Cinnaholic, where “every cinnamon roll is 100% plant-based, scratch-made, and fully customizable,” began in 2010, with a small bakery in Berkeley, California. Aftere gaining national attention from a 2014 pitch made on the TV show Shark Tank, Cinnaholic expanded into a franchising system that currently has over 100 locations in the U.S. and Canada. Now, thanks to a young family of vegans, Cinnaholic has established itself in Chelsea (228 Eighth Ave. btw. W. 21st & 22nd Sts.). We recently spoke wtih ownership, in anticipation of a Ribbon Cutting on October 7. Our conversation yielded the below Q&A. (All photos courtesy of Cinnaholic.)

All Are Invited to Join Cinnaholic Chelsea for their Ribbon Cutting Event  Wednesday, October 7, 5:30pm to 6:30pm, At 228 Eighth Ave. (btw. W. 21st & 22nd Sts.). WITH: Remarks from The Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce (GVCCC), Local Elected Officials, and Owners Chance & Zoë! / Promotional T-Shirt Giveaways! / Free Samples of Cinnabuns, Cinnacakes, Mini Cookies, and more! / Red Ribbon Cut by Two Kids with One Oversized Pair of Scissors / The Lucky Raffle Winner Gets 1 Free Roll, Per Week, for 1 Year!

Scott Stiffler, for Chelsea Community News (CCNews): Chance, you are owner/operator, along with Zoe. How did the two of you come to work together—and end up in NYC?

 Chance Dean, for Cinnaholic (Chance): My wife (Zoë) and I had fallen in love with Cinnaholic as customers ourselves when we lived in California. There was a location between our home and my family’s home. So every Sunday, we’d bring Cinnaholic as the dessert option for family get-togethers. Myself, Zoë, and our two daughters (Harvie 7, and Odette, 2), are vegan. So given the different diets of various family members, a meal could be complicated for us to enjoy together—but Cinnaholic became the egg-free/dairy-free dessert that everyone loved, and looked forward to.

 Zoë and I first met on-stage when we were cast as romantic leads in a play in 2008, and had always loved working together. When we finally made the move to NYC a few years ago to plant roots—the city had always been home in our hearts since visiting separately as ten-year-olds/living here before we met. We realized we needed to think outside of the box to make raising a family here possible, so we put everything on the line, went with a brand that we loved, believed in, and had proven to bring our own family together.    

CCNews: What is it about the ingredients that makes Cinnaholic a (healthier) more friendly choice? 

Chance: All of our products are egg-free and dairy-free, which means they are cholesterol-free, however we are not claiming they are a healthy food! They are still delectable sweet treats! Our frosting is SWEET! We have 20+ different frosting flavors to choose from, 20+ different toppings. The rolls are fresh-baked to order, they are light and fluffy—you would never be able to tell they are egg/dairy-free. 

CCNews: Besides the classic Cinnabun, what are some of the most notable variations you offer—and prior to your grand opening, what variations have proven most popular with Chelsea customers?

Chance: Our rolls are certainly versatile and can be enjoyed plain, with frosting on the side, as mini baby buns on the go (bite-size rolls that come with a side of frosting); or stacked high with frosting and toppings. Chelsea, so far, has been a big fan of the cream cheese frosting, the marshmallow frosting, and everyone always loves our cookie monster roll with cookie dough, chocolate chips, and chocolate drizzle.  

CCNews: What are some of the other items on the menu?

Chance: We offer catering—Cinnacakes—our cinnamon rolls as a cake! Cookie cakes, and assorted trays with baby buns, mini cookies and other bitesize treats, as well as any of our rolls by the dozen. Everything is customizable. 

We have a brownie that is a game-changer (and is the only item we can make gluten-free with advanced notice) cookie dough that we can sell by the tub 8 oz/16 oz – since it’s egg/dairy-free can be eaten right from the tub as a snack! 

Our cookies/cookie dough come in either chocolate chip or cinnadoodle (our take on snickerdoodle) flavors. 

We also have chocolate chip banana bread (probably our least sweet treat) as well as other seasonal items. 

