One of Philly’s best pizzerias is making doughnuts—but only on Saturdays

It’s 6 a.m. on a Saturday, and Russell Johnson is inside Sally’s kitchen rolling out balls of dough. By 11 a.m. brunch service at the Fitler Square restaurant, the baker has fried, filled, and glazed over 100 of them.

But it’s not the restaurant’s delicious pies, Johnson is prepping for the day. Rather, it’s fluffy, sweet yeast doughnuts featuring weekly rotating flavors capturing the attention of weekend brunchgoers inside and curious passersby outside.

Each weekend from 11 a.m. to sellout, doughnuts with glossy glazes (black sesame, matcha tea and strawberry) and creamy fillings (espresso ricotta, yuzu and pink peppercorn curd) are up for sale in the restaurant’s retail wine shop space — or on a table outside when the weather’s warm — with eager customers lining up 15 minutes before to snag one or a dozen.

“There’s loads of people out there; and on a really nice Saturday morning, the energy on on this block is really great,” said David Kupperberg, chef at Sally.

It’s been almost a month since the team at Sally began their doughnut popup-menu, scaling production up each weekend as demand for them outside the kitchen and flavor ideas inside grow — the restaurant sold about 65 doughnuts on the first Saturday, and now sells out more than 100 within an hour.

Creating a comfortable environment with approachable food is at the core of the restaurant’s philosophy, he added. It’s what led the team to start this doughnut passion project.

Looking for fun, new ways to expand the menu, owner Cary Borish and his team (including Kupperberg, Johnson — who joined the team in January, and general manager Nick Jannelli) tossed around ideas until someone mentioned doughnuts, which felt like the ”perfect vehicle” for the ideas that come up in the team’s creative brainstorming, Kupperberg recalled.

Johnson’s yeast doughnuts — made with sugar, melted butter, milk, and eggs — offer a tender, fluffy base for inventive flavors, and often, ingredients repurposed from the restaurant’s main menu, including the homemade ricotta that’s infused with espresso for the tiramisu doughnut and the yuzu and pink peppercorn curd previously used in a tartlet dessert for the black sesame glaze doughnut.

“[Doughnuts] felt like something that we could do in a very Sally kind of way, meaning taking it very seriously and do it at a very high level, but also offering something a little cheeky, unexpected,” Kupperberg said.

“The thing that’s special about Sally isn’t necessarily the pizza or the natural wine,” Janelli added. “We have a vibe and an aesthetic that really clicks for people. The doughnuts are an outcropping of that, the same way that the pizza is; they come from the same origin of wanting to do something that is fun, comforting, and approachable, but also has a lot of potential to be really different.”

The team plans to keep making doughnuts as long as Philadelphians are lining up for them. “As long as it feels authentic and feels like a natural expression of what we do here, it feels like a good thing to do to me,” Kupperberg said.

Doughnuts are available on Saturdays, from 11 a.m. to sellout, for $5 a piece or $27 a dozen. Bunch diners can order doughnuts, but folks in line will be prioritized.

Sally: 2229 Spruce St., 267-773-7178, sallyphl.com