Legendary Doughnuts plans 2 more bakeries in cities that could use them

Five bakeries in six years. That’s the speed-of-light growth, at least by restaurant standards, for Legendary Doughnuts, a bakery that first opened in 2010 in the Lakeland Hills community near Lake Tapps.

The second store opened in 2012 in Tacoma’s Sixth Avenue neighborhood. Store three came to Covington in 2014.

Now two more Legendary Doughnuts will open in a matter of months.

Store four will be in Federal Way, with an anticipated opening this month.

Store five will come to the Pierce County community of Frederickson around the end of June.

The Frederickson location will be in the Canyon Crossing shopping center where several local restaurants already have spawned duplicates. There’s Farrelli’s, a local pizza chain, and Ayothaya, a second location for the South Hill Thai restaurant.

The Legendary Doughnuts in Frederickson and Federal Way will be similar in scope and size to the Lakeland Hills location, said Shannon Patten, who operates the bakeries with her husband, Ken Patten.

Shannon and Ken still maintain day jobs in addition to their doughnut bakery. Shannon is a representative for a European cheese company. Ken’s profession is one known for its affinity for doughnuts — he’s a police officer in Sumner.

Legendary Doughnuts is like the soccer mom’s response to Voodoo Doughnuts, the boundary-pushing Portland bakery. Like Voodoo, Legendary gives hat tips to fun and flavorful combinations. Sometimes breakfast cereal or gummy worms are used as toppers. Shannon Patten is known for her Girl Scouts cookie-themed doughnuts.

There are famous people nods with doughnuts named after Oprah (a maple bacon bar), Albert Einstein (a raised doughnut with a fluffy coconut topper) and Pete Carroll (cake doughnut with bubblegum and blue-and-green swirls of frosting).

There are doughnuts fashioned after hot drinks (mocha espresso and hot cocoa) and assertive flavor combinations (lemon coconut, blueberry-lemon, maple-bacon).

Possibly Patten’s most famous invention is the doughsant, a delicious take on the trendy cronut (that’s a merge of a croissant and a doughnut). Patten’s doughsants come in caramel sea salt, lemon cream, peanut caramel, Irish cream mocha, maple bacon and peppermint chocolate, among others.

Skeptical doughnut purists, don’t worry. The basics are also covered at Legendary Doughnuts with plain glazed, old-fashioneds, maple bars and other classics.

Like its sister bakeries, the new stores will serve coffee.

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Legendary Doughnuts plans 2 more bakeries in cities that could use them."