Centralia has a new option for fresh cinnamon rolls and other baked goods now that Cinn-A-Girls Bakery owner Robyne Hicks has relocated her business from Lacey to the Hub City.
The business now occupies the suite adjacent to the Greens On Gold cannabis dispensary located at 1039 S. Gold St.
The bakery officially opened in Centralia last Tuesday. Regular hours of operation are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, with the bakery closed on Sunday and Monday.
Though she only recently reopened her doors at the end of July and has yet to put up signs outside letting customers know where Cinn-A-Girls is, business has already been booming.
“Of course we’re new here and everyone is coming to check us out. But so far, my sales have been double what they were in Lacey, and I was there for a while,” Hicks said. “... It’s been a humbling experience, I really feel blessed to have this beautiful space and have the support of my family and friends. The kids’ teachers, coaches and friends have all come in to support us, including some people I haven’t seen in years because they simply didn’t have time to drive up to our old location in Lacey.”
Hicks, now 69, is a Centralia resident who spent 28 years working as a server at Country Cousin Restaurant. Additionally, she was one of their bakers and happened to be the one in charge of baking cinnamon rolls.
Together with other former Country Cousin employees and some of her family members, including one of her sons and granddaughters, the Cinn-A-Girls team is baking pastries and more from scratch every morning they’re open. A mother of eight, Hicks now has 21 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
“I love to work. Some of my kids are telling me, ‘Mom, you need to retire, you’re getting up there and need to enjoy life!’ And I tell them, ‘I am enjoying my life!’ This was my dream, to own my own bakery, because I love to bake,” Hicks said.
She named the business Cinn-A-Girls after her six daughters, who she taught how to bake along with her two sons.
“Now, none of them work here, well except for one part time,” Hicks said.
“They all just said, ‘Screw you I’m not gonna work here,’” Hicks’ son, John Sill, said jokingly while making a fresh batch of scones.
Hicks had special shirts and a hat made for Sill that say “Cinn-A-Man” on them.
Before opening and owning Cinn-A-Girls, though, Hicks was forced to at least retire from serving at Country Cousin following a foot injury. She took the opportunity to venture out on her own and attempt to follow her dream, first working for a fellow Country Cousin coworker.
“I actually went to work for Carisa (Crocker) for a little bit. She has a gift shop. While there, I just felt like I had to do something, and she said, ‘Why don’t you do something with your cinnamon rolls?’ Because when I left Country Cousin, I took my recipes with me,” Hicks said.
Crocker still works with Hicks as well, now acting as Cinn-A-Girls defacto manager along with helping cook and run the business.
In 2019, Hicks first opened up Cinn-A-Girls in Lacey. Though she had established the bakery there, last October her landlord wanted to raise her rent for the space she was using from $2,300 a month up to $3,150 a month.
“I said to the property manager, ‘Do you know how many more cinnamon rolls that’s going to be?,’” Hicks said.
Still living in Centralia, she noticed the empty suite across from Greens On Gold and inquired about it. Not only was the building’s owner, Jerry Antonelli, offering reasonable rent rates, but Hicks said he went out of his way to help turn the suite — which had been a retail store for glass and other smoking accessories before — into a bakery.
From adding proper plumbing and flooring, redoing walls to meet health code standards, adding a new back door and putting in a whole new wall, Antonelli did it all for Hicks free of charge and had the space ready for Cinn-A-Girls to hit the ground running.
“I just feel really fortunate to have come to this place. I never met my landlord when I was in Lacey, and this guy is definitely a hands-on landlord. He was my first customer when I opened and he’s just a wonderful guy,” Hicks said.
Greens On Gold owner Dick Watkins has also helped out his new business neighbor, giving Hicks a hand with small projects here and there, such as setting up her new ovens, and his employees have chipped in and helped with things like drawing Cinn-A-Girls menu board. Not surprisingly, many of Watkins’ employees and customers are now frequent Cinn-A-Girls customers.
Since first opening in Lacey, Hicks expanded the menu from just cinnamon rolls to include other house-made pastries such as pop-tarts, cupcakes, cake pops, macarons, cookies, brownies, scones, Rice Krispies treats and quiches.
The menu also features croissant breakfast sandwiches, dinner rolls and even whole loaves of white bread and cinnamon bread.
As for the stars of the show — the cinnamon rolls themselves — aside from classic cinnamon rolls, customers can get vegan and gluten-free rolls along with four specialty cinnamon roll varieties, including bacon maple, pumpkin pecan, caramel pecan and raisin.
Additionally, Cinn-A-Girls sells baked goods and breakfast sandwiches wholesale to other small businesses in both Lewis and Thurston Counties, making deliveries every Tuesday and Thursday.
For those not in Centralia looking to grab some Cinn-A-Girls baked goods still, they can be found at Dominic’s Coffee in Olympia, The Coffee Bar in Olympia, South Bay Coffee Company in Olympia, Two Sisters Coffee Co. in Tumwater, Sweetlee’s Ice Cream in Tumwater, The Coffee Shop in McCleary and Two Brewnettes in Centralia.
Sweetlee’s is actually owned by Sill, who along with helping his mother bake at Cinn-A-Girls also delivers the bakery’s wholesale orders. Sill uses Cinn-A-Girls cookies to make ice cream sandwiches Sweetlee’s sells.
Though Hicks probably could afford to only do sales at her new Centralia location, she wants to continue selling wholesale to support other local businesses. After losing her Lacey location, Hicks rented a commercial kitchen to continue baking for them.
“Most of them, with the exception of Two Sisters who just came on board a little over a year ago, have been with me the whole time I was in Lacey,” Hicks said. “When I didn’t have a shop, they carried me through.”
With the support of her family, friends and fellow local business owners, Hicks hopes to continue operating her bakery in Centralia along with expanding the menu and her staff. Currently, she is looking for qualified bakers to help with afternoon closing shifts. Those interested in applying are invited to bring in resumes.
And as for menu expansions, the newest item currently being baked are pretzel balls, which sell out fast. During The Chronicle’s visit on Thursday, Hicks baked an entire pan of 20 pretzel balls, which promptly sold out within about 10 minutes of being pulled from the oven.
For more information, call Cinn-A-Girls Bakery at 360-388-7035 or follow and message the business on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/cinnagirls/ or on Facebook at https://bit.ly/3yjJfdr.
