Mount Pleasant’s newest donut shop, Cream Pony, is officially off to the races

The glowing “Cartems” sign that once hung in front of the beloved donuterie at Main and East 6th has found a new home in Cream Pony, a family-owned donut and Southern fried chicken shop that recently moved into town. 

The sign still shines bright, but now its letters hang inside against the freshly-painted white and baby blue walls — letters that could, somewhat serendipitously, be rearranged to spell the word “Cream.” 

“We loved Cartems, and we wanted to preserve a few things from the shop,” said Alix Finn, the daughter-half of the mother-daughter duo that launched the new Mount Pleasant location in March. 

“It’s just funny how these things happen … there aren’t that many letters in ‘Cartems,’ and we were able to use five of them.” 

Though it may only be the latest donut shop to take up residence at 2190 Main Street, Cream Pony is more than prepared to fill the large shoes left by its predecessor.

It offers a wide selection of cream-filled, classic jam, glazed, and frosted donuts, including options with a personal touch, such as lemon curd-filled donuts made with Finn’s grandmother’s recipe. “We really wanted to prioritize simple, fun, traditional donut flavours… We don’t overcomplicate things.”

Cream Pony also serves up several savoury treats. Their menu includes a variety of Southern fried chicken sandwiches, as well as a new breakfast sandwich for early birds launching later this week. 

In a culinary world full of “beautiful, curated trends,” Finn said they wanted to focus on making quality, classic food, “no muss, no fuss.”

The neighbourhood has certainly taken notice. On a rainy weekday afternoon, the bell on Cream Pony’s front door is in a near-constant state of ringing from patrons entering and exiting the busy establishment.  

For those seeking apple turnovers or their namesake “Cream Pony” donut (their take on a Boston Cream), Finn cautioned it’s best to come early to avoid missing out. 

An unconventional start

Cream Pony’s flagship location in North Vancouver was unexpectedly born out of an early pandemic pastime. Finn’s mother, Erin Smith, began making donuts for friends and family while home from her day job running community centre programs for seniors. 

What started as a lockdown hobby quickly escalated into a full-fledged business idea. “She’s just a really creative person,” said Finn. “But my mom’s not a pastry chef, she’s not even really the family cook in our household… I don’t think me or my siblings took it too seriously [when she said] that she wanted to open a donut shop.” 

But within just a few months, Cream Pony was off to the races. “She basically went full steam ahead with a large business operation that grew very, very quickly.”

Finn got involved in the business after a cancelled flight derailed her Hawaiian honeymoon in December 2022. “They told us something's happened with the airplane. We're not taking off, and I came home crying.” But, as fate would have it, this freed Finn up to help out her mother at Cream Pony’s grand opening in North Vancouver the very next day. 

“The rest was truly history,” she said. Finn quickly became immersed in Cream Pony's daily operations, enjoying it so much that she eventually left her job as a kindergarten teacher to work full-time as her mother’s business partner. 

Chun-Yi Fan, a career pastry chef and now the official third partner in the business, joined the team just four months into the opening of Cream Pony’s first location. Fan was so instrumental to Cream Pony’s early success that he helped inspire their expansion goals.

“We didn't really ever want to run our business without him, because of how well we all work together,” she said. “When it became clear [we wanted] to have Chun join our business as a partner, we had to dream a little bigger. You don’t need three owners for a little shop in North Van.” 

Mount Pleasant location a year in the making

The rapid success of their flagship location in North Vancouver set the stage for their expansion to Mount Pleasant, the neighbourhood Finn has called home for nearly a decade. But she said that getting the more than 110-year-old building ready for opening was “the biggest hurdle” by far for the team. 

Built between 1912 and 1913, the Ashnola Apartments, home to several businesses on the ground level, is registered as a heritage building with the city, meaning building codes and requirements are exceptionally strict. Finn said that as soon as they changed one thing in the space, it would trigger a cascade of additional requirements. 

While it may seem like opening a donut shop in place of another would be a seamless transition, Cartems did not bake its donuts on-site. “We spent a year building out the entire kitchen that would support making all of our fried chicken and donuts in-house,” Finn explained. 

After a year of hard work, Cream Pony is officially up and running. Between the two locations, they have over 40 employees, including a few of Finn’s younger siblings who have also joined in on the family business. “It’s honestly been incredible.” 

Finn said she is proud to open their second location in a neighbourhood she loves so much – and as a mom expecting her second child in August, she’s been happy to see families and people of all ages enjoy the space. 

“We’re so proud to be a family business, and there’s more to that than just the food. I think people really connect with who we are and who we work with,” she added. “It brings a really inviting, fun community that people want to join in on.”

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