diff --git a/saltapi/netapi/rest_cherrypy/__init__.py b/saltapi/netapi/rest_cherrypy/__init__.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/saltapi/netapi/rest_cherrypy/__init__.py
+++ b/saltapi/netapi/rest_cherrypy/__init__.py
@@ -69,8 +69,10 @@ import saltapi
 
 logger = salt.log.logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
+TEMPLATES_DIR = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'tmpl')
+
 jenv = jinja2.Environment(loader=jinja2.FileSystemLoader([
-    os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'tmpl'),
+    TEMPLATES_DIR,
 ]))
 
 def __virtual__():
@@ -541,7 +543,7 @@ class API(object):
                 'tools.gzip.on': True,
 
                 'tools.staticdir.on': True,
-                'tools.staticdir.dir': apiopts.pop('static', None),
+                'tools.staticdir.dir': apiopts.pop('static', TEMPLATES_DIR),
             },
         }
Added better default for staticdir

The 'tmpl' directory is somewhat arbitrary, but it's a place on the
filesystem that we know will exist. If we ever put salt-ui static file
builds in this repo that will also be a good place for them.

Thanks to dthom<I> for the bug report!