Voodoo Doughnut chose Tacoma. What does it say about viability of local brands?

Is Voodoo Doughnut a bad actor for picking Sixth Ave?

As news traveled that the drenched-in-pink Portland chain, which purports to be the first shop to have put bacon on a maple bar, would open a Tacoma shop at 2702 6th Ave., expanding its Washington state presence outside of Vancouver and Seattle, so did the opinions.

Commenters on The News Tribune’s story and the Instagram post from Puget Sound Business Journal, which first reported the new location, duly noted that Legendary Doughnuts was literally one block away, on the same side of the street. Permits filed in 2025 revealed that a doughnut shop (an “oasis,” to be precise) was likely to arrive at the old Emerald Leaves space, but as my colleague Debbie Cockrell reported, Voodoo was particularly cryptic in its public documents; she was only able to confirm Tacoma plans through a trusted source.

In an email last year, Legendary co-owner Shannon Patten said she was disconcerted by the geographic choice — even before knowing who was behind it. On Monday, she confirmed knowledge of the Voodoo news. “There is no doubt it will have an impact on us and our employees,” she said in an email.

Patten started Legendary more than 15 years ago with her husband Ken, growing the company to seven stores in Pierce and King counties. As a counter-example, she said they had declined a “cool looking building” near Happy Donuts in Puyallup, believing that landing across the street from another reputable small shop “would not benefit either of us.”

While they have “always had great respect for them [Voodoo] as business owners and how well they have done, especially knowing the hard work involved,” she feels the Tacoma address was “in poor taste.”

I don’t think it much matters whether another doughnut shop on Sixth Ave is from an upstart brand or one of the biggest names in modern American fried-dough lore, but it’s the latter pedestal that has Tacomans asking an inevitable question: Couldn’t Voodoo have picked another neighborhood?

Similar thoughts percolated after Katsu Burger, a popular Japanese fusion chain based in Seattle, announced it would move into the former Redd Dog taproom, also on Sixth Ave. “How dare Katsu Burger open on the same street as Burger Seoul!” That proprietor, who is something of a local celebrity, indeed spent a lot of time and money on his first brick-and-mortar, following years of amassing a loyal fan base from a food truck outside a convenience store. But the two fast-casual restaurants are the same only in that they sell food between buns: One is inspired by Japanese katsu, the other by Korean bulgogi. On an Instagram post I shared on TNT Diner, at least one local also argued that a chain automatically has more capital, and such capital has no right to try to usurp an independent business. I spoke with the owner/operator of Katsu Burger’s new Tacoma store, and he’s a guy with a family who lives in Puyallup.

Katsu Burger, like Legendary, is a big fish in a small sea compared to Voodoo, which now has more than two dozen stores in nine states and will soon debut in New York City’s Union Square. The interest of a company like Voodoo in a city like Tacoma poses a more existential question:

As this midsized city attempts to not only stay relevant but welcoming, intriguing but livable, cool but not annoyingly so, is it yielding essential ground to outside forces that can afford to do it no matter what tax or ask might come down from above? See Tacoma Mall’s major new food tenants of Dave’s Hot Chicken, Shake Shack, Kura Revolving Sushi and more as additional fodder. What does it say about Tacoma as an entity, and about the people who live here (by history, by job or by other choice), that chains, even regional ones, see us as a “viable opportunity”?

Should Voodoo be elsewhere in Tacoma?

A destination of Voodoo’s caliber has the star-power to change the tide of a languishing stretch of urban roadway.

One local posited that South Tacoma Way, with a business district that looks wildly different today than it did just five years ago, anchored by a few bars and, since 2023, the great Howdy Bagel, would be a better fit than Sixth Ave. I would counter with downtown, which, despite some upgrades (Jin Jin Matcha, Third Space, Cider & Cedar, among them) and incoming ones including Cove’s Cookies, a bigger Wooden City and maybe some day a Flatstick Pub and Kelly’s Olympian, could use a food business that draws lines daily.

