Puck’s Donuts of Phoenix is back open after being closed for more than two years, delighting local residents with sweet morning treats who mourned its loss in the 2020 Almeda Fire.

Savannah Varel said she was returning to a nostalgic favorite as she waited outside the door of Puck’s the morning of Feb. 8. She was a regular when she was a student at Phoenix High School, and even after moving to Portland, she always remembered her old favorite.

“It was such a landmark,” she said, gesturing to the iconic and enormous three-dimensional donut box in front of the building — miraculously spared from the fire’s flames.

“A lot of my family members lost homes in the fire. I know how good it feels to get settled again,” Varel said.

Ross Rampy of Ashland was in line early Wednesday and said he was happy to welcome back the shop he believed to have the best donuts in town. But to get a taste, customers have been arriving early and waiting.

“My mechanic came on the first day they opened. He was in a line around the block,” Rampy said.

“I think the thing that surprised everyone was how long it took them to rebuild,” he said.

Puck’s Donuts reopened Jan. 24 on a freezing winter morning. Despite the cold, the shop sold out of donuts within hours. Throughout the past weeks, the shop has routinely sold out before noon and has now posted its hours as “6 a.m. until we sell out.”

The business owners were too busy trying to meet customer demand to respond for comment Wednesday morning, but according to their opening day Facebook post, the Siharath family was awed by the response to the reopening.

“How lucky we are to be part of such an amazing community. A community that has shown, time and again, that it shows up! As the line grew out the door, it was clear that today wasn’t just about donuts.

It was also about the bonds of community,” the post stated.

Many of their customers remarked on the fire, the post said, saying the return of a beloved business was a sign that the valley is rising from the ashes.