They built a cinnamon bun 'cult' with lines out the door. Now this NJ family is calling it quits.
Mav's Top Buns in Middletown.
The hottest cinnamon bun in the Garden State started as a pop-up, a “bun cult” so popular that with long lines formed rain or shine, selling them out of a U-Haul truck. Eventually the buns found a permanent home at a Middletown storefront in 2023.
Owners Mike and Nikki Ashkar
But now owners Mike and Nikki Ashkar are walking away from the business.
They announced the move on the shop’s Instagram page Monday morning. The post started with the story of how the business grew and what the past five years in business have meant to them.
“With that, we’ve decided it’s time to close this chapter for ourselves,” the couple said in the post. “It was a decision we made together, with no pressure, and with no uncertainties that it was time to move on to new adventures and to really focus on slowing down, not speeding up.”
OG Bun at Mav's Top Buns in Middletown
”We just felt like there was a new adventure and a new chapter that we wanted to explore,” Ashkar said. “We had other things and other priorities that we wanted to kind of put back on the burner that we had taken off the burner for a while.”
What will they do instead of make cinnamon buns? Ashkar says the couple might write a book about their adventure with Mav’s Top Buns, consult with other businesses to help them grow on social media or even look to find ways to support local parents.
But this isn’t the end for the “bun cult.” Mav’s Top Buns will still be in business, just under new ownership. The new owners are Dan and Kelsey Velez, a local family who Ashkar says have been fans of the business for years.
“They definitely want to keep the integrity of the product and all of our staff members will stay the same,” Ashkar said. “It’s really going to be a change of hands, the product will be the same.”
While Mav’s social media handles will stay the same, the former owners have launched a new Instagram — @ashkar_adventures, where they will document their new chapter.
©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit nj.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
