A much-anticipated new doughnut shop is coming to Dallas this week: La Rue Doughnuts is opening at Trinity Groves on August 29, taking over the space vacated by Cake Bar, who relocated to the Medical District in March.
La Rue comes from Casey and Amy La Rue, the acclaimed chef duo who previously owned Carte Blanche, the award-winning restaurant-bakery on Greenville Avenue which they closed in June.
Unlike the bakery they had at Carte Blanche, which served a variety of pastries including croissants, La Rue Doughnuts will, as the name might imply, focus on "doughnuts." They're taking the doughnuts they made at their former bakery and spinning it into an entire shop dedicated to doughnuts, although in a variety of styles: brioche, cake doughnuts, old-fashioned, and their signature crullers.
Most doughnut shops across DFW (and the U.S., for that matter), make their doughnuts using a pre-made flour mix. La Rue will make the dough for their doughnuts entirely from scratch.
And historically, the couple's doughnuts have deployed unusual flavors such as passion fruit and pistachio.
The fact that both chefs are highly decorated and are dedicating themselves to doughnuts would seem to promise that these doughnuts will be special, unique, above average.
In their brief three years, both the restaurant and bakery won numerous awards, including the Forbes Five-Star in Texas for two years in a row, in 2022 and again in 2023. They were the only Dallas restaurant to earn the prestigious 5-diamond award from AAA, and if they'd stayed open long enough for Michelin to have arrived, they would have been a shoo-in. (The doughnut shop may well be eligible for Michelin's Bib Gourmand category, which awards restaurants that offer good food at reasonable prices and includes other bakeries.)
But the idea that a place called a doughnut shop would specialize in doughnuts seems to be lost on some of their pitifully distressed fans. Every one of their Instagram posts has drawn a small pitiful chorus of whinging, all of the same nature:
Are you going to do croissants?
Croissants are a separate category of baking — a laminated dough requiring different equipment and ingredients and processes. Which is why most doughnut shops do not do croissants.
Maybe it's a sign of how good a job Carte Blanche did with its croissants that people are whining. Or maybe people just like to whine on social media.
After politely responding "sorry, we're not doing croissants" for the umpteenth time, La Rue Doughnuts' Instagram page finally posted a photo of a croissant with a ban mark across it, and the following explanation:
La Rue Doughnuts glazed doughnutLa Rue
"I've had a few questions about this lately regarding La Rue Doughnuts that I thought was understood but just to make sure. We will NOT be serving croissants. We are diving deep into our love affair with the doughnut — celebrating its rich history, endless variety, and everything that makes it truly special. The spotlight exclusively on the doughnut and all the delicious stories it has to tell."
Cue the comments (the majority of which are from accounts marked Private. Is there some correlation between private Instagram accounts and whiners?):
- auntanton "please still make almond croissant"
- "So…cronuts then?"
- prissy_annn "Going to miss those beautiful yummy croissants"
- danalilys "please i’m begging you …"
- itsvalerie.notval "Please tell me your delicious croissants will be on the menu??"
One account — marked private — antoinebaba, voices his dissatisfaction with the croissant situation on nearly every one of the shop's posts. "We would love croissants to be back, pleeeeease." Antoine baby, just walk down Greenville Avenue to Village Patisserie and get a croissant there, may I recommend the pretzel croissant, it's to die for.
Some commenters get it:
- youspoonam "This made me laugh out loud. #croissantban No cro-nuts or other terribly trendy croissants bahaha jk glad you sticking with the og donuts bahah @larue_doughnuts"
- blume_bakery "I’m loving this pivot! Can’t want to see your new space."
They'll be open Sundays 8 am-2 pm or sold out; Wednesday-Thursday 7 am-2 pm or sold out; and Friday-Saturday 8 am-8 pm.
