Doughnut News

Check out these gourmet doughnuts at new shop in Dallas' Bishop Arts

That is high-end Valhrona chocolate you are looking at right now.

Photo courtesy of Salty Donut

A gourmet doughnut shop in the works for nearly a year is finally ready to make the doughnuts: The Salty Donut, an offshoot of a famed shop from Miami, has opened its first location outside of South Florida in Bishop Arts, where it will serve artisanal doughnuts, coffee, and baked goods.

According to a release, the shop will open at 414 West Davis St. (in the former Red Sparrow Mercantile space) on June 2. But it's already started serving doughnuts on a pickup and delivery model.

The Salty Donut was founded in 2015 by Andy Rodriguez and Amanda Pizarro, who debuted the concept out of a vintage camper set up in a parking lot in Miami's Wynwood district — the first to introduce the concept of gourmet doughnuts to Miami.

The young couple was met with instant long lines, and national attention, including their competition on the Cooking Channel’s Sugar Showdown in 2016, which they won with a cream-filled "cannoli doughnut."

They opened a second, larger location in South Miami in May 2019.

Signatures include their maple-bacon, 24-hour-raised brioche doughnut and a brown butter cake doughnut. Their chocolate-glazed chocolate doughnut is crafted with top-tier Valrhona milk-chocolate glaze and topped with crunchy chocolate pearls, made from scratch, not a pre-fab mix.

They also serve coffee drinks by esteemed brewer Intelligentsia Coffee, with a coffee menu that focuses on seasonality, as well.

On Tuesday, June 2, The Salty will open its first out-of-Miami store to the public for delivery and pickup orders. The exciting milestone will be celebrated throughout opening week with giveaways in collaboration with Topo Chico as well as Salty Donut Grand Opening swag packs for 100 random customer orders.

The opening menu will feature their full menu of 10 donuts, many of which have a local theme and/or use local ingredients, including regular and seasonal flavors.

Their regular menu (which they call "always") includes:

Traditional Glazed. 24-hr brioche, vanilla bean glaze
Maple + Bacon. 24-hr brioche, maple glaze, topped with in-house candied Rudolph’s Meat Market bacon + Oak Cliff Brewery Black Lager reduction
Brown Butter + Salt. Vanilla bean cake donut, brown butter glaze + topped with Maldon sea salt
Lone Star. 24-hr star-shaped brioche filled with ruby red grapefruit curd + tossed in grapefruit infused powdered sugar.
Horchata. 24-hr brioche soaked in a horchata mixture, bottom crusted with Valrhona Caramelia chocolate + finished with torched cinnamon-meringue
Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake Donut: Chocolate cake donut with chocolate glaze

Seasonal items include both a vegan and a gluten-free doughnut:

Sweet Corn (GF). Baked gluten-free sweet corn cake donut, topped with Desert Creek Honey glaze, buttercream + Maldon salt
Peach Cobbler (V). Vegan yeast raised donut filled with caramelized peaches, vanilla-infused oat milk glaze, topped with brown sugar + oat streusel
Sweet Tea + Bourbon. 24-hr brioche, sweet tea glaze, topped with Garrison Bro’s Bourbon reduction, shortbread crumble + bourbon whipped cream
Jalapeno Jelly + Cream Cheese. 24-hr brioche filled with cream cheese, jalapeño-jelly glaze + topped with cornbread crumbles

The Salty Donut is launching a contest to encourage people to follow their Instagram account, with winners selected daily from May 27-31.

openings breakfast doughnuts

Flair News

TGI Fridays files for bankruptcy, all 6 Dallas locations now closed

TGI Fridays

Restaurant chain TGI Fridays filed for bankruptcy protection on November 2, saying it is looking for ways to “ensure the long-term viability” of the casual dining brand after closing many of its branches in 2024.

The Dallas-based company's Chapter 11 filing in a Texas federal court accelerates a gradual decline for an iconic chain that was once near the center of American pop culture but has seen its customer base dwindle as tastes changed.

TGI Fridays executive chairman Rohit Manocha said in a statement that the challenges were a result of COVID-19.

"The next steps announced today are difficult but necessary actions to protect the best interests of our stakeholders, including our domestic and international franchisees and our valued team members around the world," Manocha said. "The primary driver of our financial challenges resulted from COVID-19 and our capital structure. This restructuring will allow our go-forward restaurants to proceed with an optimized corporate infrastructure that enables them to reach their full potential."

Until recently, Dallas-Fort Worth had 11 locations including five at DFW Airport. Those airport locations are the only ones still open. The remaining six are all now closed — some closures very recent, most after being in business for a decade or more: 4951 Belt Line Rd. in Addison; 311 N. Clark St. in Cedar Hill, southwest of Dallas; 3700 Towne Crossing Blvd. in Mesquite; and 220 Cornflower Dr. at Firewheel Town Center in Garland.

A Plano location at 2444 Preston Rd. closed in 2022 and is now home to Rise Souffle, while the flagship in Dallas' West End at 1713 Market St. closed in 2020 after 32 years.

Privately owned by TriArtisan Capital Advisors, TGI Fridays has been a beloved dining destination since its inaugural bar opened in Manhattan in 1965. It expanded over the following decades to become a ubiquitous suburban gathering spot known for its ribs, potato skins topped with cheese and bacon, and a decor bedecked with red stripes and Tiffany-style lamps.

The company has boasted that its bartenders trained Tom Cruise for his role in the 1988 film Cocktail, while its serving staff's button-filled uniforms, meant to evoke a fun atmosphere, were later parodied in the 1999 satire Office Space, starring Jennifer Aniston.

Its empire peaked in 2008 with 601 restaurants in the U.S. and a $2 billion business, according to Kevin Schimpf, director of industry research at Technomic. Its sales in the U.S. were $728 million in 2023, down 15% from the prior year, according to Technomic.

It now counts 163 restaurants in the U.S., down from 269 last year and 213 from a week ago. It closed 36 in January and dozens more in the past week. TGI Fridays Inc. said it only owns and operates 39 restaurants in the U.S, a fraction of the 461 TGI Fridays-branded restaurants around the world.

A separate entity, TGI Fridays Franchisor, owns the intellectual property and has franchised the brand to 56 independent owners in 41 countries. Those are independently owned and not part of the Chapter 11 process, and remain open.

A United Kingdom-based franchisee, Hostmore, also sought debt protection in September and abruptly closed locations throughout that country after a failed takeover deal to acquire TGI Fridays.

During the pandemic TGI Fridays made an effort to expand into the delivery market by making itself a hub for ghost kitchens, which have no storefront and only prepare food for delivery. Among the major creditors owed money by TGI Fridays is the delivery service DoorDash, according to Saturday's bankruptcy court filings.

Sit-down chain restaurants more broadly have faced challenges in recent years as diners choose to get food delivered or visit upscale fast-food chains like Chipotle and Shake Shack. In September a U.S. bankruptcy judge approved a reorganization plan for the seafood chain Red Lobster after years of mounting losses. Italian American food chain Buca di Beppo filed for bankruptcy protection in August. PAnother iconic U.S. sit-down restaurant, Denny's, announced in October that it is closing 150 of its lowest-performing restaurants in an effort to turn around the brand’s flagging sales. Wendy’s is also closing up to 140 restaurants, according to a statement from The Wendy's Co. on October 31.
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Teresa Gubbins contributed to this story.