A new era for Mid-City pastry and coffee began on August 22 when four-star pastry chef Waylynn Lucas and business partner Nancy Truman invited friends, family and media types, including me, to preview fōnuts, which specializes in gourmet baked donuts. The space, which previously housed Kiss My Bundt Bakery, is clean and modern, with fresh flowers in metal pails on a tall shelf, a vintage oven that hosts coffee accoutrements and a black and white photo of a bygone “Donut Queen,” wearing a crown and dipping her donut in coffee.

Order at the counter from a blackboard menu, which changes with the seasons, and as inspiration strikes. The opening selection included very few classics, aside from glazed and cinnamon sugar. Instead, Lucas crafted fonuts from bananas and chocolate, peaches and strawberries. What interested me even more were her savory offerings, particularly the bottom of the blackboard.

Considering my passion for pork, it seemed like the fonut with maple glaze and small, candied rectangles of bacon would take the title. However, chorizo cheddar ($3.75) proved to be the night’s champion, with chorizo infusing the ring with flecks of spiced sausage, and specking it red with inherent oils. Instead of a glaze, this fonut sported a melted sheet of yellow cheese, which was crispy-chewy and certainly much more savory than the sweet maple bacon alternative. This fonut wasn’t as dense or oily as a normal cake donut, and it didn’t have the lingering impact of a standard donut, though it was still rich, especially with all the cheese, and was by no means diet food.

Just like the Donut Queen, customers have the option to dunk their fonuts in coffee, but it’s unlikely that she was brewing LAMILL beans to order, or that Your Highness was indulging in a Hong Kong milk tea.

Dose of Vitamin P spotlights my favorite pork dish from the previous week.