Photo from Dottie’s Donuts Facebook page.

If you’ve been to Little Baby’s Ice Cream, Mariposa Food Coop or Green Line Cafe, you’ve probably seen a Dottie’s Donut on the counter display. This Philadelphia startup has been churning out 50 different flavors of vegan donuts for the past year, and distributing them to other businesses, but for the very first time, Dottie’s Donuts will finally have its own brick and mortar store – at 4531 Springfield Avenue.

Owners Jeff Poleon and Matt Quinn don’t like advertising their products as vegan because they don’t want to alienate the non-vegan market. “After years of working in the food industry, we realized that there were a lot of assumptions about vegan foods,” explained Poleon. “So when we decided to start our business, we decided it was just a donut.”

They crafted a recipe out of coconut milk and a natural egg substitute, which is almost indistinguishable from a typical donut recipe. “Vegan is a bonus point. Kind of broadens our customer base,” Poleon added.

The shop will finally allow the owners to interact with their customers face-to-face. They lauded the Philadelphia population for being “more accepting” and adventurous when it comes to trying new foods than other places. The shop will give the team behind Dottie’s a chance to directly discuss their vision with their audience.  Continue Reading

Here’s some good news following the monster weekend storm and the enormous snow removal work: Trash and recycling collections are expected to resume on Tuesday, Jan. 26.

As concerns the problem of many side streets still not plowed after the 4th largest snow storm in Philly history, City officials expect to have all thruway streets plowed by the end of the day on Wednesday.

How does your street or block look today? If it’s still bad, contact 311 (twitter @philly311) to request plowing and salting (please provide your approximate address).

The Philly311 Contact Center is open until 8p tonight to answer all your @PhiladelphiaGov info and service requests including for #phlsnow

— Philly311 (@philly311) January 25, 2016

Before the winter storm hit on Friday, a large sinkhole had opened up on 40th Street between Walnut and Chestnut, closing the block down to traffic (and plows). The weekend storm delayed the sinkhole repairs. Here are a few photos taken today on the block:

And here’s the sinkhole:

According to a West Philly Local reader, who posted a comment on the site, there is a creek that runs under the street and “there used to be a door under the Free Library on the corner (might still be) that you could open and see the creek.” Reportedly, there is a brick arch covering it, but the bricks are more than 100 years old.

Trash and recycling collection has been cancelled for Monday, Jan. 25 due to snow clean up. If your trash pick-up day is Monday, please hold it until Feb. 1.

Earlier today the School District of Philadelphia announced that all public schools and early childhood programs will be closed on Monday.

City offices and courts will be open.

UPDATE (10:30 p.m.): The City lifted the snow emergency at 10 p.m., so parking in designated snow emergency routes is now permitted. The Philadelphia Parking Authority will not enforce meters or time limit violations on Monday due to ongoing cleanup efforts.

UPDATE (1/25/2016): SEPTA has restored service on all regional rail lines. As of Monday morning, the following bus routes were operating: 1, 4, 6, 9, 14, 15B, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 37, 38, 40, 42, 44, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 64, 66, 70, 73, 78, 79, 84, 93, 96, 97, 99, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 117, 118, 119, 120, 123, 124, 125 126, 132, 201, 205, 206 310 and R and LUCY. SEPTA customers should check the System Status section at www.septa.org for detour information.

SEPTA restored service on its trolley lines on Sunday morning and is working toward restoring service on bus and rail lines that have been suspended since 4 a.m. Saturday. Service on Market-Frankford and Broad Street subway lines has been running on or close to normal schedules since the snow storm hit the area on Friday.

Bus service will be restored on a route-by-route basis starting 10 a.m. Sunday morning, with a focus on priority routes that feed customers to the Broad Street and Market-Frankford Lines. Priority City Routes include 14, 18, 21, 33, 42, 52, 56, 58, 59, 60, and 66.

Service on all SEPTA Regional Rail Lines will remain suspended on Sunday.

SEPTA trolley and bus riders should expect delays until full service is restores.

Visit septa.org for updates.

West Philly photographer Kenneth Aston Jr. took these great photos today in the area of 50th and Pine Streets.