Designer Doughnuts in the North

Doughnut fever spreads to McKinney with new Voodoo-style shop

Designer doughnuts are on the menu at the Donut Kitchen in McKinney.

Photo courtesy of Donut Kitchen

We have designer doughnuts in the south (well, Deep Ellum) via Glazed Donut Works. We have designer doughnuts to the east via Hypnotic Donuts. Now there are designer doughnuts in the north, thanks to The Donut Kitchen, newly opened in McKinney.

This mom-and-pop shop in McKinney's Stonebridge Ranch serves breakfast, lunch, coffee and, best of all, gourmet doughnuts in the "extreme" style first popularized by Voodoo Doughnut (who know how to spell the word!) in Portland, Oregon.

The Donut Kitchen features 14 flavors every day, including a dozen standard and two that rotate. Though less extreme than Voodoo — no sour gummies, at least not yet — Donut Kitchen still features unusual flavors and toppings.

Texas sheet cake is a chocolate doughnut with chocolate frosting and chopped walnuts. There's a doughnut with strawberry glaze, raspberries, pecans and chocolate chips; a chocolate doughnut with crumbled Oreos; a chocolate doughnut with mint icing and chocolate chips; and a chocolate peanut butter doughnut topped with Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal and a drizzle of raspberry.

The Donut Kitchen comes from Michael and Leslie Davis, 14-year residents of McKinney and doughnut fans who wanted to bring gourmet goods to their town. Leslie is a former hairdresser, and Michael is a contractor.

"Michael loves doughnuts, and we didn't want to have to drive to Hypnotic every time we wanted to get something different," Leslie says. "It seems like most doughnuts all taste the same way."

Once they began experimenting with flavors and icing, they got hooked. They do cake doughnuts only, no yeast/raised, and they use two flavor bases: regular and chocolate. The variations come from all the toppings and icings, which they make themselves.

"We've been keeping it small because we wanted to get it right," Leslie says. "We were hoping to bring in a red velvet doughnut, but we've been overwhelmed with business since we opened."

There are mini doughnuts, rolled in cinnamon or powdered sugar. There are breakfast sandwiches, kolaches and blueberry strudel. There are also soups such as butternut squash and sandwiches such as grilled cheese.

"We found a great location on the west side of McKinney, and it had more space, so that allowed us to do lunch, as well, with soups, salads and sandwiches," she says. "The west side of McKinney needs it. It's a lot of bigger chains.

"We wanted a place where families can come and sit and eat together. We already have regulars who come in once or twice a week."

All we need now is a gourmet shop for the west. Fort Worth, we're looking at you.

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Pizza News

Yonx Pizza seduces north Dallas suburbs with New York-style pies

Yonx

Yonx Pizza, by the slice.

A pizzeria with a dedicated following has debuted in Melissa: Yonx Pizza Bar & Co., an indie spot that does New York-style pizzas as well as pizza by the slice, has opened a location at 1521 McKinney St. #700 — an address that had pizza history as it was home for nearly a decade to a Palio's Pizza, which closed in 2025.

Yonx is from Robert Hede, a restaurant veteran who was previously involved with the Village Burger Bar chain, where he was a partner. He switched from burgers to pizza in 2022 when he connected with NY Pizza and Pints, a small local pizzeria chain, opening a location in Wylie at 1125 FM 544 #800. After two years, he broke off from the chain to found Yonx at the same address.

Yonx does the kind of New York-style thin-crust pizza that Dallas-Fort Worth loves, in a standard 14-inch, as well as a massive 24-inch "Kong" size. They also do slices, which can be ordered as a lunch with a Caesar salad for $9.99.

Varieties include familiar favorites like pepperoni, as well as slightly gourmet options with New York-inspired names such as:

Balsamic on Bleeker St., with garlic sauce, mushrooms, shaved ribeye, mozzarella cheese, arugula, and balsamic drizzle
Bronx Bomb, with Sicilian marinara, mozzarella, meatballs, mushrooms, and ricotta cheese
Brooklyn, basically a meat-lovers with Sicilian marinara, mozzarella, sliced ham, chopped meatball, beef, & pepperoni
Greenwich Garden, a vegetarian with Sicilian marinara, mozzarella, red & green bell peppers, white onions, mushrooms, spinach, & black olives

Prices range from $16 for a 14-inch cheese pizza to $46 for a NY Giant Supreme Soho with Sicilian marinara, mozzarella, pepperoni, sausage, beef, red & green bell peppers, white onions, sliced mushrooms, & black olives.

Yonx Pizza soup in a bread bowl.Photo courtesy of Yonx

There are also sandwiches on house-made toasted focaccia such as the Italian tower with melted provolone cheese, sliced ham, salami, lettuce, red onion, pepperoncinis, & sundried tomato aioli.

Appetizers include comforting soups served in a bread bowl including tomato basil and jalapeno cream soup with charred jalapenos. Plus wings, garlic knots, and "Brooklyn Ballers" — their signature meatballs in marinara, made in-house. topped with whipped ricotta and Parmesan, served with pesto and focaccia ends.

A full bar features frozen margaritas and frozen mojitos made with agave gold tequila. The best day to order those is "Frozen Fridays" from 11 am-10:30 pm when the blueberry mojitos are $6 and the margaritas are $5.

The Melissa location opened in January, with the same menu as the Wylie original, and has been met with an unprecedented wave of positive reviews on Facebook: one comment after another raving over how great the pizza is, and what a godsend it is — positive reviews that began to stack up even before the place had officially opened, the likes of which have been rarely seen.

This location boasts almost double the size of the original in Wylie, with a covered patio where they'll host live music on the weekends outside.

Hede, who has been hands-on at the Melissa location since it opened, says he's all-in on these northernmost suburbs of Dallas.

"I like this area — I feel like all the growth is heading out in this direction, there's just a lot of activity up here," he says.

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