Kansas City’s home to a lot of great shops serving doughnuts, but Westport’s new Doughnut Lounge might be the first with its own in-house executive chef.

It’s the kind of place where you can buy a cup of coffee and a classic glazed … or order a sit-down “nodut” entree, like the Glazed & Gravy, a doughnut prepared with sausage gravy and fried egg, or the Chicken Fried, a doughnut served with fried chicken and hot sauce. Pair your meal with a selection from the beer, wine and cocktail menu.

Chef Tye Eckert also has created a class of signature doughnuts halfway between classic and nodut. You don’t need a knife and fork to eat them, but they come in styles beyond the basic frosted and cake, like the Dolly, made with sharp cheese custard and root beer glaze.

Since the eatery opened in late December, “it’s been nothing but crazy busy,” owner Jake Randall said. “There’s always a line.”

This isn’t Randall’s first business—he owned a coffee shop when he lived in Indiana. He sold it when he and his wife, Megan, came to Kansas City so she could pursue her graduate degree.

Doughnut Lounge was partly inspired by the new breed of doughnut shops in other cities like Strange Donuts in St. Louis and San Diego’s Donut Bar, he said. His new town, he decided, needed something just as delicious and creative.

“What we’re trying to do,” Randall said, “is show people there’s no box.”

(photo courtesy of Estorie Photography / Doughnut Lounge)