Nightlife icon’s doughnut venture is Tres times the fun

By Jill Spitznass

The Portland Tribune, Jul 1, 2005, Updated Oct 30, 2009

With the smash success of his downtown doughnut shop, things have come full circle for Tres (pronounced “trace”) Shannon, co-owner of Voodoo Doughnut and co-founder of the legendary X-Ray Cafe, the all-ages club that shook up Portland in the early ’90s.

Host to such notable bands as Big Daddy Meat Straw and Completely Grocery, the X-Ray Cafe was just around the corner from where Voodoo Doughnut is now.

Businessman, performer and one-time mayoral candidate, the flamboyantly charismatic Shannon also has established himself as the city’s ambassador of late-night fun.

“We need to stop being the City That Works and start being the City That Works and Then Takes a Nap,” says Shannon, 38, who booked such bands as the Smashing Pumpkins at Berbati’s Pan between his X-Ray and Voodoo days.

Eating a few more doughnuts wouldn’t hurt, either.

“I’ve always wanted to have a doughnut shop,” says Shannon, who opened Voodoo Doughnut two years ago with Kenneth “Cat Daddy” Pogson at 22 S.W. Third Ave. (in the same building as Berbati’s Pan). “I was going to call it Every Picture Tells a Story Doughnut and have pictures of Rod Stewart everywhere, but then I changed my mind.”

Shannon, who’s wearing a clashing print shirt and pants, pink corduroy slippers and a straw hat, admits that the original plan for Voodoo Doughnut was half-baked.

“We kind of came at this place backwards. We had the concept, and then we needed to learn to make the product,” he says. “That’s why we went to doughnut camp in L.A.”

Doughnut camp?

“Yeah. We took lessons at a few places and then drove around at the end of the day giving away all the doughnuts we’d made. We gave one to Brad Pitt.”

Barhoppers stop here

Generally open from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. every day except Sunday, Voodoo’s nocturnal hours simply make sense, Shannon says.

“The action is there,” he says, referring to the hungry patrons of neighboring clubs and bars. “Sometimes there are more people in Voodoo than in Dante’s or Berbati’s. And we’ve gotta be there to make doughnuts anyway; we might as well be open.”

Shannon typically puts in three night shifts a week and calls doughnut-making “the hardest work I’ve ever done; they’re all cut by hand.” He knew that Voodoo would be a hit.

“I knew it would be a slam-dunk, but not like this,” he says. “I totally misread people’s fanaticism for doughnuts.”

Shannon and Pogson also didn’t anticipate the world’s fanatical response to their products. The BBC, Playboy magazine and Jay Leno Ñ who touted Voodoo’s caffeinated doughnut on his show Ñ have all weighed in on the little bakery with the big attitude.

And while the Federal Drug Administration has shut down the making of Nyquil and Pepto-Bismol doughnuts (“Something about not serving drugs in food É,” Shannon says), the giant apple fritter, buttermilk bar (“We call it ‘a little loaf of happiness’ for a reason”) and Portland Creme continue to be big favorites.

Shannon, who moved to Portland from Colorado in 1984, has big plans for the last.

“I want to make it the official doughnut of Portland,” he says. “We’ll give Boston the cream pie title, but we get the doughnut.”

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