The owner of Upton's Breakroom—a vegan restaurant in Chicago—debuts Liberation Donuts. The new pop-up is currently operating from Upton's Breakroom and will be expanding into a space featuring a dedicated counter and seating area.
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Dan Staackmann, the owner of Upton's Breakroom and Upton’s Naturals, has been vegan for 20+ years, and his love for a good old fried donut inspired Liberation Donuts. Dan told VegOut, “[I’m] a huge fan of old-fashioned fried cake donuts, but too often the vegan version of this is either baked or it's intended to be the ‘healthy’ and/or a gluten-free option. So we hired Cody DeFrate, the former COO of LA vegan donut shop Donut Friend, to oversee the launch and operations [to] offer truly gourmet vegan donuts. The names of our donuts are inspired by the animal liberation movement, our favorite hardcore bands, and some of the cool animals in our lives. We're donating 50% of the sales of our Total Liberation (lemon poppyseed) donut to a different animal rescue or human rights organization each month—this month our partner is The Catcade (a cat cafe and rescue).”
Upton’s plans to add seasonal flavors soon, but the opening menu includes: Total Liberation (lemon poppyseed), For Greta (strawberry shortcake), Undercover (chocolate powdered), Flapjack (maple crumb), and more. Right now the donuts are available for takeout only, but Liberation Donuts will soon be offering local delivery. Individual donuts cost $3.25-$3.75 each, or a baker's choice mixed dozen is available for $36.
