Cinnabon fans queue for four hours as Sydney store opens

As US bakery chain Cinnabon opened its doors in Sydney, customers waited up to four hours to get a taste of its signature cinnamon scrolls.

The queue stretches down into Haymarket as Cinnabon opened its Sydney store. Pictures: Supplied

Customers waited up to four hours to get their first taste of an ooey-gooey Cinnabon scroll in Cinnabon Sydney’s opening weekend.

The American bakery chain opened up its first store in Haymarket over the weekend.

Cinnabon has had a resurgence in popularity thanks to TikTok and television shows like Better Call Saul, which left people queuing on average three to four hours over the weekend.

Alby Lam, who is in charge of the Sydney opening, said the store had to shut its doors to keep up with demand. They also had to limit people’s bon orders and certain items, like the Chocobons and Rolls on the Go were out of stock.

The queues at Cinnabon in Haymarket during its opening weekend. Picture: Supplied

“If we didn’t, our bakers would never have gone home. Because the line was so long we stopped orders at 5.30pm and people were getting their scrolls at 8pm,” he said.

“It’s been insanely crazy.”

Customers who weren’t prepared to wait took to social media to vent their frustrations at the queues.

@daisy.in.sydney Feeling lucky and sweet😆🥳 📍Sydney’s first Cinnabon at Darling Square. #sydneyspots #sydneyfood #sydneyfoodie #sydneysweeney #dessert #cinnamonroll #cinnabon #darlingsquare #haymarket ♬ OMG - White Gangster

One reportedly went three times over the weekend and couldn’t stand the queue, so left empty-handed.

Lam adds despite their being a Cinnabon locations in Melbourne and Queensland (of which is owned by a different franchisee), he knew there would still be a buzz in Sydney.

“Sydney is our flagship. It’s got a street front location,” he said.

@deliciousaus Stop scrolling! Cinnabon has just opened its first Sydney store and queues are already spiralling out of control. @cinnabon #sydneyfoodie #foodlover #yummyfood #cinnamonbun #scroll #sydneyfood #cinnabon #bakery #tiktoktrending #brunch ♬ Sugarsweet - Zach Sorgen

SELTZER THE TASTE OF SYDNEY THIS SUMMER

Sydney has celebrated summer with a nice, cold can of … seltzer.

Over the festive period, bottle stores and bars have noticed an uplift in sales of premix ready-to-drink beverages, and seltzers: replacing the traditional case of beer.

More than forty per cent of retail sales from Dan Murphy’s and BWS over the past four weeks have come from categories that didn’t exist three years ago.

Among the newcomers, seltzers — carbonated water mixed with an alcohol base like beer or wine — are increasingly popular.

On the three-year anniversary of quitting their corporate jobs, the Sydney-based founders of viral seltzer start-up company Fellr have become the number one selling beverage on tap at their local Bondi watering hole.

Rancho Seltzo at Bondi Beach is a six month pop-up collaboration offering resort style tropical drinks like slushies as well as a bar with a huge focus on seltzers. Picture: Richard Dobson

Bartender Alexander Zielonka at Rancho Seltzo makes the seltzer spider Picture: Richard Dobson

Noticing the meteoric rise of seltzer drinks (carbonated water mixed with fruit and alcohol base) in the United States, and the demand for craft brews in New Zealand, former alcohol company colleagues Andy Skora and Will Morgan started Fellr in 2020.

Skora quit his job in January, Morgan resigned in March, they got investment from family and friends and they sold their first can in July.

Fellr founders Will Morgan and Andy Skora toast their success. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“We saw the opportunity coming but also new that current summer hadn’t taken off. We knew by the next summer 40 to 100 brands of seltzer would be on the market so needed to move quickly,” said Morgan.

In less than three years, as well as both becoming fathers and launching a business during a pandemic, Fellr has become one of the fasted growing businesses in Australia.

It’s gone from turning over $11,701 in 2019-20 to $4.5 million in 2021-22. Morgan forecasts that at the end of this financial year, they will turn over their first eight figure sum.

They’ve also continued to grow despite American seltzer heavyweight White Claw entering the local market.

Skora recalls launching the brand into some local haunts in Bondi and telling the owners that one day, they would outsell the beer on tap. “The owner just laughed,” he said. Recently, that became a reality and they were outselling Stone and Wood. They are also stocked at typical beer haunts, like Allianz Stadium.

Tim Carroll, Director of Buying and Merchandise at Endeavour Group (the company that owns Dan Murphy’s and BWS) believes in the future, customers will continue to experiment between a blurring between drinks, for example, wine seltzers or fruity beers.

A new bar and eatery, Rancho Seltzer, has recently opened in Bondi which is dedicated to the drink and offers seltzer spiders.

The venue is a six-month pop up collaboration between Bondi Brewing Co. and House Made Hospitality.

Director Scott Brown said it was a recent trip to California that inspired the menu.

“Seltzer bars are opening all over California and considering seltzer consumption in Australia is on the rise, it’s been on our radar for a while to open a bar with a seltzer focus in Bondi,” he said.

Originally published as Cinnabon fans queue for four hours as Sydney store opens