Turning Dunkin' Donuts to Dough

Investors including Colt McCoy brew up plans for 23 Dunkin' Donuts in Austin area

Back in December 2012, plans were unveiled for 24 more Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and doughnut shops in the Austin area. But since then, visible activity on the expansion front has been almost as stale as a five-day-old breakfast pastry. Now, expansion efforts are finally beginning to percolate.

Late this spring or early this summer, a Dunkin’ Donuts store is set to open in Kyle, said Dale Mulvey, one of the partners in local franchisee Coffee Action West LLC.

“We expect to announce several more location commitments soon,” Mulvey said. “Our goal is to put Dunkin’ Donuts within easy reach of all of Austin.”

Currently, three Dunkin’ Donuts locations are operating in the Austin area, including one that Coffee Action West opened last August in Cedar Park. The investment group bought the two Central Texas stores — one in Austin and the other in Round Rock — that were open before the franchise agreement was announced.

In the Austin area, three of the planned stores will be Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin-Robbins combos. Dunkin’ Brands Group owns the doughnut and ice cream concepts. The rest of the new stores in the Austin area will dedicated solely to Dunkin’ Donuts.

Coffee Action West is financed by Michael Karsch, whose investment management firm returned $1.8 billion to clients in 2013. Mulvey said the closure of Karsch’s investment firm has not affected the franchise group's efforts in the Austin area.

Former University of Texas quarterback Colt McCoy remains a “key member” of the Austin franchise group, Mulvey said.

“Our plans are unchanged,” Mulvey said. “We … are excited about our plans to bring at least 23 more locations to the Austin area over the next several years.”

Dunkin’ Brands says franchisees and licensees plan to open 380 to 410 new Dunkin’ Donuts stores and five to 10 new Baskin-Robbins locations throughout the United States this year.

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Belles of the Ballroom

9 Austin bar and venue experts take over popular Old Austin space near UT

29th Street Ballroom/Facebook

Changes are coming at the 29th Street Ballroom, but the goal is to preserve what already makes it special.

The evolution continues at the 29th Street Ballroom, the music venue formerly attached to Spider House Café. It's no secret, Resound Presents CEO and co-founder Graham Williams says, that he and a large team of other industry pros are taking over the space; but now they're ready to talk about what comes next for the venue and adjoining bar.

Although Spider House Café closed in 2020, the Ballroom stayed open, and has continued serving University of Texas students and anyone else who wants to see a show outside of the ordinary: punk shows, burlesque revues, fundraisers, and more. It'll stay open through most of the renovations, scheduled through January of 2025, and is expected to hold a grand opening in March.

Now Resound — one of Austin's top live music organizers, which was itself born from the ashes of another Austin institution — is lending two of its co-founders to managing the space going forward: Williams and Ian Orth. They're joining seven other team members from venues around town, many of them overlapping: Amy Mullins, Brian Tweedy, Jason McNeely, John Yaklin, and Shannon LeBoeuf of Hotel Vegas, Chess Club, Kinda Tropical, Tweedy’s, and Yellow Jacket Social Club, in varying capacities; and Brian Buscemi and Mike Sanchez of the Little Darlin’.

Williams emphasizes that although things will be changing at the Ballroom, the goal isn't to change anything people already love.

"Over the next few months as we kind of ease into the spring, we're using this downtime to revitalize things, decorate, revamp some of the stuff in the venue and the bar, and just kind of get things moving in the right direction," Williams says, "taking what's already popular about the venue and just adding to it, really."

Bar updates
The biggest shift will be turning the bar from an accessory to live shows into its own entity that's open even when there's nothing else going on. Amy Mullins, best known as a co-owner of Yellow Jacket Social Club, is overseeing that transition. She's never operated a venue that is primarily focused on music, and has been enjoying learning more about how to do it; she even worked the door recently when a staff member called out sick.

Mullins echoes Williams in assuring that the change is more about logistics than tone. It'll still feel like Old Austin, but she does express a hope to run more than the "typical venue bar," handing out simple drinks as quickly as possible. She's working on a new menu that includes wine, beer, craft cocktails, and non-alcoholic options like tea, kombucha, or mocktails. Regardless of what's on the schedule on any given night, Mullins says the menu will stay the same.

"There's no drink too complicated for us to make, however busy we are," she says.

Food options
Another goal for the team will be making sure the space works when there's not someone onstage to crowd around. They'll expand the front and side patios and create a food truck food court that features the same trucks that are there now, plus one newcomer. All in all, that includes Yalla Burger & Wings, Gyro Center, Li’l Nonna’s Vegan Pizzeria, Guppy’s Indian Fried Chicken, Waylon J’s BBQ, and Ay Chihuahua Tacos.

The expanded patio will connect to Tweedy's Bar next door, which also has its own food trucks. The idea is to create a space to hang out after shows that feels fit for the purpose. It's possible to stick around after events now, but the layout does create a vague feeling of loitering.

Artist and fan-friendly tweaks
On the entertainment side, Williams says some of the renovations include putting in a new sound system, redoing the green room, updating the facade, and repainting signs. Since the winter is a slower time for live music, they'll be taking advantage of the extra time to work on things before packing the calendar with more events than before. Resound will handle most of the bookings in live music, comedy, and DJ sets, welcoming both national and local talent.

Whatever the details end up being, this team has proved to Austinites that they know how to run venues worth visiting. And since they're all friends and business partners on multiple levels, it sounds like having this many cooks in the kitchen just isn't an issue.

"Some of us have been roommates and known each other since we were young," says Williams. "It's a good mix of people who are all very like minded, so a lot is being brought to the table per decision. So yeah, it's it's really exciting. Sometimes that's not the case. .... But with this project, it's a lot of really great, creative people that are good at what they do [and] they trust each other."

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