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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Coming attraction

Dallas hospitality pros team up for new restaurant in Inwood Village

Rendering courtesy of

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Dallas restaurateur Bob Sambol, who brought Bob's Steak & Chop House to the city in the 1990s, is partnering with a prolific Dallas hospitality group to open an intimate new eatery called Charlie’s in Inwood Village.

Planned for spring or summer of 2027, Charlie's - a partnership between Sambol and Vandelay Companies - will take over the space at 5450 W. Lovers Ln. #225 formerly occupied by longtime Dallas favorite Adelmo's.

The restaurant will be small, with about 30 tables, and will serve dinner only. It will also take reservations the old-fashioned way: by landline phone in the restaurant.

Specifics about the menu, chef, and exact opening timeline will be announced closer to the restaurant's debut. But a rendering included with the press release shows a white brick exterior with black shutters, and text beneath the restaurant name that suggests the involvement of "steak," "chop," and "seafood."

Sambol describes Charlie's as "low-key" and "quietly sophisticated," with a "warm palette" and calls this a "very personal" project, which will be built in the spirit of small East Coast neighborhood dining rooms of the past, such as a place his father once owned called The Continental in New Jersey.

“After 30 years, I wanted to create something that feels humble and familiar with great hospitality, a beautiful room, people you know and a restaurant you want to return to again and again," Sambol says in the release. "Nothing overly complicated. Just a really special place for the neighborhood.”

Charlie's restaurant owners Vandalay Companies' Hunter Pond and Rick Dunlap flank Bob Sambol.Photo by Samantha Marie Photography

Sambol says he's had a longtime friendship with the Vandelay Companies' Hunter Pond and Rick Dunlap, whose restaurants include Hudson House, Anchor Sushi, Drake’s, and a variety of other brands. He says he’s watched the restaurant development investors grow up and make a name for themselves in Dallas hospitality.

“I’ve known Hunter and Rick since they were in grade school, and seeing what they have built is truly remarkable. It’s a surreal moment to partner with them on such a personal project” Sambol says.

Pond calls the partnership with Sambol a "fun and unique project ... that no one in Dallas has done in quite some time."

Charlie’s will be "deliberately different" from many of the big city's large-scale "highly produced" restaurants, the owners say, adding that it "will embrace an understated, old-school elegance."

“Charlie’s isn’t about trying to make the biggest restaurant or the loudest statement. It’s about creating a timeless one," Pond says. "That restraint is what makes the project so exciting to us.”

As for Charlie's predecessor at the coveted Inwood Village address, Adelmo's — known for its Italian food "with accents" of French and Mediterranean — occupied the space for 10 years before closing in December 2025 and reopening this year in the Preston Valley Shopping Center, at the southwest corner of Preston Road.

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