Pumpkin season is finally here! We have a delicious pumpkin spice roll with pumpkin spice frosting, cinnadoodle cookie bites, pumpkin bread bites, cinnamon sugar, and pumpkin spice drizzle.  

We offer “not a roll” using a fruit base instead of a roll for frosting/toppings, as a gluten free option, as well as Dole whip soft-serve, and delicious coffee from Coffee Project New York.  We also offer glass bottle coca cola, fanta, sprite, hot chocolate, mini vanilla/chocolate soy milk, and hot teas. 

CCNews: Prior to opening in Chelsea, you had a Times Square location. Why did you move from that neighborhood, and how did you end up in Chelsea?

Chance: The Times Square location was an effort to get open when numerous storefront leases fell through at the last moment, we kept losing out to established brands in the city and their expansions. We thought we could get on the delivery apps—but that proved to be a sinking ship, since the market was oversaturated and we did not have funding for enough marketing. But we did gain an extremely loyal customer base: Sixty percent of sales at the Times Square store were repeat customers, but we simply didn’t reach enough people to make it sustainable. When we realized business in the ghost kitchen was not going to improve, we ventured back out to look at storefront options.

We fell in love with 228 Eighth Ave. The spot itself was everything we had dreamed of, renovated and new, but still with character and honoring history, as is emblematic of many buildings in Chelsea; open wide so you can see all the way through—for customers to almost be a part of the action in the kitchen; and right next door to one of our family’s favorite restaurants, Spicy moon! Everytime we visited the area, we had some kind of positive experience; struck up a conversation with a neighbor.

So we signed the lease…And then our bank loan for the expansion fell through. We tried everything to find funding. Finally, we were just one hour away from auctioning off all our equipment from the ghost kitchen to try to pay something on the first loan, figuring out where we could move our family to and still commute to our day-jobs in the city…And then a miracle happened. Our general contractors, Women And Construction told us we had come too far to stop now, that they believed in us, the product, and they would help us out with the construction, in exchange for equity in the business. 

We are a small family business, with very little financial runway to turn this dream into reality. But we do have our hearts, our incredible team of bakers, and our belief in every product we have to offer. Making Cinnaholic Chelsea a place with something for every taste, a place that’s warm and welcoming every day of the week—that’s the connection we want to foster, to see customers become a community. My wife is a family therapist at a nonprofit (about to step down due to the needs of the bakery), and I am a high school theatre teacher on LES, which means, I basically teach connection and vulnerability. These have become the two pillars that support our family, and strengthen our resolve to make this dream of ours happen.

CCNews: Thanks for your time, and feel free to talk about anything you’d like our Chelsea readership to know, that we didn’t cover in the above questions…

Chance: We are overwhelmed by just how kind the Chelsea community has been to us. From our direct neighbors in the stores around us, to those who have turned into customers, many wide-eyed when trying a roll and unable to believe they are egg/dairy-free! The biggest gift is being able to hand an order to someone who doesn’t usually get to partake in decadent, indulgent desserts due to an allergy. It is the best feeling to see the smiles on their faces. We are so grateful for the opportunity to be able to bring that joy to people. 

We took a risk, have found ourselves in a wonderful community, and hope to remain, and become an integral part of it for many, many years to come. 

You will often see me working in the kitchen until close, after a day of teaching, please feel free to say hi and help me stay awake! Zoë is in and out, arranging social media influencers to come in, the girls often make an appearance on the weekends and can’t be missed…they’re the kids covered head-to-toe in frosting 🙂 

Very importantly, did I mention?…We offer catering—the perfect, inclusive, solution for gatherings, events, meetings, and celebrations small and large.

Thank you so much for taking the time to learn about us! Please follow us on Instagram: @cinnaholicnyc.

CINNAHOLIC CHELSEA

228 Eighth Ave. (btw. W. 21st & 22nd Sts,)

9am-11pm = Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed

9am-12am, Thurs, Fri, Sat

Menu: cinnaholic.order.tryperdiem.com

Instagram: @cinnaholicnyc  / Phone: 212-381-1535 

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