Blue Star Donuts is a small chain of donut stores with four locations in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. Blue star manufactures their donuts in central facility in Portland and distribute them to various locations instead of locating a fryer in each store.

History

Blue Star opened its first location in 2012. It launched a CBD-infused donut in 2019. It went under a major downsizing in June 2020. It declared

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

bankruptcy in August 2020, but was reorganized and emerged from protection in December 2020. All locations were temporarily closed in 2020 because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, and began selling "limited edition" products in grocery stores. American chef

Andrew Zimmern Andrew Scott Zimmern (born July 4, 1961) is an American chef, restaurateur, television and radio personality, director, producer, businessman, food critic, and author. Zimmern is the co-creator, host, and consulting producer of the Travel Channe ...

visited for an episode of the

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, who previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in Manhattan, with ...

series '' The Zimmern List''. It did have a presence in Los Angeles from 2015 until abrupt closure in July 2024. In January 2025, it again abruptly closed two additional locations in Portland, Oregon.

Reception

In 2024, Richard Foss of ''

Easy Reader The ''Easy Reader'' is a weekly newspaper founded in 1970 and published every Thursday, being delivered to homes in Hermosa Beach, California, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, California, Manhattan Beach, and Redondo Beach, California, Redondo B ...

'' wrote "Their doughnuts were very pretty, very expensive, and not that good." In 2018, a group of staff writers from ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the West Coast of the United States, U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Tho ...

'' scored Blue Star 4.29 out of 10 whose donuts were priced at over $3.50 at the time. Blue Star was a runner-up in the Best Donut category of ''

Willamette Week ''Willamette Week'' (''WW'') is an alternative weekly newspaper and a website published in Portland, Oregon, United States, since 1974. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business, and culture. History Early history '' ...

'' annual 'Best of Portland' readers' poll in 2022 and 2024.

References

External links

* * Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 Doughnut shops in the United States Restaurant chains in the United States Restaurants in Los Angeles Restaurants in Portland, Oregon Restaurants in Tokyo {{Oregon-stub