A cinnamon roll with periwinkle royal icing at Hail Snail on N Interstate.

Journal

Hail Snail: vegan cinnamon rolls on Interstate

A vegan cinnamon-roll shop at 6550 N Interstate. They call them snails.

Photo: PortlandBread

We have been driving North Interstate like it was just a way through town, and we FINALLY stopped at 6550 North Interstate for a cinnamon roll this shop calls a snail — fully vegan, naturally colored, and topped with that famous periwinkle royal icing they named majesty! Hail Snail is a vegan, queer, family-owned cinnamon-roll shop in Portland. They do not print an owner name, and they do not print a founding year, so we are not inventing either. The assignment is on the homepage in one breath: handcrafted cinnamon rolls, vegan, gluten-free and soy-free options, fair trade chocolate and coffee. ALL ingredients are 100% vegan. You do not have to ask.

The order we do not overthink is majesty. It is a cinna-snail under naturally colored periwinkle royal icing, and if you want the extra butter they will add it. Then we look at the rest of the predestined board like we are picking a personality. Ogopogo is sprinkles, mini popcorn, whipped cream, and lemon blueberry icing. Lunch box is Lay’s, peanut butter, and strawberry sauce. Bee is pecans, maple cream, toasted coconut, and crushed Newmans. Macrocosm is brownie, caramel, gummy worms, and chocolate sauce. Planetarium is strawberry sauce, black-and-white sesame, and freeze-dried apples. Explorer is the s’mores one: chocolate sauce, graham crackers, mini marshmallows, mini chips. Quake is banana, pistachios, carrot bacon, and chips. Or we skip the named set and CREATE a snail — regular, gluten-free, or minis — from more than 25 toppings.

HERE is the gluten-free line, because people will get it wrong. They offer gluten-free snails and they mark some toppings as not gluten-free: pretzels, graham crackers, crushed Newmans, brownie. That is a slew of gluten-free OPTIONS, not a certified gluten-free facility. The FAQ even asks if they are certified. The answer is not on the page. We do not say certified.

Hours are printed on the homepage, the contact block, the full menu, and the FAQ header, and they match: Thursday through Saturday 12 p.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Wednesday are not listed as open, and we are not inventing a weekday window. A snail flight is 15 mini snails and four toppings. Catering wants about a week’s notice and they say free delivery within Portland. Birthday, wedding, or the most popular person at work — that is their catering sentence, not a full wedding-cake program we are going to invent.

We keep coming back because a vegan cinnamon-roll shop that will also build you a gluten-free snail is rare, and a periwinkle icing that is actually on the official menu is rarer. Take majesty. Take a flight if you brought friends. Take a gluten-free snail if that is the assignment, and skip the starred toppings. Then get out before you call the whole shop certified gluten-free and make Interstate’s most careful cinnamon-roll counter sound like a bakery it is NOT!