Doe Donuts: the strawberry milk doe, vegan on Sandy

On the stretch of Sandy that leads into Hollywood, it's easy to drive right past 4110 Northeast Sandy. Stop instead, and order the donut the shop is named after, the doe, with the house strawberry milk glaze and sprinkles. Doe Donuts + Ice Cream is a 100% vegan, woman-owned small business that's happy to sell out, and the donuts and ice cream are made from scratch, with no pre-made mixes, no tub fillings and no bucket glazes.

The year-round menu is short and sweet. Besides the doe there's salted vanilla bean, with a fair-trade organic vanilla glaze and vanilla-bean sea salt, and Portland fog, an Earl Grey glaze with fresh whip and vanilla bean. Classic chocolate has fudge glaze and crispy sprinkles, and the maple twist uses Vermont maple. There's also a breakfast sandwich, the Sausage, Egg & Cheese, with Just Egg, breakfast sausage, cheddar, dressed greens, red onion and sriracha aioli, and the sausage and cheddar are vegan like everything else in the shop.

August and September bring a seasonal menu with a peach cobbler fritter made with local peaches, vanilla-bean glaze and brown-sugar streusel, a German chocolate cake donut with pecan coconut topping, matcha blueberry, mocha toffee crunch, sweet corn cream bombolini, buffalo bleu (the menu points out that it's savory), Arnold Palmer, a zucchini chip cake donut and key lime pie. If you're feeding a table, order Baker's Choice, a half dozen or a dozen that the shop picks for you. Otherwise donuts are priced one by one.

The ice cream deserves a visit of its own. Year-round flavors are birthday cake, coffee (organic maple ice cream with Jet Black Roasters), chipped mint, and cookies and cream, and the seasonal flavors rotate through peanut butter chunk, peaches and cream, chocolate Earl Grey and pink lemonade sorbet. Soft serve is vanilla bean, waffle cones come traditional or with chocolate sprinkles, and there are gluten-free cake cones. The donuts themselves aren't gluten-free, since there's one fryer and a lot of flour in the kitchen. All the donuts contain soy and it isn't a nut-free facility, and with a few flavors usually carrying nuts and the glaze trays shared, ask before you order if allergies are a concern.

Hours are Monday through Thursday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Friday through Sunday 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Walk-in orders top out at two dozen, twelve per flavor, unless you special-order, and special orders need 48 hours and book out on weekends. There are no tastings, no delivery, no shipped donuts and no donut towers. Orders that aren't picked up get composted at the end of the day, there are no day-olds, and the shop says you'll never see it selling anything that isn't 100% fresh.

A lot of vegan donuts taste like confused cake, and these don't, which is why regulars keep coming back. Get there early and order the doe, a Portland fog if you've already had the strawberry, and the peach cobbler fritter while it's on the August and September menu. If you're planning to come back later in the day, expect them to be sold out.

The essentials are on the Doe Donuts page.