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PLUS, A PIT STOP IN MIDDLE GEORGIA
top that actually add flavor (it’s available at brunch). Out
of town a ways, Madison’s Farmview Market offers them
by the pan, and although they are sugary, they are not too
goopy, and the results bake up well. I tried to get one at
Sweetie Pie by Savie, but you can’t get them there except
Fridays and Saturdays, and I didn’t manage to try Kumquat
Mae’s either, but some folks swear by them, as well as
IKEA.
The real answer for how to improve a cinnamon roll,
though, is through devolution: removing the icing and pick
ing a better, flakier pastry for the roll. Is it really a cinna
mon roll in that case? It might not be, but it’s a better thing
to eat. In this category are Independent Baking Co.’s “morn
ing rolls,” which are too damn sophisticated even to be
called cinnamon rolls and have something going on other
than just cinnamon (cardamom?), and Panaderia Tacuari’s
rolls, which are closer to orejas than to anything else and
will run you only 95 cents with tax, despite being the size of
a saucer.
Now, if you’ll excuse me,
I need to go never eat a cin
namon roll again. Cinnaholic
is open from 10 a.m.-lO p.m.
daily.
BBQ BEAT: I passed through
Gray recently and hit up Old
Clinton Barbecue (4214 Gray
Hwy.,478-986-3225). Open
since 1958, it’s got plenty
of atmosphere, with camo
T-shirts, hand-labeled photo
graphs of dudes with names like
“LiF Ray” and shrink-wrapped
slices of lime and 12-layer-
chocolate cake on plastic foam
plates.
The ’cue is good, but better
with its vinegary sauce than
on its own. Ditto for the ribs,
which have a perfect texture
but not enough flavor on their
lonesome. Far be it from me to
highlight a side rather than a
main at a barbecue place, but
the potato salad is so good I
licked the container it came in,
studded with bits of hard-boiled egg, enriched with yolks
and just gently accented with a bit of sweetish pickle.
The stew is a bit funky, and the slaw not great, but the
beans (small, meaty) are rather good. It’s worth a stop. Old
Clinton is open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday through Thursday,
10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Sunday. ©
By Hillary Brown food@flagpole.com
CINNAMON OVERLOAD: I have to admit that, unlike many of
you, I was kind of dreading the opening of Cinnaholic
(140 W. Broad St., 706-608-9100), on the ground floor of
the Georgia Heights building downtown. I don’t really like
cinnamon rolls, a fact that some of my friends have greeted
with incredulity and even pity. Even worse, if the world can
be categorized into two types of people—those who judge
based on toppings/sauces/accessories and prefer them
in abundance, and those who
prefer their foods in a simpler g
state—I am the latter. °
The thing about Cinnaholic is S
that it is specifically a cinnamon 5
roll franchise built around being
able to customize your cinna
mon roll with different icings
(cream cheese, yes, but also
marshmallow, maple, chai, cake
batter, amaretto and so on) and
toppings (fruit, bits of cookie,
nuts, caramel sauce). In other
words, it takes a thing that is
already fairly well built around
excess—biscuit dough showered
with sugar and cinnamon, then
gooped up with either a cream
cheese or a sugar-and-milk load
of frosting—and adds hunks of
Oreo cookie on top of it. If that
is your thing, I will not be able
to dissuade you, and you prob
ably stopped reading in the first
sentence of this column.
Cinnaholic is a bit unusual
because everything in its store
is vegan, and unless you’re Cinnaholic
comparing side by side with a
butter-and-milk-based roll, you probably could not tell the
difference. The company is clearly committed to its cruelty-
free ingredients, and good for them. The rolls are fine, and
so are the cookies. The frostings, unfortunately, taste fairly
chemical. The prices are fairly high, clocking in at around
$5 a pop and going up steeply depending on your toppings.
On the other hand, the ideal clientele lives just upstairs and
definitely wants a cinnamon roll at 10 p.m.
While I was having to eat these things, I went ahead
and crowdsourced just to see if there might be a cinnamon
roll around Athens that could convert me. Several folks
said Cinnaholic. No dice. I also got a roll from Cinnabon,
which is both inside and the worst thing ever to happen
to Schlotzsky’s, because its odor pervades everything in
Borg-like fashion. It was fine—kind of the classic squishy,
medium-sized roll with gooey white stuff. Mama’s Boy came
up, and if you like excess, it would be your place to go. The
cinnamon roll is—no fish story here—the size of a dinner
plate. It’s a cinnamon cake.
Heirloom Cafe makes the best of the classic style that I
sampled, with a biscuity dough that’s not too sweet, a nice
cream-cheese icing and good chopped pecans sprinkled on
notes
A Cinnamon Roll Skeptic Tries ’em All
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JANUARY 25, 2017 | FLAGPOLE.COM 19