Pandemic cinnamon roll baking turns into full-fledged business for New Bedford woman

NEW BEDFORD — Mary Kelley-Zis isn’t afraid to take chances.

She’s hoping her newest venture is the chance of her lifetime.

The New Bedford native, a 1991 graduate of GNB Voc-Tech, has been committed to building herself a thriving small business, and after several goes at it with varied success, a month ago she combined one-part family history and one-part entrepreneurial spirit to open On The Run Cinnabun on Rockdale Ave in the city’s West End.

“I’ve always been a passionate baker at heart,” Kelley-Zis said. “It’s something I learned through my grandmother and my mother and lots of learning from my own experience. I’ve always had an attraction for food and, particularly, sweets.”

This baking odyssey started when Kelley-Zis was stuck at home at the start of the pandemic. Her seasonal Fairhaven shop Dough hadn’t opened yet, so she busied herself making cinnamon rolls using her grandmother Nana’s old recipe. She would box up the rolls and deliver them to friends and family’s doorsteps.

“It was a little way of saying ‘Hey, I miss you and I’m thinking of you,’” Kelley-Zis said. “Before I knew it, I started getting phone calls. People were like ‘Oh my God, these are the best cinnamon rolls. They are so delicious!’ They told people and now people I didn’t even know started calling me. There was a demand there.

“It was humble beginnings. I felt like I was the Avon lady going to people’s houses. I was like ‘Maybe I’m on to something?’”

Kelley-Zis was also well-versed in opening a small business. After 20 years as a human resources director, she had opened her first business, Create Hands On, in the Dartmouth Mall. She then opened Le Desserterie on Union Street in downtown New Bedford in 2015. She had to close due to rising rent, but she soon opened Soap La Ti Da across the street. In 2018, she opened Dough, which sells more than a dozen flavors of cookie dough, on Main Street in Fairhaven, which will re-open in the spring. She even served as the initial donut designer for The Donut Factory.

“It comes from a saying I heard many years ago: If you are going to work hard for someone else, why not work hard for yourself. If you don’t, you’re making someone else’s dream a reality, when it could be your own dream,” she said of her entrepreneurial zest.

Never one to be risk-averse, Kelley-Zis barely blinked at the prospect of opening up a new business, one in the food service industry nonetheless, during a pandemic. On The Run Cinnabun opened on Sept. 26 in the old location of Lolly’s Café, which was briefly Café Bon before the pandemic shutdown.

“I had the impression I had a good product so that gave me a lot of confidence to give it a go,” she said. “It made people happy to get cinnamon rolls. I’m a very spiritual person and I believe God gives us paths that we can choose to go down and I knew I wanted to pursue this further. I said 'I'm going to take what I have in my savings and I’m going to try to make this a win.’ Even if it came down to just takeout and deliver, then so be it until this is over.”

By the time she opened she was allowed to have up to 10 patrons eating in the small restaurant, which is decorated in a cute pink, white and black motif. The posters on the wall feature groan-worthy puns like “Be A Good Roll Model” and “We Have Nice Buns.” The sweet, warm smell is unmistakable from the moment you walk in. It’s the same one Kelley-Zis remembers from visiting her grandmother’s house.

“That cinnamon, ooey-gooey smell,” she recalled. “Cinnamon is a delicious spice and I’ve always been attracted to cinnamon things.”

That’s why, in addition to the signature cinnamon rolls, there's a pastry case stuffed with hand-made cinnamon treats, from apple-cinnamon muffins to cinnamon twists. There’s even a small retail space selling everything from Big Red gum to cinnamon candles.

There’s also plenty of homemade non-cinnamon items in the bakery case, from brownies stuffed with chocolate chips and Oreos to gingerbread men and chocolate chunk cookies. And, of course, cookie dough.

But of course the piece-de-resistance are the hand-rolled, hand-cut cinnamon buns, which weigh nearly seven ounces (they also sell baby buns) and can be topped with any of 20 different frostings and 20 different toppings.

“When I knew I wanted to do a cinnamon roll place, I wanted to do something different. I wanted to give people options,” Kelley-Zis said.

A large bun with one topping and one frosting runs $4.50. A pack of three baby buns are $3.99. Four-packs of the large buns sell for $15.

Once Kelley-Zis had the cinnamon buns down — determining the exact temperature to keep her warmers at turned out to be an exact science — she set out to find the right coffee to pair with it.

“I’m an avid coffee drinker, and I wanted to have really nice coffee to go with cinnamon rolls," she said. "They’re like a marriage. I looked far and wide for different coffee companies.”

She settled on Mills Coffee Roasters out of Rhode Island. On The Run offers medium and dark roasts, as well as flavored coffees and three types of hot chocolate. All coffee beans are ground fresh in store.

On The Run opened to long lines its first weekend, and the staff fought through a near-disaster when one of their three ovens broke down. They’ve since added a fourth oven and keep a fifth on site for emergencies. Since opening they have also updated their point of sale and ordering systems.

A month in, Kelley-Zis has been ecstatic at the reaction. Two years ago, when she was preparing to open Dough, her sister was diagnosed with brain cancer. Just this fall, her mother was hospitalized and missed On The Run's grand opening. So feeling support from the city she grew up in has meant a lot to her.

“This is what we had for family savings,” she said, gesturing around her. “Every single dollar that comes through this door helps to support my sister who has brain cancer, my own family and my mother’s medical bills. Every single dollar goes to support my family.”