SAN ANTONIO – Fresh donuts and delicious breakfast tacos. There’s no better combination. And for years, the Original Donut Shop has made it its mission to give customers the best of both worlds.
Patrick Morris opened the shop on Fredericksburg Road in 1954 under a different name.
"He loved donuts and wanted a place where he could have donuts anytime he wanted, so he started the company and it was called Hot Donuts,” said Patricia Lopez, controller at the Original Donut Shop.
Hot Donuts was an immediate success. So much so that in the early '80s, the Morris family decided to expand with a kitchen and start serving breakfast tacos and Mexican food.
It also changed its name to the Original Donut Shop around the same time.
The shop remains a family restaurant where customers sit, talk, laugh and more important — a place that tastes like home.
“Some of your fondest memories are going to be around food,” said Lopez. “It’s going to be around the smells, the tastes, the conversation and laughter. We’re sort of an extension of that, your family table.”
The donut shop has remained in the same location for 65 years and to this day, the bakers get in at 2 a.m. to get the donuts ready while the cooks arrive at 4 a.m. to start making the food.
It’s the people behind the counter that make the shop what it is today: people like Olga Diaz, who has been a cashier at the shop for more than 30 years.
“I come on the bus at 4:30 a.m.,” Diaz said. "I never drive. Raining or not raining, I’m here.”
“The feeling is that we are not just an employer, employee we are a work family,” Lopez said.
The shop has gone through some recent changes in order to keep up with customer demand and drive thru lines that as many people know, sometimes extend out to Fredericksburg Road.
The shop recently started to accept credit and debit cards for purchases and has now expanded its drive thru hours to 6 p.m. daily with a full menu and donuts.
Customers have been eating at the shop for years, but one of the biggest debates remains. Tacos or donuts?
“I find that people that come into for tacos,” said Lopez. "They inevitably see the donut counter or smell the donuts and are like, ‘Well, you know what, I definitely need to get a dozen.’”
As the Original Donut Shop moves into the future, there are still links to the past.
People share their stories on the shop’s social media pages, reminiscing about great food and the family atmosphere.
"I cant tell you how many stories I have heard about people who say, 'I sat at this very counter with my grandmother or my great grandmother, my great grandmother would take my mom and now I’m taking my kids,’” Lopez said.