The Alarm Goes Off at 2:00 a.m.
While Poulsbo is still dark and quiet, the marina lights reflecting off Liberty Bay, the downtown streets empty, the Scandinavian storefronts of Little Norway shuttered until morning, a family kitchen is already humming. The dough is being mixed. The ingredients are being measured by feel as much as by recipe, the way they always are when someone has been doing this for over four decades. Donuts are being shaped, braided, and cut by hand, one by one, the way they were in Houston. The way they were in Veracruz before that.
By the time Poulsbo wakes up, Lone Star Donuts is ready.
From Veracruz to Houston to Kitsap County
The Juan Gomez family has roots in Veracruz, Mexico, where the craft of handmaking food was not a business strategy but a way of life. They carried that craft to Houston, Texas, where over 40 combined years of donut-making experience was built, batch by batch, in the kitchens of Texas donut shops. Then, in 2022, they made a decision that most families would consider audacious: they packed up everything, left Houston, and moved to Kitsap County, Washington, a place where almost nobody knew their name yet.
They opened their first location in Silverdale in 2022. The Poulsbo location followed on July 3rd, 2023, the day before Independence Day. It was not a soft opening. Kitsap County showed up.
“Since opening this location in July 2023, we’ve been blessed to receive a lot of love and support from the community here,” the family writes on their website. “Our favorite moments have been getting to hear stories from our regulars, and seeing little kids’ faces light up when they’re handed a fresh donut with sprinkles and icing.”
What “Texas-Style” Actually Means
When Kitsap locals hear “Texas-style donuts,” they sometimes picture something exotic or unfamiliar. The reality is both simpler and more impressive. According to the owner, Texas-style means the donuts are larger than normal, but perhaps what is more distinctly Texan about Lone Star is the kolache.
The kolache is an originally Czech pastry that became deeply woven into Texas food culture through immigrant communities, and it is one of the most underrated items on any breakfast menu in the Pacific Northwest. At Lone Star, kolaches come both sweet, filled with fruit, and savory, wrapped around smoked sausage and cheese in a house-made dough that has no business being as good as it is at $3.25 a piece. Reviewers describe them as some of the best they’ve had anywhere.
The donut menu itself is a study in quality over complexity: old-fashioned glazed, maple bars, raspberry-filled, blueberry fritters, apple fritters, cinnamon rolls, butterfly rolls, bombas, and seasonal rotating flavors like peaches and cream. The plain cake donut, often the truest test of a shop’s actual skill, comes out crispy on the outside, fluffy inside, and notably not greasy, which is the result of proper frying temperature and fresh oil, not shortcuts.
Washington State’s Best Donut Shop — According to Chowhound
Here is the fact that most Kitsap County residents do not know: Chowhound named Lone Star Donuts the best donut shop in Washington State, ranking it above every other donut shop in Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane, and across the entire state. Not best in Kitsap. Not best on the peninsula. Best in Washington.
The shop that earns that title is the one where mom and dad wake up at 2 a.m. every single morning to mix the dough by hand.
A Location Worth Finding
The Poulsbo location sits across from the Walmart on Market Place NW, not in the fairy-tale waterfront of Little Norway’s Front Street, but in the practical, everyday part of Poulsbo where locals actually shop and run errands. That location is deliberate. The family describes their favorite moments as being the designated stop for early workers, and seeing parents bring their kids in for a kolache before school. This is not a destination donut shop performing for tourists. It is a neighborhood donut shop serving the people who actually live here, every single morning, before most of the county has opened its eyes.
First-time visitors get a free donut. That policy says everything about the confidence behind the product.
For more on the growing food scene in Kitsap County’s communities, see our features on Tolitoz Motherland Restaurant, Vulca’s Mediterranean Market, and Sugar Studios Cafe.
How to Visit Lone Star Donuts Poulsbo
Lone Star Donuts Poulsbo is located at 21505 Market Place NW, Suite 102, Poulsbo, WA 98370, across from the Poulsbo Walmart. The shop is open Tuesday through Friday from 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Closed Mondays. Phone: (360) 626-1164.
Additional locations are open in Silverdale and Port Orchard. Online ordering and updates are available through the family’s website and Facebook pages.
Juan Gomez family, – if you’d like to share more about your story, seasonal flavors, upcoming specials, or anything else Kitsap locals should know, reach out to us at TheKitsap.com/contact and we’ll update this feature. This space is yours too.
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