Cinnaholic, San Jose

115 E San Carlos St, San Jose, CA 95112

Style and Character: 8
Service: 8
Coffee: 7
Food: 8
Value: 6 

Date of visit: 2019-03-11

If I have one piece of advice, it would be "don't be a snob". Seriously, most advice I have to qualify. I would say "Don't be brash", but then I would add "... but sometimes you just have to go for it!" It's reasonable to say "Always keep an open mind" but you should add "but healthy skepticism is a good thing". But snobbery is always bad. Snobbery distances you from others. It's closes your mind without proper introspection. Snobbery closes doors.

So, if you're a coffee house snob, stop it. Not all great places for coffee are stylishly austere places. Good pastries don't always follow a traditional European ideal. 

Cinnaholic is sort of in the tradition of Psycho Donuts, another San Jose pastry shop. So let's get some things out of the way:

Cinnaholic is a franchise. This is going to be a huge turnoff for you "I only shop at independent coffee shops, independent bookstores, independent hardware stores" types. OK. Don't go. Whatever.

Cinnaholic is more a cinnamon bun shop than a coffee shop. The centerpieces are the buns, not the coffee. So if you don't think this counts as a coffee shop, again ... whatever.

Cinnaholic is vegan. Yeah! I didn't see that one coming either. So no eggs, no diary in the pastries. So if you pastries must hold up to some sort of Euro Platonic ideal, this is the wrong place. Just keep walking.

Cinnaholic does not take itself too seriously. The vegan aspect is surprisingly low-key in this place. They don't hide it, but they don't have posters saying that you're saving the world from environmental collapse by eating there. The food is fun. The decor is whimsical. The pastry names are silly. This is not the sort of place for the brooding coffee drinker reading Sartre.

What you do get at Cinnaholic are a bizarre variety of tasty buns. There is other stuff, like cookies, but the place is about the buns. The no-diary, no-egg ingredient set does affect the flavor and texture. It's hard to describe, but it's not bad, and I never felt like I was sacrificing something for the vegan limitations. I did notice that things were not quit as flaky as I expected, and I suspect this might have to do with vegan limitations. If they were making croissants, this might be an issue, but for these buns, it's not a problem.

The buns are very sweet, but maybe not as crazy sweet as the thick icings would suggest. But it is very sweet. Bring your sweet tooth. This is not the place for a subtle pastry.

There is a fast-food atmosphere to the place. It's a bit over-lit for my tastes. The furniture lacks personality. I was not surprised when I found out the place was a franchise. But don't worry about all this. Order a coffee, and get a bun that looks fun to eat, sit down, and enjoy.