CAROLINA BEACH — A new donut and ice cream shop has joined the Carolina Beach restaurant scene.
Noah and Lexi Rudolph, the owners of OKI Scoop Shop and Donuts in Oak Island, are bringing their flavors to a second location to another beach town but under a new name. Beach Break Donuts opened to the public at 1009 N. Lake Park Blvd. on Monday, April 7.
A Kure Beach location is also in the works with anticipation to open next summer.
“So far, we’ve had great support,” Noah said, explaining that community members have been showing up to help them paint. “It looks really, really good in there, and the town has been absolutely phenomenal to work with. It seems like everyone’s excited for this.”
He runs the operations with his wife, Lexi, who he met as a college sophomore and married in May of 2023. Lexi is a local teacher in Carolina Beach, which largely inspired them to open up the second location in the area.
However, Noah first got into the donut-making business while a freshman at UNCW. To help pay for college, he and his dad partnered up to open OKI Scoop Shop and Donuts in 2017. After graduating in 2020 with a business and finance degree, Noah bought out his dad’s share.
“Dad is a professional restaurateur and mother is a phenomenal baker. It just made sense,” Noah said, describing the donut shop as “a box that hadn’t been checked yet.”
The shop specializes in customizable donuts, with up to 25,000 possible flavor combinations. Offering dozens of glazes, toppings and drizzle options, customers can tailor their order to craft the perfect donut.
“We started with just the basics, but people wanted more fun and creativity,” Noah said. “Now it’s like a donut lab— endless combos, custom options, seasonal drops and wild flavors we’ve created over time. It’s grown a ton and is still evolving every year.”
Noah’s favorite is the “French Toast,” a maple glaze with cinnamon sugar, because it reminds him of eating pancakes in the morning.
Other flavors include the “Triple Threat,” a chocolate glaze with peanuts and caramel swizzle, and the “Lemonade,” an original glaze with powdered sugar and lemon citrus swizzle.
In addition to the original menu, Noah is working on perfecting a protein donut along with some bodybuilding friends, using protein powder as a key ingredient.
“It’s the ultimate ‘dirty bulk,’” Noah said, explaining that a half dozen will contain 30 grams of protein and over 4,000 calories.
The shop will also serve ice cream crafted by Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream in Wisconsin, also offered at the OKI location. An award-winning brand, Chocolate Shoppe’s ice cream is nationally recognized and has won more than three times the Grand Master Ice Cream Maker award from the North American Ice Cream Association. The Rudolphs hope this brand will help their shop stand out against the other almost dozen ice creameries on the island.
“This stuff rivals any ice cream you’ve ever had,” Noah said.
Beach Break also offers dairy-free and gluten-free options for both donuts and ice cream, to provide desserts to all customers coming to Beach Break. This will include oat milk-based and sugar-free options.
“We’ve been working the last six months on perfecting a really good gluten-free donut,” Noah said. “I think it’s probably the best gluten-free donut I’ve ever had.”
Beach Break has partnered with Gluten Free By The Sea to serve individually wrapped gluten-free donuts to avoid cross contamination.
To round out the menu, Beach Break also serves coffee drinks. The shop procures beans from Cuban Coffee Queen, award-winning roasters in Key West. The shop will serve drinks from drip coffee and lattes to affogatos, one of Noah’s favorites.
“I like to get a little creative,” he said, explaining his love of the Italian dessert where espresso is poured over coffee. “Let’s say you have a caramel sea salt ice cream, and then you’re able to throw espresso over that. It’s great.”
He also has a reverse-osmosis system for the water to make the coffee..
The Beach Break shop currently has 10 employees and is looking to hire more help as they head into the upcoming tourist season.
Their grand opening will be held on April 14 at 9 a.m. Hours will be 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week starting April 7.
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