[doughnut porn, courtesy the Doughnut Vault]

The Doughnut Vault, a slip of a shop (in a former bank vault) at 401 1/2 N. Franklin (anyone else have a soft spot for businesses with 1/2 in their addresses?), opened this morning.

It's a cash-only, walkup-window operation from the people behind Gilt Bar (in the same building) and Maude's Liquor Bar. It's been taunting for months.

Dougnnuts on offer daily: buttermilk ($2), a gingerbread "stack," which is as it sounds ($3) and three varieties of glazed -- vanilla, chocolate and chestnut ($3). There will be daily specials. The coffee ($1) is from Metropolis. And I'm told there is talk of a doughnut truck -- which would actually take the form of an armored car.