People in Toronto obsessed with XL cinnamon buns that aren't even available yet
Larger-than-life cinnamon buns produced by a Toronto pizza joint have people in the city going wild before they've even gotten the chance to try them.
It's been said (mostly by me, but that still counts) that people in Toronto would join a lineup even if they didn't know what was at the other end. Some may call it groupthink, but I prefer to believe that the vast majority of Toronto residents have such good taste that their fellow denizens trust their movements innately.
If there was a lineup to jump off a bridge, would you do it, too? Maybe I would, if cinnamon buns larger than the average adult head were involved, actually.
The latest local food fixation in the city is exactly that: enormous cinnamon buns baked in pie pans that can easily serve up to four people. The metaphorical lineup, in this case, is an online waitlist that's already accrued plenty of interested diners.
Here's the catch: you don't even know when you'll be able to eat them. An email will be sent to those who've signed up online, allowing them to order a bun. Three days later — yes, that's how long it takes to make these mondo buns — you'll finally be able to eat it.
Like something out of one of those death row AI videos that land on your feed at 2 a.m., these prodigious pastries are the sole offering at The Eighth Son, a venture from the team behind, and operating out of, Dundas West pizzeria The Fourth Man in the Fire.
Fourth Man (and Eighth Son) owner Shant Mardirosian tells blogTO that the idea was born when he noticed a "huge trend" around cinnamon rolls lately.
"We wanted to take that and push it a bit further, make something that feels more fun and a little over the top rather than just another version of what's already out there."
While creating the massive rolls comes with its own set of challenges, like fermentation and bake time, — hence the three-day production time— Shant says that the actual process of perfecting the recipe was actually a pretty sweet deal.
"Perfecting the recipe honestly came down to eating a lot of cinnamon rolls and refining from there," he explains.
Still, he notes, "one of the biggest challenges with making them XL is simply the scale. You're dealing with very long sheets of dough, and there's almost no tolerance for thickness variation. Even small inconsistencies can throw off the final product."
As for when eager Toronto diners will finally be able to get a taste of the substantial sweets, though, that's still up in the air.
"The roll itself is fully dialled in, and right now we're in the process of tooling the restaurant so we can produce them properly at volume," Shant explains. The volume in question will be something to the tune of 75-a-day, a couple of days a week.
"Our hope is that The Eighth Son becomes a permanent part of what we do," Shant tells blogTO.
To stay in the loop for The Eighth Son's first cinnamon roll drop, and all those that follow, you can follow them on Instagram and sign up to join their mailing list through their website.
The Fourth Man in the Fire is located at 832 Dundas St. W.
@theeighthsoncinnamonroll/Instagram
