A new vegan bakery called Cinnaholic hosted its grand opening at 5305 2nd st in Long Beach.
James McLean, owner of the bakery said, “Yeah this is a franchise. We are the 55th store in Southern California, where there are 4 stores around us right now. There is us (Long Beach), LA, Echo Park, Corona, and then Brea.”
Cinnaholic was in progress of opening in February, 2020 and McLean said, “The pandemic hit, then we closed everything down in March. We are to-go food so even if the pandemic continues we can succeed.”
We spoke to Jenie Lin, an employee at Happycow on 4th and Redondo in Long Beach, who is also vegan. Happycow is an app that shares vegan and vegetarian food options. They are supportive of vegan establishments.
Although Cinnaholic’s grand opening is during the pandemic, Lin said, “It’s a good time to open since everything is reopening again, people are excited about going out.”
Lin said, “I love the fact that they’re (Cinnaholic) promoting the thing we identify as comfort food, in a vegan format.”She also feels the more vegan establishments, the better.
Lin and McLean are both advocates for veganism.
Lin said, “It’s the philosophy of just trying to be more aware, more humane, more compassionate and if your food is from a less cruel source then why not embrace it?”
When asked about the importance of veganism, McLean said, “I think it aids in culture that can be sustained without harming animals, and just leaves a lower carbon footprint overall, just a little bit better in society.”
As he mentioned before, this is a franchise. McLean would often watch Shark Tank and saw individuals make ideas into reality. He knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur and work for himself.
The Cinnaholic grand opening started at 10am and included a live DJ. The event had raffles with gifts such as mugs, sunglasses, hand sanitizer, and speakers.
McLean was inspired and said, “I wanted to build something sustainable without endangering the environment too much, something I can leave for my kids … I was born and raised in Long beach so this was the perfect place I wanted to place my business … I’m here to stay.”
McLean also mentioned that he doesn’t feel much pressure when it comes to competing with the baking scene in Long Beach.
“We’re a unique new product. There are sweet deals down the street and they do sell cinnamon rolls, but they’re nothing compared to what we have,” McLean said.