Hello Donuts & Coffee plans a long goodbye
The coffee and doughnut specialist plans to close Dec. 1. There are at least a half-dozen other coffee shops within a 10-minute walk of Hello's front door in East Kensington.
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Five years ago in East Kensington, several music-industry veterans armed with killer doughnut recipes opened Hello Donuts & Coffee. It was among the new businesses that saw opportunity as developers promised to pump new energy and customers into the neighborhood.
“I know the sign of a developing neighborhood is coffee shops,” said co-owner Zack Zarrillo. “But you can throw a baseball and hit a coffee shop right now.” Within a 10-minute walk are Fiore Fine Foods, Forin, Almost Home, Valerio, Vessel Coffee Collective, Sit Stay Coffee, and Cake & Joe — all of which opened after Hello. Walk a few minutes farther into Fishtown, and you will hit Forin’s other location, Encanto Kicks & Coffee, American Grammar, and Rowhome.
Zarrillo said the competition and an attendant drop in business, coupled with news that Hello’s landlord planned to sell the building, has prompted him and his partners — Ben Walsh, Joe Marro, and Jess Barlow — to announce Hello’s closing after business Dec. 1.
“It felt like the right time to go out with our heads held high,” Zarrillo said. As music people, “we’re going to call it a farewell tour and we’re going to brand it like an ad mat you would see for a Bruce Springsteen concert. We’re going to try to have a lot of fun these next three months.”
Hello started with conversations between Walsh and Marro, who enjoyed eating at doughnut shops while on the road. In 2017, it grew into pop-ups. ReAnimator Coffee was an early partner at the opening at Frankford Avenue and Amber Street, a block south of Lehigh Avenue.
Hello gained notice for its regular and vegan doughnuts and drink menu.
Zarrillo said he and his partners were excited at the prospects for the neighborhood. “It felt like once a month, there were these articles [reporting] ‘new 400-unit apartment building in Kensington gets announced.’ I think we thought our neighborhood would feel a little bit more like Fishtown or Northern Liberties [by now], not in terms of culture but in terms of foot traffic and people.”
Zarrillo said COVID sapped some energy from East Kensington. Meanwhile, the cafes and restaurants — Fiore Fine Foods, Forin, and Picnic among them — keep coming.
“No one has gotten rich here, but we’re really proud to have employees that have been with us for years” said Zarrillo, who said he and his partners are open to offers for the business. “I’ve seen people come in when we started that were single, to having a partner, to be married, to having kids. That’s a pretty spectacular thing that will never really be lost on me.”