This Fort Worth shop owner says, ‘Making doughnuts is my favorite thing in life’
.jpg "Haytham Mousa with a full cabinet at Mousa Donut in Fort Worth. (He took his mask down for the photo,)")
A new doughnut shop in the Fort Worth south side has a very old-school owner.
Haytham Mousa brings nearly 30 years of experience to his own shop, Mousa Donut, 201 W. Rosedale St.
From the outside, Mousa looks like another neighborhood doughnut stand.
But inside, it’s a throwback to his decades of work on his old job at nearby Paul’s Donuts, a 50-year local landmark from the days when national doughnut shop chains were introducing us to doughnuts filled with cream or dusted with powdered sugar.
The Mousa display case is meticulously filled with more flavors and colors than most shops: orange glazed, maple glazed, strawberry, red-velvet-cream-cheese and beginning this week, a rich chocolate-chocolate like Paul’s served in the old days.
“Making doughnuts is my favorite thing in life,” Mousa said.
“Everybody loves doughnuts. Kids love doughnuts. Adults love doughnuts. When you have a doughnut, you feel like a kid.”
Generations of Fort Worth kids grew up on the doughnuts Mousa baked with a relative, Hany Sharaf, at three Paul’s locations. He started at founder Paul Raby’s shop on Eighth Avenue, then moved with Paul’s to West Rosedale Street and finally to Hemphill Street. Earlier, Raby had worked for the old Dutch Maid Do-Nut Shop since the 1950s.
(The current Paul’s continues under a new owner.)
“We want to make doughnuts the old-time way,” Mousa said.
He’s using Dawn Foods’ flours and doughnut mixes, a premium brand.
The apple fritters and cinnamon rolls taste like old times, not like the prefab ones you get today at any McDonald’s drive-thru.
Glazed doughnuts are the big seller, but the raspberry-filled frosted variety is close, and apple fritters are selling stronger than at his old shop.
The price is also old-school: $4.99 per dozen.
(Yes, that’s per dozen, not per doughnut.)
Mousa also sells sausage kolaches and croissants, but for a sausage kolache, I’d go to one of the several locations of Houston-based Shipley’s.
“That seems like the only doughnut chain that’s growing,” he said.
Mousa talked almost wistfully about doughnut shops of the past.
“Remember that Dunkin’ Donuts on Berry? That was a busy place. And the Camp Bowie [Boulevard] location was crowded day and night.
“Winchell’s — that was the busy place here in its day,” he said, remembering when Paul’s competed against the California-based chain for hospital district business.
“You can’t run a doughnut shop as a big corporate business anymore,” he said.
“It has to be a family business. You have to be responsible. You have to be there every morning, on time for the customers. You can’t have employees who aren’t on time.”
Mousa Donuts also sells basic coffee, juices and bottled water.
It opens at 6 a.m. daily and closes at 2 p.m.; 817-903-4387, mousa-donut.business.site.
This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
