Miami Doughnut Marvel the Salty Donut Is Coming to Austin

Revered Miami doughnut shop the Salty Donut is opening its first Austin location. It’ll be found on 2000 South Congress Avenue starting sometime in the spring of 2021, with both takeout, delivery, and dine-in services. Ahead of the debut, there’s a reservations-only pickup preview this month, on Saturday and Sunday, December 12 and 13.

Salty Donut’s menu features plentiful doughnuts, naturally. There are year-round flavors (dubbed “always”), such as the popular guava and cheese, maple and bacon, and brown butter with salt. Then there are the rotating ones (designated as “sometimes”), which currently include a pumpkin spice cake doughnut, oatmeal cream pie, and small lemon whip. The team plans on working with local vendors to offer Austin-specific flavors as well.

The coffee menu includes an array of espresso drinks, including lattes like a Cinnamon Toast Crunch and the salted caramel, as well as its own cold-brew from Chicago-based coffee roaster Intelligentsia.

The Salty Donut [Official]

Salty’s Austin December preview will feature free doughnut boxes with four flavors: horchata, cookies and cream, glazed, and a new margarita one in honor of Austin. People will be able to reserve their boxes and coffee online for timed pickups; no walk-up boxes will be available in order to ensure proper social distancing measures with regards to COVID-19.

Salty Donut co-founders Andy Rodriguez and Amanda Pizarro-Rodriguez launched Salt Donut in Miami as a pop-up in 2015, along with pastry chef Max Santiago (who left the business in 2017). The cravable fried doughs quickly inspired long lines and the pop-up often sold out. They opened the first physical store in 2016.

Rodriguez and Pizarro-Rodriguez chose the South Congress location because of its general appeal, and because they specifically wanted a standalone building (as opposed to one of the many mixed-use developments along the busy street). The address is owned by Kent Cole, one of the co-owners of next-door restaurant Magnolia Cafe. Previously, the building hosted that Glossier pop-up shop in 2019.

This is Salty’s fifth overall store (a fourth is opening in Orlando in December) and second Texas location after Dallas debuted earlier this May. There are plans to eventually expand throughout Texas within those two cities, as well as new ones.

• The Salty Donut Austin [Official]
• The Salty - Holidays Came Early, Austin Pop Up [Eventbrite]
• The Salty Donut [Facebook]
• The Salty Donut [Instagram]
• All Coverage of the Salty Donut [EMIA]