Cinnaholic, Berkeley

When I dream of baked goodie goodness, visions of cinnamon rolls dance in my head.  I haven't really had a cinnamon roll that knocked my socks off since going vegan, that is, until now. Cinnaholic is this amazing cinnamon roll utopia located in Berkeley, California.  Ever since seeing images of their rolls in VegNews, I've wanted to enjoy one and today was the day.

We spotted the orange awning from afar and parked right in front. When we walked in, we saw the specialty rolls on display and took a look at the menu. The possibilities are endless. You can top your roll with a variety of icings and toppings. It is a bit overwhelming. I mean, I really couldn't deal with it so after much hemming and hawing, I went for the specialty chocolate chip cookie dough roll.  Zach ordered a roll with mocha icing topped with brownie chunks and almonds. 

While we were ordering, one of those crazed Berkeley parking patrol people decided to ticket Zach's car -- a $43 parking ticket after about 3 minutes! You really need to watch it in this area. When Justin, the baker, rang us up, he told us he was allowed to give one free roll each day and he was giving it to Zach to help lessen the pain of the ticket. That was so nice!  He was really cool!

We sat down to enjoy the rolls at one of the tables. I had such high expectations that I was a bit worried they couldn't live up to them, but, boy, was I wrong. My roll was fresh and soft with a light vanilla icing. The chunks of cookie dough sprinkled with chocolate chips were an amazing complement to the icing. It all meshed together just as I had imagined. Wow!

Zach's was really, really good too. The mocha icing and brownie chunks were delish!  I found myself eating his and my roll at the same time.

Afterwards, we grabbed a brownie to go as well. As I was reluctantly moving towards the door, I noticed two tip jars. One was labeled "eat animals" while the other was labeled "love animals." Ack - eat animals?! I asked Justin why that was there and he said mostly to amuse himself and also to get people to make the connection. There was a little more money in the "eat animals" jar, which was very disturbing so I threw a buck into the "love animals" jar. Ha!

I now see why eating at Cinnaholic showed up in the bucket list of things every vegan should do before they die in VegNews. Yeah - this one should be on the top of your list.  These rolls are amazing! Highly recommended.