658 View Street
Victoria, BC (Old Town)

Just how many donut shops does this city need? I’m skeptical, mostly since my favorite donut shop isn’t actually a donut shop. It’s a cream puff shop, and yes, I’ll admit it, once upon a time Beard Papa’s was really good. But time hasn’t treated this operation kindly. Quality dropped, and so did this staple of every visit I make. It could benefit from coming to the island to “restart,” instead of Lee’s Donuts. But as this other operation opens its first location at 658 View Street, I do have to wonder: will the cream puff giant soon follow?

Although the signage was already up when I was downtown not too long ago, I’m not feeling particularly excited. There’s going to be huge competition over which creamy operation will taunt our taste buds. Even though it had humble, Asian-style beginnings as a mom-and-pop shop inside the Granville Island Public Market in 1979 I’m still not entirely sold. And I’m fairly sure founders Alan and Betty-Ann Lee’s “secret recipe” isn’t all that secret.

Between Esquimalt Bake Shop, Empire Donuts, and Yonni’s (at Discovery Coffee), the struggle will be real. With Empire not too far away, the challenge for Lee’s is to innovate and find a niche. Although the brand is under new ownership now, I’m not sure if they have the right idea in mind. I’ve already sounded off on Glitch Victoria for not knowing the scene; while they’re finally on the right track with a video game tournament, what they’re doing is staged in a private room with consoles rather than arcade cabinets. More information can be found here, but in the meantime, I’ll keep an eye out and wonder who can make the better pumpkin stuffie.

This operation is said to be open by the end of the year, permits willing.