Donuts and Bagels Rolling Into the East Crossroads

By Kevin Collison

A tasty blend of donuts, bagels, coffee and ice cream is expected to be added to the creative mix at Collective Ex in the East Crossroads by the end of this year.

Johnny Dawbarn, the founder of the collaborative space at 519 E. 18th St., said Donutology will be serving its popular donuts from Westport and Meshuggah Bagels will offer its famed chewier option.

Rounding out the culinary additions will be a new coffee operation called Hi Tides and an ice cream shop to be called Snoasis.

The new additions will be located in space formerly occupied by “Thee Outpost,” a Thou Mayest coffee concept that departed early last summer. The renovation is being designed with a “Tiki” theme.

Johnny Dawbarn

Dawbarn said the Covid pandemic spurred the changes.

“Covid brought some interesting changes for us,” he said.

“My wife’s company Sew KC switched over to making masks which allowed us to keep people employed and got us through the summer.

“Unfortunately, Thou Mayest had to close its location. We decided we could do something interesting with the space.”

The coffee concept will be owned by Collective Ex and feature beans roasted by Marcell. Discussions are underway with a local operator for the ice cream shop and Dawbarn expects to make an announcement soon.

He said the Donutology owners were excited to be part of Collective Ex and plan to deliver their donuts daily. The selection will include some of the baker’s favorite standards as well as some specialties just for the East Crossroads.

Westport-based Donutology will be bringing fresh-baked donuts to Collective Ex. (Image from Donutology website)

Meshuggah, which already has a downtown location at 40 E. 13th St., also has agreed to deliver fresh bagels every morning.

In the collaborative spirit of Collective Ex, the new vendors will team up on some of the food offerings. One item will be a blend of ice cream with espresso sauce and a sugar-dipped donut.

“We want to mix and cross-pollinate some of the categories,” Dawbarn said.

He said the new culinary options should be great additions to the East Crossroads, which in addition to its current menu of microbreweries, distilleries and food establishments, will soon welcome hundreds of new residents at the Artistry KC apartments.

“The potential of this place is what drew us here,” he said. “Our turn-of-the-century building is amazing and there are so many like-minded businesses around us.

“It’s a unique experience.”

Collective Ex also designs branding for products. (Photo courtesy Collective Ex)