Micah Camden Denies Reports of Blue Star's Expansion

Earlier today we spread the news about a Willamette Week article that reported Micah Camden and Katie Poppe were expanding Blue Star Donuts to the Fred Segal flagship store in Tokyo. Even more exciting for Portlanders was the promise that they were opening locations on NW 23rd and Lake Oswego.

Well, turns out reports of the expansion have been greatly exaggerated. At least for now. Eater talked to Camden, who says it's all just talk.

"I don't have a signed deal," he says. "Until the ink is dry there's nothing new."

What about that quote from Poppe saying she just signed the Fred Segal deal? Willamette Week informs us it was taken directly from their correspondence with her, though in our interview with Camden we were emphatically told that Poppe was misunderstood.

He says he definitely has been scouting out locations on NW 23rd and in Lake Oswego for new Blue Star outposts, but that's as far as things have gone. "I've been trying to get on Northwest 23rd for the last several months. I've looked at three places in Lake Oswego in the past month. But nothing's happening yet. We've also had conversations about places in New York and Beverly Hills. I'm talking to Intel about opening a Little Big Burger on campus."

But so far that's all just preliminary schemes and dreams from a restaurateur who spends most of his days looking for expansion opportunities. "I've opened 18 restaurants in the past 10 years. I do this for a living. It's nothing new."