Tim Agne/KJZZ

The selection of doughnuts at the grand opening of Voodoo Doughnuts in Tempe on Sept. 7, 2023.

Voodoo Doughnut officially opened their first location Arizona location in Tempe on Thursday. That’s the iconic Portland doughnut shop where you can get anything from the Oh Captain, My Captain — covered in Cap’n Crunch — to Voodoo’s Bacon Maple Bar covered in actual bacon. And of course there’s the Voodoo Doll doughnut and the School Daze PB&J.

This irreverent brand of fancy donuts should only add to what could become a burgeoning donut scene here in the Valley, according to chef Michael Babcock.

Babcock is a longtime player in the local culinary scene, one of the people behind spots like Belly and Welcome Diner. In 2014, he opened one of the first gourmet doughnut shops in the Valley: Welcome Chicken + Donuts, a Korean fried chicken and doughnut shop in south Phoenix that closed during the pandemic.

The Show spoke with him more about doughnut nostalgia, the challenges of opening a shop and some of his favorite spots to grab a maple bar.

Tim Agne/KJZZ

Chef Michael Babcock in the KJZZ studio in 2023.

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