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Restaurant Openings and Closings

Urban Donut Now Open in Uptown

Build your own doughnut.
By Daniel Walker |
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Jim Huntley saw a hole in Uptown’s dining scene—a doughnut hole, to be exact—and he decided to fill it. This past Saturday he opened Urban Donut at 2805 Allen St. and the crowds came out to welcome him. Before the shop opened its doors at 7 a.m., a line had already formed down the street and nearly wrapped around the block. Undeniably, Dallas does love its donuts.

Perhaps Urban Donut’s most intriguing selling point is its design-your-own-donut bar. Visitors walk into the small space and are immediately greeted by a long counter housing numerous bins filled with sweet ingredients. It’s like a Chipotle for doughnuts. Unlike anything else in town.

“People love being creative, and an opportunity to design your own doughnut has been a hit,” says Huntley. You choose a doughnut base (yeast ring, cake, Bismarck, or Long John), then an icing (chocolate, maple, vanilla), add a filling (jam, custard, fruit, or cream), and finish with any of their 20-plus toppings (nuts, candy pieces, coconut, pretzels, and more). If you’re feeling especially gluttonous, you can even add a scoop of ice cream.

Customers looking for quicker grab-and-go options also have a sizable list of pre-made specialty doughnuts to choose from in an adjacent display case. Several of these are named after local landmarks, like the Reunion Tower, a Long John filled with Bavarian cream, topped with chocolate, peanut butter cups, and peanut butter drizzle. You’ll see the Trolley Car (Long John with Bavarian cream, chocolate frosting, chocolate chips, and chocolate drizzle), the Pegasus (Bismarck filled with Nutella cream and drizzled in chocolate), and the Fair Park (a cake doughnut topped with salted caramel and chocolate-dipped potato chips).

Among the variety that I sampled, I was particularly pleased with the Sugar-n-Spice, a Bismarck filled with a sweet and spicy lemon-Sriracha jam. The PBJ was pleasant as well, not surprisingly filled with raspberry jam and topped with peanut butter frosting. There’s a few waffle doughnut options, too, that I could not resist. These yeast rings are glazed and pressed with a waffle iron, then topped with fruit jams and frosting. The iron gives them a slightly crunchy texture but keeps their insides soft and chewy.

While I was tempted, I ultimately determined that my 7 a.m. visit was not the ideal time for any of their ice cream creations. Unlike most doughnut shops, however, they offer late-night hours that seem ideal for such indulgences. They’re hoping to appeal to the late-night McKinney Avenue crowd looking to end their night on a sweet note. (Monday through Thursday they’re open until 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday until 3 a.m..) These ice cream/donut options include the “donut shake” with a doughnut of your choice blended right into the ice cream, or a sundae with a warm doughnut topped with ice cream and any number of other other toppings of your choice.

Huntley and his business partner, Christopher McLucas, are already looking to expand and are currently in talks with two other locations in the Dallas area. In addition, they’re meeting with representatives for several local malls. So you can certainly expect to see more from Urban Donuts in the near future.

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