NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Husband and wife Keiyanah and Matthew Ratleff are partners in life and in business.
They own the New Orleans franchise Cinnaholic on Freret Street, and it all started with a picture.
“On Instagram, I saw a beautiful cinnamon roll, and I was like what is this,” Keiyanah Rateleff said.
After traveling to a city that had a Cinnaholic, they tried the cinnamon rolls that were featured on ABC’s “Shark Tank” and were hooked.
“We talked about it for a few months and we were like we should invest in it, and we should bring it here to New Orleans,” she said.
Bringing all their different rolls, which are customized for your taste buds.
“You can make 100 different combinations with all the toppings and frostings that we have here, everything is customizable here,” she said.
Made to order, but there’s something else that makes their rolls stand out.
“Some people are shocked when they find out they are vegan, everything in store is vegan, and homemade, the only thing is we don’t grown our own fruit and nuts. We use no animal products, so no eggs, milk, dairy, but that doesn’t take away from the amazing taste of the rolls. You can’t even taste that it’s vegan,” she said.
Skyscraper cinnamon rolls now in the New Orleans skyline
They’re proud of their vegan rolls and proud to be a Black-owned business.
“The Black community has been amazing in supporting us, overwhelming support, and even when we don’t get it right, they’ll give us a second try because we’re new to this. Being Black-owned is just a cherry on top,” she said.
“Getting people involved in business, how to run a business, how to be business savvy and customer service,” Matthew Ratleff said.
“We use our famous roll dough. We make sure the rolls are the exact same size, takes a lot of butter, now we have our famous cinnasugar and we have a swirl that we cut off, we actually make a “c” for Cinnaholic,” he said.
The owners said they plan to open up two new locations soon. One in Metairie and another in Baton Rouge.
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