Auckland’s Hill House Cafe has been making its popular “Cinna-buns” from a family recipe for years but is in desperate need of a new name for them after a US company brought its chain to NZ.
The Hillsborough cafe is being forced to change the name of the gooey spicy pull-apart cinnamon buns and has put the call out for suggestions.
Hill House Cafe co-owner Leilana Meredith told RNZ’s Checkpoint: “Our beloved bun for the last three years – that our community has grown an attachment to and been nominated for one of our iconic Auckland eats – is now no longer.”
The gooey and currently unnamed cinnamon buns from Auckland's Hill House Cafe.
She said a US company, which has brought its chain to New Zealand, sent the cafe a cease-and-desist letter saying it can no longer use the name or anything close to it.
“Everybody’s heartbroken, the team’s heartbroken. So are the customers. It’s the only name we’ve known for the last three years.”
It was hard being a small local New Zealand business, she said.
“We thought there was room for everybody, and to be honest, a lot of bakeries and cafes use the same name. But I guess we’ve been targeted because ours is so good.”
The cafe uses a recipe created by executive chef Ricardo’s grandmother.
“We took that on from the beginning, we’ve got our own secret icing, we’ve got a delicious mix of three premium nuts, and they come out hot and fresh, guaranteed every morning, 9am, at both our Hill House Cafe and our farmhouse cafes. People just go crazy for it,” Meredith said.
“It’s cinnamon gooey, a good mix of sweets and just so fluffy and light. It is a symphony of flavours, an explosion of flavours in your mouth.”
She said the business was prepared to fight against the US corporate until they found out how much it would cost.
“We were up against the wall. It’s in the thousands and for just a small cafe, we can’t afford to go up against the big US company who has the millions of dollars.
“We decided to pick our battle and instead reach out to the community who have supported us and [who] love the bun with currently no name to create a new one.”
The cafe put a post online on Tuesday night, asking the community for help with a new name for the cinnamon buns.
“At the moment we’re trying to get used to not using the name. We put a post out last night to the community, so we’re having fun going through some of the suggestions that have come through. We have received a lot of support online, so we’re really thankful.”
She said the cafe was looking to have new name ideas for the buns by next week.
“We’d love them in the next week so we can sit down and hopefully announce the new name at the beginning of the new month.”
