Doughnut Time's Comeback Has Started with the Opening of Two New Brisbane Stores

It was the sweet treat chain that rose faster than yeasty baked goods, then sunk like your stomach when you've eaten too much sugar. After closing down its 30 stores earlier this year during the collapse of then-owner Damien Griffith's hospitality empire, Doughnut Time is now set to return — imminently — under new owners and managers.

Talk of a comeback has been happening for months, it was first announced in August 2018, but now it's actually happening, with four new Queensland stores opening before Christmas. Two stores have opened their mint green doors — in Brisbane City Myer Centre and on Grey Street in South Bank — along two on the Gold Coast

And that's just for starters. Melbourne is expected to get three new stores, in Fitzroy and Hawthorn and on Degraves Street, and Sydney is expected to nab a new store or two in early 2019.

With the chain now overseen by Queensland entrepreneur Peter Andros, Doughnut Time is eager to put the brand's past behind it — a situation that not only saw its previous stores shuttered without warning, but left many of its staff unpaid. "We think what happened to past employees is unacceptable," the company wrote on Facebook.

Fans and sugar fiends should prepare their tastebuds for a dose of the old and the new when the fresh batch of stores start cooking up a storm. Hit flavours like the Cate Blanchett (a milk chocolate doughnut covered in Tim Tam pieces) have been teased on social media, as have new vegan, gluten free, high protein, low sugar and keto options.

The stores launched with free doughnut giveaways. An interesting way to launch a company that has a past tainted by liquidation and unpaid wages, but let's hope, in this case, history doesn't repeat itself.

Find Doughnut Time at the Brisbane City Myer Centre, 91 Queen Street, Brisbane City, and 186 Grey Street, South Bank. The Melbourne store are set to open soon — we'll let you know when they do. 

Updated: January 8, 2019.