Top Pot Doughnuts is a chain of coffee and doughnut cafes started in the

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

neighborhood of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. Top Pot began in February 2002 and was started by brothers Mark and Michael Klebeck.

Locations

, Top Pot has 18 cafe locations throughout the

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

region, and three in Texas, though they are only made at their downtown Seattle and Bellevue locations and shipped to other locations in the region by truck. Their recipe is used for the doughnuts sold in more than 7,000

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

stores in the U.S. and Canada and also for doughnuts sold by Seattle-area grocer QFC. Top Pot Doughnuts are the official doughnut at

Lumen Field Lumen Field is a multi-purpose stadium in Seattle, Washington, United States. Located in the city's SoDo neighborhood, it is the home field for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL), the Seattle Sea Dragons of the XFL, the ...

, home of the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

and

Seattle Sounders Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's association football, soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club w ...

. In 2011, Top Pot became the official doughnut and coffee of the

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

team

Washington Stealth The Washington Stealth were a member of the National Lacrosse League, the professional box lacrosse league of North America from the 2010 NLL season through the 2013 NLL season. They were based in Everett (part of the Seattle metropolitan are ...

. Starting in 2011, Top Pot Doughnuts expanded their offerings to grocery stores in Washington, Oregon, and California, including regional chain QFC.

Founding

The name "Top Pot" came from a vintage neon sign that was above a boarded-up Chinese restaurant called "Topspot". The co-founders bought the sign and while transporting it, the "S" fell off. Co-owner Mark suggested that they replace it with a coffee pot. Top Pot Doughnuts roast their own coffee at the 5th Ave location in Seattle

Patrons

When U.S. president

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

visited Seattle in October 2010, he and Senator

Patty Murray Patricia Lynn Murray (; born October 11, 1950) is an American politician and educator who is the senior United States senator from Washington since 1993. A member of the Democratic Party, Murray was in the Washington State Senate from 1988 to ...

stopped for doughnuts at the Top Pot on 5th Avenue in the Belltown/

Denny Regrade The Denny Triangle is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, United States, that stretches north of the central business district to the grounds of Seattle Center. Its generally flat terrain was originally a steep hill, taken down as part of a ...

neighborhood. In January 2011, Seattle mayor

Mike McGinn Michael McGinn (born December 17, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician. He served as mayor of the city of Seattle, Washington, and is a neighborhood activist and a former State Chair of the Sierra Club. In what was characterized as a "s ...

bet (among various items) a dozen Top Pot maple bars with New Orleans mayor

Mitch Landrieu Mitchell Joseph Landrieu ( ; born August 16, 1960) is an American lawyer and politician who served as Mayor of New Orleans from 2010 to 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana from 2004 to ...

over the NFL NFC Wild card game.

In media

Television

*''Donut Paradise'',

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...

Books

References

External links

* {{coord, 47, 37, 29, N, 122, 19, 32, W, format=dms, display=title, type:landmark_region:US-WA 2002 establishments in Washington (state) Bakery cafés Doughnut shops in the United States Coffeehouses and cafés in the United States Coffee in Seattle Restaurants established in 2002 Restaurants in Seattle Companies based in Seattle