Sweetpea: Portland's first all-vegan bakery. Saturday is doughnut day

We have been treating Southeast Stark like a commute instead of a doughnut errand, and we FINALLY clocked Saturday the way Sweetpea Baking Co. actually wrote it: Saturday is ALWAYS doughnut day! This is the café at 1205 Southeast Stark, Portland’s first all-vegan retail bakery (they started in 2005, this room in 2008), and out of all the cakes, bagels, and tempeh-bacon breakfasts in that spacious café, the pastry we rearrange the week for is the Saturday doughnut — then we come back Monday, because every Monday is Cronut day.

The shop is 100% vegan. You do not have to ask. You DO have to read the other sentence they print in all-caps energy: they are NOT a gluten-free bakery. There are wheat-free pastry items in the case. They will not do gluten-free special-order cakes or cupcakes. If that is your whole assignment, this is the wrong counter, and that is them saying it, not us being fussy.

Inside it is a sit-down café, not a polite takeout slot. Regular hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., seven days. Breakfast and lunch on the January 2026 food menu run until 2:45 p.m. We eat here when we want the bakery to feed us, not just bag us. The Breakfast Sammie is tempeh bacon, tofu scramble, cashew cheese, spinach, and mayo on grilled ciabatta. The Portlander is the waffle-plus-scramble-plus-tempeh-bacon plate. There is an Untuna sandwich. A Reuben. A Sweetpea Club. Henry Higgins boiled bagels with Earth Balance, schmear, garden veggie, bacon scallion, or cashew cheese. Everything on that board is vegan. The heart marks are wheat-free or can-be-wheat-free, which is NOT the same as a dedicated gluten-free kitchen.

The cake board is where this bakery still flexes. Mom’s Cake. Black and White. Vanilla Cloud. Toasted Coconut. Chocolate Decadence. Tuxedo. Chocolate Peanut Butter. Chocolate Raspberry. Confetti. German Chocolate. Lemon Chiffon. Cookies and Cream. Red Velvet. Elvis. Oatmeal Spice and Carrot cannot be nut-free, so do not walk in asking for a nut-free carrot and get surprised. Cheesecakes in 9-inch: NY Style, chocolate, key lime, peanut butter chocolate chip, brownie chunk, marionberry, raspberry, turtle. Pies: chocolate silk, fruit crumble, lattice apple or cherry. Walk-in whole cakes are a LIMITED selection of 6-inch and 9-inch, plus pastries. If you need a specific cake, call the bakery. They do not take special orders over the internet, email, or voicemail. Seventy-two hours minimum. No stacked, shaped, or fondant cakes. No delivery on special orders.

We do not name an owner because the official pages do not. We do not invent the daily pastry SKUs beyond doughnut Saturday and cronut Monday. We call (503) 477-5916 if the case has to be a specific doughnut, not a vibe.

We keep coming back because Sweetpea is not a vegan “option” taped to a regular bakery. The whole room is the option. Take the Saturday doughnut. Take the Monday cronut if that is your personality. Sit down for the Breakfast Sammie if you already missed the pastry. Then leave before you talk yourself into a gluten-free special-order cake they have already told you they will NOT make!

More on the place page: Sweetpea Baking Co.