Here is the bad news. You live in a neighborhood where a craft old-fashioned doughnut costs $2.75. The good news? It might be the best old fashioned you’ve ever had.

Also, you should eat fewer doughnuts anyhow.

Half and Half Doughnut Co. — from the man who helped grow Top Pot from Summit Ave to the largest scale doughnut operation in the city — is now open on E Pike with a case full of filled old-fashioneds, fritters, and a craft take on the overlooked but now risen to new heights doughnut holes — here called bomba or bombs.

After a quiet weekend start, expect a busy Tuesday morning in the new shop.

(Image: Half and Half Doughnut Co. ) (Image: Half and Half Doughnut Co. ) (Image: Half and Half Doughnut Co. ) (Image: Half and Half Doughnut Co.) (Image: Half and Half Doughnut Co.) (Image: Half and Half Doughnut Co. ) (Image: Half and Half Doughnut Co.) (Image: CHS)

CHS reported on the plan this summer for entrepreneur Michael Klebeck to get back into the small batch fried dough game in the building where his Sun Liquor Distillery was located before moving off the Hill. Klebeck and his brother Mark launched a doughnut empire in February 2002 in “a small brick storefront on north Capitol Hill in Seattle.” You know it as the Top Pot shop at 609 Summit Ave E.

Half and Half is unrelated to the Top Pot company, the folks behind it are quick to point out, and is hoped to raise the bar for Capitol Hill’s doughnut efforts including the original Top Pot, Mighty-O at 12th and Madison, Renee Erickson’s cream-filled luxury doughnuts at General Porpoise, and, in the Central District, small batch Raised Doughnuts on 23rd Ave.

As you would expect with a name like Half and Half, coffee is an important part of the recipe. The espresso is also getting the craft treatment with “locally-built, hand pull espresso machines.”

Doughnut choices on the “fall menu” include vanilla, chocolate, chai tea, mexican hot chocolate, or churr old fashioneds, Cherry Bombs and Banana Fosters in the hole department, and, yes, pineapple fritters. On Sundays, you can get your pineapple fritter with bacon. Have a nice nap.

Baked goods including scones and biscuits, breakfast sandwiches, and sous vide eggs round out the breakfast-y menu offerings.

Half and Half Doughnut Co. is located at 516 E Pike. Hours are 6 AM to 2 PM daily. You can learn more — and order online, soon – at halfandhalfdoughnuts.com.

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