A Queer-Owned Vegan Doughnut Truck Is Coming to Seattle

This May, Dough Joy—a queer-owned vegan doughnut truck—will make its debut in Ballard, WA, right outside of Seattle. Co-founded by Sean Willis and Christopher Ballard, Dough Joy will offer yeast-raised doughnuts in flavors such as The Basic B (a vegan take on the traditional glazed doughnut); Petal to the Metal (a rose-flavored doughnut featuring pink marble icing); The Faconator (a maple-iced doughnut topped with smoky coconut bacon); PB & HEYYY (a peanut butter and jelly-inspired doughnut made with peanut butter icing and drizzled with strawberry jelly); Salted Caramel (a caramel-iced doughnut with a salted caramel drizzle and a pinch of sea salt); and Cereal Killer (a doughnut inspired by breakfast cereal made using real vegan cereal milk and topped with fruit-flavored cereal morsels).

“The one thing I always want is a doughnut, specifically a yeast-raised doughnut which is hard to come by in Seattle,” Willis told VegNews. “We felt there was a void that needed to be filled, and [thus] Dough Joy was born.”

Passing the vegan torch

For vegan entrepreneurs Willis and Ballard, owners of Vegan Candle Co. and lifestyle brand Outbound Herbivore, Dough Joy marks their first venture into the food industry. After toying with a few different food concepts, the pair decided on a vegan doughnut truck to help offset the cost of rent and found their home in the truck formerly used by Seattle-based vegan eateries Cycle Dog and No Bones.

“When we decided we were going to start a doughnut concept, I was actually talking with Keaton Tucker, the owner of Cycle Dogs,” said Willis. “He had just mentioned he was looking to sell the Cycle Dogs food truck and move into a brick-and-mortar. We had [previously] looked at brick-and-mortar locations for another concept but realized the rent seemed unsustainable for us as a brand new business. Add COVID-19 onto that, and once we heard the truck was going up for sale, it was a no-brainer.”

For Willis, their new truck’s vegan legacy does not go unnoticed. “What brings this full circle for us is that the truck is the original No Bones food truck [that once] parked in the exact spot we’ll be in,” Willis said. “Cycle Dogs took it over [from No Bones], and now they’re moving into the former No Bones brick-and-mortar. We are thrilled and honored to carry on the vegan legacy of this truck with Dough Joy and hope we can satisfy our customers just as much as [Cycle Dogs and No Bones] did.”

Dough Joy will be permanently stationed in the Ballard Mini Pod located at 5401 17th Avenue Northwest. Patrons can order online for next-day pickup or place same-day walk-up orders.