Cinnamon Buns Across the Bay

Who: VegNews Associate Publisher Colleen Holland

What: A trip to to the East Bay for vegan cinnamon buns

Where: Berkeley, Calif.

When: June 10, 2011

Why: A visit to Cinnaholic was long overdue

The Scoop: It had been far too long since we ventured across the Bay for freshly baked cinnamon rolls at the all-vegan Cinnaholic bakery. So when some friends from England were in town recently, we knew their visit had to include a breakfast of these famous (for good reason) sticky buns.

As you walk into the adorable retro-style storefront, the sweet smell of cinnamon rolls lures you in. Batches of buns are baked all day long, so you know yours will always be fresh. Since Cinnaholic specializes in cinnamon rolls, choosing what you're going to eat is the easy part. It's the next step that presents a challenge, as now it's time to customize. On any given day, there could be 27 flavors of frosting, 30 options for toppings, a dozen specialty rolls, and even petite-sized baby buns—so the combinations are endless. For frostings, think butterscotch, caramel, cream soda, Irish cream, macadamia nut, pina colada, and root beer. For toppings, how about blackberries, brownie chunks, chocolate sauce, peanut butter, pomegranate seeds, shredded coconut, or walnuts. They even offer crushed candy canes and gingersnap cookies during the holidays.

After staring at the menu for about five minutes, I decided on vanilla frosting with chocolate chip cookie dough and sliced strawberries. It was amazing, I ate the whole thing, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

My customized creation at Cinnaholic—a fresh-from-the-oven bun topped with vanilla frosting, cookie dough, and strawberries

Let's say you want to leave it to the pros at Cinnaholic to design the perfect roll for you. What would that be? How about Mocha Almond (mocha frosting and toasted almonds), Oreo Explosion (vanilla frosting and Oreo cookies), or S'mores (vanilla frosting and graham crackers, chocolate chips, and marshmallows). There's always a specially priced bun-of-the-day, and UC Berkeley students get a generous discount. Coffee, tea, and hot cocoa are available, along with savory buns and the popular frosting shots. This unique vegan bakery is making believers out of the Berkeley community—one sumptuous bun at a time.

VegNews Publisher Joseph Connelly with his cinnamon bun (vanilla frosting and Oreo cookies) and our dear friend from England, Thomas Russell, who also went with the chocolate chip cookie dough/strawberry combo.

Cinnaholic Media Preview

Who: The VN editorial staff

What: Press event for opening of vegan bakery Cinnaholic

Where: Downtown Berkeley, Calif.

When: Friday, July 16, 2010

Why: Because everyone needs an excuse to eat cinnamon rolls and drink Champagne in the middle of the day. That's how we roll.

The Scoop: Cinnaholic vegan cinnamon buns have been pretty famous around the VNHQ for a while now—we savor their holiday treats and practically buy them out at SF Vegan Bake Sales. So imagine our pure delight when the grand opening of Cinnaholic's first bakery in downtown Berkeley finally came. Over the bridge and through the college town we went, straight to the front door of what easily could be death-by-cinnamon.

Immediately we soaked in the atmosphere—what owners Shannon Michelle and Florian Radke call "punk-rock meets pin-up." The cuteness of the shop, which will be decorated by rotating local art, was only surpassed when we caught glimpses of the first cinnamon rolls.

Cinnaholic owners Florian and

Shannon Michelle

Radke

We're not talking your average cinnamon roll. The genius behind Cinnaholic is that everything is customizable. The bakery offers 30 different flavors of frosting and toppings, all to be mixed and matched to your delight—oh, and it's all 100-percent vegan! So if you're in the mood for apple pie or Rocky Road, they've got you covered. For inspiration, Shannon Michelle says, "I tried to think of our favorite childhood treats. Rocky Road, chocolate-chip cookie dough, s'mores ... we incorporated some classic flavors that everyone loves like vanilla or strawberry and chose a few that just sounded interesting like piña colada and root beer. We were blown away at how good they tasted."

Cinnaholic's amazing cinnamon rolls

We were blown away too. Overall, it was a perfectly delicious Friday afternoon. Cinnaholic officially opens tomorrow, July 17. Get there early, these rolls are too good to miss!

VegNews Office Manager Lyndsay Orwig and Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria enjoying some Champagne.

Sugar Plum Vegan Bakery

Who: VN Managing Editor Elizabeth Castoria, VegWebmistress Laura Hooper Beck, and three honorary VN staffers
What: Northern California's first all-vegan bakery!
Where: Sugar Plum Vegan Bakery, Sacramento, Calif.
When: April 18, 2010
Why: The reason why we do most things: awesome vegan food

The Scoop: Maybe you've never considered the California state capital to be a "destination" city. Perhaps you've heard that it's not as glamorous as Napa, not as hip as San Francisco, and not as savvy as San Jose. Maybe you are wrong, dead wrong. On a recent staycation Sunday, a few brave adventurers—namely Laura, Peter, Khane, Cal, and yours truly—made our way up highway 80 to Sactown.

The case o' greatness at Sugar Plum Vegan Bakery

First of all, it was a gorgeous day, which always helps when falling in love with a new city. Second, we went straight for the good stuff—aka Sugar Plum. Having already thoroughly oggled the online menu, we were pleasantly surprised to arrive just as a batch of SPV's oversized cinnamon buns came out of the oven. Yes. We ordered two immediately.

Hello, cinnamon bun. Do you see that frosting?!

When the general excitement of the cinnamon smell abated long enough for us to be able to read again, we picked a tofu breakfast burrito, tempeh Reuben, and chef's salad. Um, let's talk for a second about Reubens, and why we should all eat one every day. It's because they are delicious, insanely so. SPV's version featured lightly toasted rye, crisp pickles, punchy sauerkraut, and perfectly flavored tempeh, all enveloped in vegan cheese and thousand island dressing. Heaven? Yes. Everything we ordered came out of the kitchen in record time, and was incredibly delicious. While we sat in the sun-drenched front patio and gorged, a steady line of eager diners marched into Sugar Plum, which we took as a good sign for the very recently opened eatery.

Tempeh Reuben. We could have eaten a dozen of these.

We easily could have eaten twice as much as we did, but only if we'd also thought to bring our extra stomachs with us. Instead, we took a leisurely (read: stuffed) stroll around the tree-lined neighborhood, sprawled for a while in a grassy park, stumbled upon Gluten Free Specialty Market—a totally gluten-free store, which carried a bunch of vegan goodies like the new retail packages of Daiya—and then headed back to SPV to pick up some sweet treats for the ride home. Among them were a chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing, an oatmeal-cookie sandwich, a burger (OK, that one's not-so sweet), and a cheddar biscuit. Amazing. Every last one. We are thrilled to announce that as soon as we convince the rest of the team, VegNews is officially moving to Sacramento. We're pretty sure the only convincing they'll need will be a taste of SVP's fantastic food.