Fiona Hannah is selling her cafe Cinnamonui. Photo / Logan Tutty
Fiona Hannah is selling her cafe Cinnamonui. Photo / Logan Tutty
Popular Victoria Ave cafe Cinnamonui is selling its shop - but won't be going out of business.
Fiona Hannah and Paula Theron are going back to what ignited their passion for food and baking - making their No 1-selling cinnamon scrolls.
They say they are selling their shopto concentrate 100 per cent on producing cinnamon scrolls to focus on the markets and stocking their best-seller for various shops, including cafes and supermarkets.
They are in talks with a number of Four Squares in Whanganui, but admit it has been an arduous process.
Hannah says she also sees another benefit of selling up shop.: "Once we are no longer a cafe, we are nobody else's competition so we can start to supply other people."
Cinnamonui will go back to where it all started - baking in their own homes. Certified by the council, Hannah said it makes too much sense to bake from home than pay the bills required to run the cafe.
"I can literally get up and make dough in my slippers if I want to."
Hannah and Theron started their culinary journey together last year when their cinnamon scrolls were an instant success at the River Traders market. They originally started the project to save up for a holiday, but it led to quite the contrary.
The cafe opened in April 2019 and has been a great success. But the former Farmers managers felt that all the extra work that came with running a cafe took away from their true passion.
"We tried do too much. We were spending too much time not doing scrolls.
Fiona Hannah from Cinnamonui says the markets are where they thrive. Photo / File
"If you stretch yourself too wide, you don't do anything as well as you could."
It got to a point that where their cafe was so busy they had to stop attending the market for months because they couldn't produce enough scrolls for both.
They will now focus fully on the Saturday morning markets and stocking their scrolls at a number of Whanganui stores.
"It's the interaction with the people. Most people go to the markets in a great frame of mind, they are often after the chat. The other stallholders, it's like a little community at the markets, it's just lovely, everybody helps each other and it's just a lovely atmosphere."
They have taken their scrolls to the Hokowhitu Markets in Palmerston North and have been invited to the upcoming field days.
"We have had great feedback wherever we have gone."
The recipe for their scrolls was formulated from a number of different recipes, Hannah said.
"When we first started we looked at all sorts of different recipes and tried them out. Probably put on 5 kilos each in the process."
Hannah said they had been so busy of late that two daughters, a daughter-in-law and a granddaughter were all helping to run the operation.
They say they dream of being successful enough to open a commercial kitchen but it made financial sense to bake from home for now.
Hannah said she was excited for the next step in the journey and was thankful to the community.
"Thank all the people of Whanganui for the support we've had, the feedback has been wonderful, we have regulars that are fantastic."
