The Salty Donut: Still Glazy After All These Years

Ten years ago, Wynwood still felt like a secret. The art walls were new, parking was free, and you could still stumble into something cool without seeing it first on Instagram. That’s when a small, restored 1950s Aljoa camper popped up in Wynwood one weekend and started serving doughnuts that didn’t look or taste like anything else in Miami.

The camper was the idea of South Florida natives Amanda Pizarro Rodriguez and her then-boyfriend, now husband, Andy Rodriguez; a Miami couple with a fryer, a pop-up permit, and a vision that most people didn’t quite understand yet.

Miami wasn’t known for its doughnuts, let alone artisanal ones filled with guava and cream cheese or topped with brûléed meringue. But people lined up anyway. Then they kept coming back. And soon, the Salty became a local phenomenon.

The Chaos and the Camper Days

The couple’s weekends in a Wynwood parking lot quickly became a citywide ritual. “The first few weeks were just excitement and community,” Amanda recalls. “Then it turned into chaos. The lines got longer, the heat got worse, and we were trying to keep up.” Locals would drive from Kendall, Coral Gables, or Broward just to stand in line for hours for the buttery and soft brioche doughnuts. Andy ran the register. Amanda packed boxes and delivered batches from a commissary kitchen in North Miami. “We had people fainting in line,” she says, laughing. “We had no idea what we were doing, but the energy kept us going.”

Those early months were messy, exhausting, and exactly what Miami didn’t know it needed. The Salty Donut had carved its own corner of Miami life, proof that something handmade, playful, and deeply local could also be worth the wait.

From Pop-Up Camper to a Permanent Wynwood Fixture

By the time their first permanent shop opened in Wynwood in 2016, Miami’s dining scene was shifting, too. Third-wave coffee was booming. Panther Coffee and Zak the Baker were household names. The Salty Donut naturally joined that wave, merging pastry techniques with Cuban nostalgia, as seen in their now-iconic guava and cheese doughnut or their smoked cortadito, inspired by Amanda’s grandmother’s cafe con leche trick: always add a pinch of salt.

“It was important for us to make it feel like Miami,” Andy says. “We didn’t want to do classic French pastry; we wanted flavors people here would recognize, but elevated.”

Soon after came a second shop in South Miami, then a leap few would have predicted. In 2020, their third location opened in Dallas. “We loved Texas. It was growing fast and had the kind of food culture we wanted to be part of.” Dallas worked. Then came Austin, Tampa, Orlando, Charlotte, and Nashville. Today, the company has 21 locations in seven states, with additional locations planned for the future.

Dropping “Donut” and a Menu Expansion

Somewhere along the way, the Salty Donut became simply the Salty. The rebrand occurred four years ago, in March of 2020, right at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — long before the menu was updated. “We just didn’t want to box ourselves in,” Andy says. “We always knew we wanted to do more than donuts.”

That “more” officially arrived in May of this year with a new menu, which turned the Salty into something closer to an all-day café. The new lineup includes croissant sandwiches, toasts, and salads, alongside the classics that made them famous.

The expansion wasn’t random. It was inspired by “Salty Sundays,” small neighborhood markets Amanda used to organize at the South Miami shop years ago. “We’d bake loaves of bread, cookies, croissants… people loved it,” she says. “We stopped when things got too busy, but that idea stayed with us.”

Miami Roots That Travel

Even as the brand expanded across the country, its Miami roots remained obvious and apparently contagious. In markets like Dallas and Denver, they initially tried to tone down the Latin flavors, assuming no one would care about guava or coquito. They were wrong. “We’d get emails like, ‘Where’s the guava doughnut?’” Andy says. “Turns out everyone wants a little taste of Miami.”

The Salty’s reach mirrors a bigger story: Miami restaurants finding an audience well beyond city limits. For years, the city’s reputation was defined by restaurants imported from New York or L.A. Now, homegrown brands like the Salty, Coyo Taco, and Pura Vida are expanding nationwide, rather than waiting for someone else to arrive.

“For the first time, Miami isn’t just receiving ideas from other cities,” Andy says. “It’s sending them out. It’s cool to see that we can go to places like Nashville or Dallas and bring a little bit of Miami there, and have people love it.”

The Future Looks Sweet (And Salty)

Ten years in, the brand that started in a camper is still evolving. The Salty’s latest act includes its first-ever product that ships nationwide, giving fans a way to get a taste no matter where they live. Amanda teases it as “a mash-up nobody’s done before,” the result of months of testing to make sure it travels well. There’s also a local celebration planned this December at the Wynwood shop: a smaller, more nostalgic version of their early “Donut Day” parties, which once drew hundreds. “It just feels right to bring it back home,” Amanda says.

The next chapter for the Salty is about making the brand a part of people’s daily routine, not just a weekend treat. “You can pay almost the same price for a drink made with artificial syrup somewhere else,” Andy says. “Or you can come here and get something made from scratch, with real ingredients. The question now is how to make that choice as easy and convenient as possible.” There’s talk of grocery partnerships, more café-style stores, and continued growth across the US. But the non-negotiables remain the same. “Innovation, quality, and guest experience,” Andy says. “The goal is to keep surprising people.”

Ten years ago, the Salty was a Wynwood destination for foodies. Now it’s a national brand that still feels like it belongs to Miami — and that will always be the sweetest part.

The Salty. Multiple area locations, including 50 NW 24th St., Ste. 107, Miami; 305-639-8501; saltydonut.com.