A Glazed & Amused thread
How a Czech pastry became a Texas donut-shop staple.
Walk into almost any donut shop in Texas and there's a second tray next to the glazed: kolaches.
Czech immigrants brought them. The first organized group left Bohemia in 1851 and came in through Galveston. By the 20th century there were about 250 Czech communities in Texas, most of them on the Blackland and Coastal prairies.
The first kolaches were sweet rounds of dough filled with fruit. Texas Czechs filled theirs with dewberries and prickly pear.
So how did kolaches end up next to the donuts? In the 1970s, Cambodian refugee Ted Ngoy built a donut business in California, and other Cambodian families followed him into the trade. Their shops spread into Texas, from Tyler to Seguin, and they baked kolaches alongside the rings and filled donuts.
By 2008, an estimated 90 percent of Houston's donut shops were Cambodian-owned.
That story starts in Los Angeles. Read The Pink Box.
Mark the calendar
Rolling out the map…
Positions are approximate.
113 E Oak St, West, TX · since 1952
The Montgomery family opened it in 1952 in a 1903 building, and KWTX calls it the first Czech bakery in the state. Before then, its co-owner told Texas Highways, kolaches showed up at weddings and gatherings, not in shops.
It closed in 2019 after baker Mimi Montgomery died. New owners Shelly and Darrell Miller reopened it on May 23, 2026, with the family's original klobasnek recipe.
Known for: Fruit kolaches and the original klobasnek
Written about, not listed. A Czech bakery, not a donut shop, so it lives on this trail rather than in the listings.
105 N College St (I-35, exit 353), West, TX · since 1983
A gas station and bakery on I-35 that has fed road-trippers since 1983. Fruit, cream cheese, poppy seed, and sausage with jalapeño.
An SUV drove into the storefront in March 2023. It stayed open.
Known for: Road-trip kolaches on I-35
Written about, not listed. A gas station bakery, so it lives on this trail rather than in the listings.
1103 W Gray St, Houston, TX
A small, family-run shop at the edge of River Oaks and Montrose, with free donut holes and a well-loved apple fritter.
In late 2014 it wrapped boudin in kolache dough. Houstonia called the result innately Houstonian: Czech Central Texas meets Cajun Louisiana.
Known for: The boudin kolache
5420 Lawndale St, Houston, TX (East End)
A neighborhood donut and kolache shop in the Greater East End.
The one people talk about is an oversized sausage-and-cheese kolache in buttery biscuit dough.
Known for: The giant biscuit-dough kolache
5446 W US Hwy 290, Austin, TX (Oak Hill) · since 2006
Frederick Hart and Pisey Seng opened it in Oak Hill in June 2006, and it turned 20 this year.
The kolache list reads like a map of Texas: sausage and cheese, jalapeño, boudin, and a picadillo with jalapeño and cheese. Open 5 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Known for: Donuts, tacos and kolaches on one counter
500 S Cherry Ln, Fort Worth, TX · since 1976
Family-run since 1976, in a midcentury building with pink trim on Fort Worth's Westside.
Locals come for the smoked sausage kolaches and stay for the blueberry cake donuts.
Known for: Smoked sausage kolaches
1487 Junction Hwy, Kerrville, TX
Hill Country's entry: fresh donuts plus a full run of fruit and meat kolaches, according to Kerrville's visitors bureau.
Known for: Fruit and meat kolaches
Once you notice the kolache tray, you'll see it in donut cases all over Texas, and in a few far from it. Here's what's near you.
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