Vegan Bakery Near Me in Brooklyn Heights: Cloudy Donut's Weekend Lineup

A Brooklyn Heights guide to Cloudy Donut Co. at 14 Columbia Place, the weekend-only 100% vegan donut shop, with flavor prices, timing, its Baltimore origin story and a Promenade walk.

Cloudy Donut Co. opens its Brooklyn Heights counter only three days a week, Friday through Sunday from 9am to 4pm, at 14 Columbia Place by Joralemon Street. Everything in the case is vegan, a mini donut costs $4 and a large one $6, and the shop calls itself the first 100% vegan donut store in New York City. If your vegan bakery near me search lands on a weekday, note the schedule and plan around it, because the door stays shut Monday to Thursday.

Plan a Brooklyn Heights Morning

Columbia Place is a short, quiet block on the western edge of Brooklyn Heights, tucked just above the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway trench. From the Borough Hall station on the 2, 3, 4 and 5 lines, walk west down Joralemon Street for about ten minutes, past the brownstones, until the street dips toward the waterfront. Court Street on the R is just as close. Arriving by ferry, the Pier 6 landing at Brooklyn Bridge Park is a short climb uphill.

The donut itself sets the shop apart. The dough is a soft, yeasted round the owners nicknamed the cloudy donut, and the FAQ explains exactly how they make it without eggs or dairy: applesauce, coconut milk and shortening replace the animal products, and every donut is fried in liquid vegetable shortening. They are not gluten-free, and the FAQ says so plainly. Some flavors contain nuts, and each one's description on the menu lists them.

The weekly lineup is the main event. From a bank of more than 40 recipes, the bakers choose six to eight donut flavors each week, plus cinnamon rolls and pound cakes at $8 each. Autumn regulars include Chai Spice, glazed and then sprinkled with a house mix of cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, allspice, clove, ginger and black pepper, and Sweet Potato, which is filled with buttery spiced sweet potato and topped with graham cracker pieces and toasted marshmallow fluff.

The citrus and cocktail flavors are the grown-up side of the menu. Blood Orange comes with a rosemary-infused glaze and a dehydrated blood orange slice. Margarita has lime glaze, fresh zest and a small pipette of margarita you squeeze in yourself, and Grapefruit Mimosa gets brûléed grapefruit and a pipette of champagne. Salted Caramel Whiskey rounds out that group. Ask which flavors are on the board that weekend, since the boozy ones rotate in and out.

For classic tastes, Boston Cream is vanilla cream inside a vegan milk chocolate dip, and Maple Butter Pecan uses 100% pure maple syrup glaze with toasted salted pecans. Red Velvet carries a cashew-based cream cheese glaze. The simplest choices are often the best test of the dough: Cinnamon Sugar, Powdered and Sugarberry, which is tossed in crushed dehydrated strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. In spring 2026 the shop also sold boxes of four minis with flavors like lemon pistachio and berry sage.

An honest tip on ordering. The heavily loaded donuts, such as Cookie Monster with blue glaze, candy eyes and cookie crumbs, or Cotton Candy topped with actual cotton candy, are fun for kids but bury the soft dough under sugar. If you only have room for one large donut, skip those and take a Chai Sugar or Cinnamon Sugar, which shows off the texture people come for. Then buy minis at $4 to sample the wilder glazes.

Timing is everything with a three-day schedule. The bakers make small batches, so popular flavors can sell out well before the 4pm close, especially on Saturday. Arrive close to the 9am opening for the full lineup. The shop posts each week's flavors on Instagram and Facebook and sends them to its email list, so subscribers know before they walk over whether the Sweet Potato or the Boston Cream is on that weekend.

There is no reservation system, and preorders go through DoorDash or Grubhub. The FAQ says if you forget to pick up an app order, you deal with that app. If Brooklyn Heights has sold out, your plan B is the sister shop at 209 Mott Street in Nolita, open Friday to Sunday from 11am to 6pm, two hours later than Brooklyn. The R from Court Street to Prince Street leaves you about four blocks away.

The space is small and designed with care. The founders say they curate the music, the merchandise and even the weekly flavor storytelling, aiming for a boutique feel rather than a fast-food donut counter. Expect a weekend mix of Brooklyn Heights families on stroller duty, Pier 6 playground parents buying a dozen for a birthday, and vegan visitors who came across the river specifically for this. Gift cards are sold at the Brooklyn Heights counter only.

The story behind the shop is unusual. Derrick and Justin Faulcon started Cloudy Donut in Baltimore in 2020, after Derrick, who owns the brunch spot Home Maid, took over a vegan donut shop he loved as a regular. The Brooklyn Heights store opened in fall 2022 under founder Derrick Faulcon and co-owner Zewiditu Jewel, who described their approach to Time Out as bringing a Black business into affluent neighborhoods for visibility. It became the neighborhood's first documented Black-owned food business.

Carry your box west and the day builds itself. Walk down Joralemon Street toward the water and into Brooklyn Bridge Park, where Pier 6 has playgrounds and lawns facing Governors Island. Or head north a few blocks to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, which starts at Remsen Street and runs above the expressway with a straight-on view of Lower Manhattan. Brooklyn Heights was the first neighborhood New York designated as a historic district, in 1965, so the brownstone side streets reward slow wandering.

Some practical notes. Donuts contain no preservatives, and the shop advises eating them within 13 hours at room temperature, while cinnamon rolls and pound cakes keep two to three days. They do not ship and do not make custom donuts, though they offer holiday and occasion packages and catering by phone. The Brooklyn Heights address is 14 Columbia Place, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Street parking in the Heights is tight on weekends, so the subway or a Citi Bike is the easier option.

Who should go: anyone who misses old-fashioned yeast donuts after going vegan, parents planning a Saturday at the Pier 6 playground, and friends who like a rotating menu that changes every week. Who might pass: gluten-free eaters, since nothing here fits that need, and anyone who can only visit Monday to Thursday. For everyone else, a Friday morning at 9am, a Chai Sugar and a walk to the Promenade is about as good as a Brooklyn weekend start gets.

Ask Karpo for more information.