If Voodoo really wanted to shake things up for Tacoma, it could have found some cheaper real estate in the languishing South End, my own neighborhood that even retail behemoths, Walgreens and Fred Meyer, decided was a dead-end. Will any business pretty-please take a chance on 5415 Pacific Ave., where a 1,800-square-foot building, last home to a Taqueria El Rinconsito, boasts a nice-sized parking lot and easy access to Interstate 5?

Then again, if Voodoo had instead decided to invest in that space, which is falling into disrepair as it remains boarded up, I can hear the voices (at least masked in comment sections of Instagram posts and Reddit threads) crying foul about the proximity to Connie’s Donuts one mile north and Helen’s Donuts one mile west. They are two of many old-school shops in the area owned and operated by the families of Cambodian refugees. Just think of the outrage if Voodoo had ended up in the West End, near the shop most often cited as the local favorite: Pao’s.

Those icons, including my 2023 champion Dockside Donuts on Puyallup Avenue, make great doughnuts. Voodoo sells something different.

Yes, you can get a chocolate cake or an old-fashioned, a regular maple bar or an apple fritter, but Voodoo is known for its unexpected and sometimes suggestive stuff: shapes like a voodoo doll and a blunt, flavors like churro cheesecake, names like Old Dirty Bastard (peanut butter, chocolate and Oreos). Voodoo also bakes an array of vegan options.

The company, established in 2003 by Portland musicians Kenneth Pogson and Tres Shannon, is generally credited as being the catalyst of the “gourmet” doughnut trend.

The Pattens opened their first Legendary shop in Auburn, near the couple’s home, in 2010; the Tacoma outpost followed in 2012. They also make classic and over-the-top fried doughs, including lots of stuffed flavors like Twix and tiramisu, plus the viral “doughssants.” Whether you like their doughnuts or not, theirs is a small-business success story. Starting a bakery from scratch, in the throes of a recession, that has lasted 15 years and counting and expanded all the while is no small feat.

It’s very common for businesses of the same type to end up on the same street, a concept explained in this Ted Education talk through game theory and the Nash Equilibrium: While customers might prefer a doughnut shop in every neighborhood, and not two in the same, customers aren’t sedentary, and “at the heart of their strategy, companies like to keep their competition as close as possible.”

Should Legendary be worried? Honestly, yes — and I haven’t even tried Voodoo’s doughnuts, but I knew their name just from being involved in the food world, on the other side of the country, dating almost back to the brand’s inception. The old-school shops exist in another sphere; everyone has their favorite, and it’s usually whichever is closest to their house.

I don’t think Voodoo picked the former Emerald Leaves site because it was close to Legendary because I don’t think Voodoo cares. I think it was just the right-sized, right-priced space in the right neighborhood for a brand that got its start on Portland’s Skid Row. Outside sprawling, car-centric cities like Houston and Tempe, Arizona, it has taken to older, urban storefronts. You could say it’s their vibe. Tacoma only has so many of those to go around. One forthcoming food-business owner told me their real estate agent cited less than 1% vacancy on feasible, leasable units — and that’s not even considering style of building, location or cost.

What worries me more is what having a Voodoo means for the city and its food scene.

Many small restaurants, bars, cafes and bakeries have said they are just trying to keep their heads above water. In a volatile era, consumers are limiting discretionary spending, and Tacoma doesn’t benefit from the same tourism traffic as our bigger sisters to the north (Seattle) and south (Portland). Yet the cost of doing business here often matches and sometimes exceeds nearby markets. There are, of course, outliers, but generally speaking, Tacoma is not a city of lines outside bakeries and long waits at restaurants.

Are we cool now, or are we just a business opportunity? I hope one can complement the other.

Reporter’s Note, 4/6/2026, 11 a.m.: This story has been updated with comment from Legendary Doughnuts.

This story was originally published April 6, 2026 at 5:00 AM.