CAROLINA BEACH — Nothing quite says warmer days are ahead than the announcement of Britts Donuts opening on the Carolina Beach Boardwalk.
In 2022, the 80-plus-year institution will open for the season on April Fools Day according to the Island Gazette, Carolina Beach’s newspaper since 1978.
Britts’ hours will be Friday, 4 p.m. – 10 p.m., Saturday, 8:30 a.m. – 10 p.m., and Sunday, 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. until Memorial Day. Then the shop will be open seven days a week until right after Labor Day, when it closes again for the season.
Britts has been operating on the boardwalk since 1939 and remains a doughnut hotspot across the region and nation. The institution has been recognized by Food + Wine, Our State, Saveur, even National Geographic magazines.
Bobby Nivens purchased Britts 50 years ago, though his relationship with the doughnuts began when he was a teenager. Nivens started working for original owner H.L. Britt as a high-school student in 1954 and bought the shop in 1972.
Last year, Nivens told Port City Daily he doesn’t count how many doughnuts are sold from Britts annually. However, he estimates when he bought the business it was churning out 20% less than it does today. The doughnuts’ popularity grow every year, Nivens said, but especially over the last decade.
And only he, his wife and daughter know what goes into each batch. Nivens is so protective over the Britts recipe, he won’t allow photographers into the back of the kitchen any longer to snap shots of the process.
“Once, I let somebody from a magazine go back there and take pictures,” he told PCD in 2022, “and the next thing I know, two or three years later, there was a video on the internet about how to make our doughnuts. Somebody took the recipe — of course, it’s not the true recipe — but they tried, and they sold it to the internet.”
The crispy, light doughnuts come only one way, glazed, each hand-rolled, fried to order, and served piping hot. Around five people make up the assembly line in the kitchen while three or four servers keep the customer line down the boardwalk moving quickly.
The sweet treats cost around a buck each or up to $10 a dozen and the restaurant only accepts cash.
Below is Port City Daily’s interview with Nivens from last spring as the doughnut shop was moving into high gear Memorial Day weekend.
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