Urban Sugar Mobilizes Doughnut Fans For Ongoing Kickstarter Campaign

Where have all the doughnuts gone? If you asked yourself that question in Portland this past summer, you might have been feeling the absence of Urban Sugar Mobile Cafe and its unusual toppings like Cap'n Crunch and marshmallows. The maker of gourmet mini-doughnuts has been spending winters at Sugarloaf, and owner Kevin Sandes now has a brick and mortar space at the popular ski mountain, where he's referring to the business simply as Urban Sugar Donuts. That means Rosie, his dessert truck, could head south to Portland again — if he raises enough money on Kickstarter to get a second doughnut fryer, he says.

At press time, the campaign had ten days remaining and 85 backers had pledged just under $15,000 of a $25,000 goal. Sandes says about $10,000 would go toward a doughnut fryer, with the rest earmarked for truck upkeep and "properly outfit[ting] our new space to be something special, just like our little donuts."

Sandes added a reward tier partway through the campaign to give backers one doughnut per dollar, a significant jump from previous options like a half-dozen doughnuts for $25. Superfan Rob Schatz, better known as Eating Portland Alive, has been providing periodic breakdowns of Urban Sugar's progress, betting dollars to doughnuts that supporters can get the mobile cafe back to Portland — and they can't do it without your help.

So here are "the maths" of progress for the @urbansugardonuts reboot: • 18 days to go with $19806 left (about $1100 per day which only *sounds* like a pie in the sky) • 3552 of you Insta-lurkers means just under $6 per follower would get Kevin's project funded! • New reward tier too: you receive 1 donut per dollar! • Help bring Miss Rosie back to Portland! #keepontruckin

A photo posted by Rob S. (@eatingportlandalive) on Nov 15, 2015 at 8:03am PST

Meanwhile, with ten days remaining and only eight backers so far, Ragnarok Coffee Society is still far short of its $15,000 goal to "bring an artisan coffee house, roastery, and lounge to Downtown Bangor" by March 2016. With restaurant and construction backgrounds respectively, creators Benjamin Hanson and Jeshua Serdynski are trying to renovate 73 Central Street to provide "great coffee," a "simple but tasty" food and pastry menu, and long hours for "more things to do at night in the downtown," according to a recent Facebook post.

For a pledge of $10 you could get two cups of coffee down the line; $25 would get you a 1-lb bag of freshly roasted beans. The creators have suggested work on the space is beginning in December so perhaps there's hope yet for the project despite the current funding prospects.