As you can imagine, we are pretty excited to hear (via Grubstreet) that a new donut spot is opening up in a rather unique location: a car wash on the West Side Highway. Underwest Donuts will be at Westside Highway Car Wash at 12th Avenue and 47t Street, a spot next to the former H&H Bagel. Like the recent French bakery, Arcade Bakery, located in a gorgeous office lobby, location was half luck. When Scott Levin, a former sous chef at Chanterelle, was looking for a storefront, it turned out that his father-in-law is an owner of the car wash, and the place in the tunnel was unused. There’s going to be an automatic donut robot to add to the fun.
When asked why a car wash? Levin continues: “It’s quintessential Americana; it’s fun and nostalgic, and you know, serving coffee and doughnuts in a car wash seemed to be such a great marriage.” As for coffee goes, they’ll have Brooklyn Roasting Company coffee and espressos.
Underwest Doughnuts opens on Friday, November 21st. For National Donut Day in June this year, we published our list of 8 favorite “indie” donut shops in New York City, and we can’t wait to add this one!