Seasonal flavors include the Puppy Chow doughnut with a dark chocolate glaze and the Red Velvet Cake with homemade cream cheese frosting. (Roo Moody/Community Impact)
Jonny Boulos said if he ever went back into the kitchen, it would be for himself and not for someone else.
Boulos had previously done chef work before switching to restaurant management, but said he always had aspirations to create a local coffee shop.
After meeting Jonny in 2019, Cody Vaughn heard about his idea and wanted in. Vaughn had experience working in corporate coffee shops, and said she loved the atmosphere and being able to talk with customers.
“Cody and I met and got wind of each other's ideas and then we slowly formulated this plan of a local place that does everything from scratch and tries to stay as local as we can,” Boulos said.
How it happened
As the two began planning out the concept, they realized they wanted to offer something that they said wasn’t available in the area: craft doughnuts.
“I have this love for doughnuts and when I traveled, I would find cool doughnut spots,” Boulos said. “Coming back here, Houston and the area really never had anything of this style.”
After a lot of tinkering with flavors, Blackline Coffee and Donuts opened in April 2023, serving unique beverages and doughnuts that are brioche-based.
The store makes fresh brioche doughnuts every day that rest overnight before serving. (Roo Moody/Community Impact)
On the menu
Each month, the space offers around 9-11 doughnuts, and a gluten-free choice, featuring a mix of year-round favorites and seasonal options.
For January, the display case exhibited the Thumbprint Cookie Donut, made with raspberry jam, a raspberry glaze and a shortbread crumble, as well as the Hummingbird, a doughnut with tangy cream cheese frosting rolled in crumbled hummingbird cake.
Boulos and Vaughn agreed the most unique doughnut is a plain donut with whipped cream cheese and everything bagel seasoning for a more savory taste. They said it’s their most polarizing item, earning both one star and five star reviews.
Additionally, the shop previously featured a Harry Potter-themed doughnut and has plans to work on a Chronicles of Narnia one in honor of the upcoming bookswap they are hosting.
“[We’re] very much a yin to the yang,” Boulos said. “The things Cody said she enjoyed to do, I was like, ‘I don't enjoy doing those type of things as much as I really should,’ and so it just became this good circle of strengths and weaknesses.”
