According to a recent Instagram post from Mikiko Mochi Donuts, a second brick-and-mortar location will open in Beaverton “…about a mile west of downtown Beav and just south of Nike campus, off Murray & TV Hwy.”
A representative of Mikiko Mochi Donuts was not immediately available for commentary upon What Now Portland’s request.
While an official opening date and address for Mikiko’s second location have yet to be released, according to their most recent update, “Per the construction timeline we saw last week, we could open in January.”
According to Mikiko’s second update on the new location posted 15 weeks ago, “We said we’d take you along on the journey to opening our second location, but so far there isn’t a ton to report on! Opening a new storefront involves a lot of waiting and downtime.”
“Our space is a new construction, so we’re working with bare walls and rocks where the floor should be. We’ve done a walkthrough with all of our contractors, and are working on starting to schedule construction.”
“We can’t say at this point when the opening will be. Should we make it a contest? Prize for whoever accurately guesses how long the process will take?”
Mikiko’s company website describes themselves as “Gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free butter mochi donuts made fresh daily. Available for pick up in our Portland shop or order online for delivery.” Some flavor options that are listed for November are horchata pudding, honey pumpkin custard, chocolate and salted caramel, and more.
In March of last year, Oregon Live wrote an article about Mikiko stating, “Mikiko Mochi Donuts, which launched as a pop-up in February 2020, pivoted to a doughnut delivery service then worked its way into local grocery stores, recently opened a new doughnut shop in Northeast Portland, becoming the first of several Portland mochi doughnut startups to make the brick-and-mortar leap.”
The owners/partners behind Mikiko are listed as Alex McGillivray and Emily Mikiko Strocher. “Unlike Mister Donut or Oahu’s influential MoDo chain, Mikiko Mochi Donuts uses rice flour, not tapioca, making its dough naturally gluten-free, and bakes their doughnuts in an oven, resulting in a fluffier pastry closer in texture to Hawaiian butter mochi. “It’s not like a fried doughnut,” McGillivray said. “It’s actually at its best six hours in,” the Oregon Live article states.
“Strocher (Mikiko is her middle name) grew up in Northern California, where her family owns one of Silicon Valley’s last remaining walnut orchards, Yuki Farms in Los Gatos. During World War II, members of her family were sent to the Poston Internment Camp in Arizona. A business partner ran the farm during their absence. After the war, the family began holding multi-generational mochitsuki celebrations on the farm, soaking, steaming, then laboriously pounding glutinous rice into a sticky, elastic mass each New Year. That tradition continues today.”
“McGillivray, a Portland-born chef who worked at Ping and Lardo and briefly owned his own French fry food cart, has not yet been able to attend a mochitsuki celebration. But a visit to Northern California with Strocher in 2019 — and a butter mochi doughnut bought from a nearby coffee shop — did help inspire Mikiko. Back in Portland, McGillivray “started playing around with butter mochi recipes and doughnut pans,” he said. “And here we are.”