truman College and steps from the Wilson L station.

With this and Stan's Donuts within a city block, Uptown just became a great place to calorie splurge after your workout at JT Training Studio, set to open soon at 1124 W. Wilson.

We wish Virgil and his team much success!

No comments:

Post a Comment