{"id":4399,"date":"2026-01-27T20:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T20:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/cinnaholic-and-noodles-company-close\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T20:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T20:49:10","slug":"cinnaholic-and-noodles-company-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/cinnaholic-and-noodles-company-close\/","title":{"rendered":"Cinnaholic and Noodles &#038; Company close"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cinnaholic.com\/\">Cinnaholic<\/a>, a popular vegan bakery <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sharktankblog.com\/business\/cinnaholic\/\">featured<\/a> on ABC\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/abc.com\/show\/535e2b07-18a9-4d94-9803-9ed8257b9d23\">Shark Tank<\/a>, served its last customers in Ann Arbor on Dec. 24. Not long before, on Dec. 17, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.noodles.com\/\">Noodles and Company<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlive.com\/news\/ann-arbor\/2025\/12\/noodle-shop-near-university-of-michigan-closes.html\">shut its doors<\/a>. These closures join a growing list of restaurants and shops in Ann Arbor going out of business, with more than 100 local restaurants <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/news\/more-than-100-ann-arbor-restaurants-closed-in-the-past-three-years-how-have-these-closures-affected-the-community\/\">closing<\/a> between 2018 and 2021 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/news\/business\/local-businesses-close-due-to-added-ann-arbor-expenses\/\">continued closures<\/a> since.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Sean Schwab, former employee at Noodles and Company of more than four years, said he was surprised when he lost his job and the location closed last month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI came to work early in the morning and there on the door, there\u2019s a sign \u2018permanently closed,\u2019\u201d Schwab said. \u201cLights are off, no warning whatsoever.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with The Daily, Michelle Maynard, business journalist and former University of Michigan visiting lecturer, said one of the most salient challenges for local businesses was the loss of pandemic-era <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michiganbusiness.org\/covid19response\/\">rent subsidies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cBusinesses got a little bit of help from the government and landlords were very accommodating, but we\u2019re past that,\u201d Maynard said. \u201cThe subsidies have run out and the landlords justifiably want to make market rents, and so that just raises competition for everybody \u2014 whether they\u2019re local, or national, whether you\u2019re Ginger Deli or you\u2019re Dunkin\u2019 Donuts, you are competing and you have costs that you have to cover.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>LSA freshman Uma Rao worked at Cinnaholic throughout high school, from 2022 to 2025. In an interview with The Daily, Rao said Cinnaholic closing was not entirely unexpected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be honest, Cinnaholic, specifically, was a very niche type of store,\u201d Rao said. \u201cThere\u2019s not much that people could have done because it\u2019s not like it\u2019s a grocery store where, for example, you\u2019re going to buy groceries regardless \u2026. You\u2019re going out of your way to get this really specific dessert.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rao said the best way for local businesses to survive is to appeal to students, including through partnerships with the University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor college students, because we\u2019re walking everywhere and we\u2019re close to downtown, immediately, I think of having deals and sales and promotions and stuff like that, maybe during finals week or something that aligns with the academic calendar,\u201d Rao said. \u201cIn the fall, there\u2019s always little pop-ups and free food that the University provides or these small businesses provide. It always creates a lot of hype.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Social Work student Will Matthews has lived in Ann Arbor since 2021. In an interview with The Daily, he said he thinks one of the biggest deterrents to students visiting downtown Ann Arbor is the lack of affordable dining options and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/franchises\/directory\/food\">food franchises<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like at least one other form of a franchise,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cAs cheesy as it is, it\u2019s just affordable. I think I would like a more affordable Mexican place. I feel like Condados is there \u2026 They\u2019re just expensive. I went in and it was like $5 for one taco, and I think my jaw dropped right in the restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/mainstreetannarbor.org\/\">Main Street Area Association<\/a> in Ann Arbor <a href=\"https:\/\/mainstreetannarbor.org\/main-st-area-events\">organized more than 10 events<\/a> this past year \u2014 like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.annarborrestaurantweek.com\/\">Restaurant Week<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/mainstreetannarbor.org\/galentines-day\">Galentine\u2019s Day<\/a> \u2014 and provides small businesses in the area with <a href=\"https:\/\/mainstreetannarbor.org\/membership\">support and resources<\/a>. In an interview with The Daily, MSAA Executive Director Ashley Schafer said a major challenge businesses are facing in downtown Ann Arbor is changes in foot traffic patterns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs people are going out, they\u2019re being very selective on how they\u2019re spending their money, and they\u2019re also only coming out at certain times of the day,\u201d Schafer said. \u201cThere\u2019s not as many people coming downtown during the day going out for lunch or taking that time on their lunch break to go shopping \u2014 all of that activity is going into the evenings. I think a lot of the businesses have had to pivot what they were normally doing and their normal hours to make sure that they\u2019re open while there are people downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dave Algase, Marketplace column editor at the <a href=\"https:\/\/annarborobserver.com\/category\/marketplace\/\">Ann Arbor Observer<\/a>, has been reporting on restaurant and retail business closures, changes in ownership and location moves in Ann Arbor for the past three years. In an interview with The Daily, Algase said entrepreneurs take multifaceted risks when opening a storefront.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cWhen a business closes, it\u2019s sometimes difficult to even get them to share their reasoning because it\u2019s really a lot for an independent person or a small group to put their heart and their soul and their money and their time and their energy into a local enterprise and hope to achieve acceptance by the public,\u201d Algase said. \u201cI really admire anybody who takes that risk. So when they close, sometimes they\u2019re very candid about the reasons; sometimes they don\u2019t want to talk at all. Cinnaholic \u2014 they didn\u2019t want to talk at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Algase related the lifespan of small businesses to a cycle, growing, maturing and expanding before downsizing or closing. Algase said this natural process leads to new businesses opening and shouldn\u2019t be deemed exclusively negative by the Ann Arbor community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor every closure, there seems to be someone \u2014 a lot of times local, sometimes out-of-town people or regional people \u2014 that is eager to reach the Ann Arbor customer base,\u201d Algase said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the stronger economies in the state. And so it\u2019s not like we have a whole bunch of boarded up storefronts \u2014 there\u2019s a lot of people willing to step in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Daily Staff Reporter Anuttara Lath can be reached at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/news\/business\/cinnaholic-and-noodles-company-close-reigniting-conversations-about-ann-arbors-food-scene\/mailto:anuttara@umich.edu\"><em>anuttara@umich.edu<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cinnaholic, a popular vegan bakery featured on ABC\u2019s Shark Tank, served its last customers in Ann Arbor on Dec. 24. Not long before, on Dec. 17, Noodles and Company, shut its doors. These closures join a growing list of restaurants and shops in Ann Arbor going out of business, with more than 100 local restaurants [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[4170,263,2340,4171],"class_list":{"0":"post-4399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-cinnaholic","9":"tag-close","10":"tag-company","11":"tag-noodles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4401,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4399\/revisions\/4401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}