When Jason and Mia Bauer first started dating, they spent their summer at the Hamptons soaking up vitamin D and eating Mia’s famous vanilla coconut cupcakes. Jason, smitten with Mia’s sweet treats, suggested they take advantage of her culinary talents and open a neighborhood bakery. With no professional baking experience between them, the Bauers opened Crumbs Bake Shop on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in March 2003.
“That [cupcake] was really the inspiration for Crumbs,” Jason said.
The Bauers are continuing their countrywide cupcake takeover with the opening of three Crumbs locations in D.C. The F Street location opened this past Saturday morning, and stores in Clarendon and Union Station will open by the end of the year.
Crumbs is widely considered to be the pioneer of the cupcake explosion, being the first “cupcakery” in New York City and in the country. In the early 2000s, the only places to sell cupcakes in New York were the famous Magnolia and Cupcake Café, but Crumbs was one of the first to profit on the cupcake business.
Crumbs now joins the competitive league of cupcake shops, including Georgetown Cupcake, here in the nation’s capital, but Bauer is not intimidated or worried.
“We love and believe in our product and the flavors, the variety and the consistency, and the quality … We don’t really pay much attention to anyone else,” he said.
Bauer added that he’s a “numbers guy” and is primarily concerned with how well their business is faring.
“I think there are a lot of great bakers out there that make a lot of great products,” he said, “but I don’t know how many great business people there are, and you need that combination to have a nice business.”
The Crumbs Bake Shop business has steadily been growing for eight years. They are the largest cupcake retailer in the U.S. and have 36 locations in the country.
With over 100 varieties of cupcakes and other baked goods like cookies, Danishes, cakes, brownies, pies and tarts, Crumbs offers something for anyone with a sweet tooth. The popular Red Velvet and the Squiggle, modeled after the iconic Hostess Cup Cake, are highly recommended for traditionalists. Caramel Apple and Pumpkin are sure to be favorites for Autumn-lovers, and Devil’s food will please any chocoholic.
Don’t expect Crumbs to be another Georgetown Cupcake repeat — the bakery prides itself on selling gourmet cupcakes with different filling, frosting and topping combinations than that other D.C. staple. Each cupcake is inspired by family recipes and is Mia’s own creation.
While the cupcake trend can be traced back to the opening of Crumbs, most food fads come and go fairly quickly. Whoopie pies and French macarons are dominating today’s bakeries (Red Velvet whoopie pies are even on the Crumbs menu), and food bloggers are sure to become obsessed with another sweet treat come January (popsicles, perhaps?).
Bauer isn’t concerned with cupcakes going out of style, however.
“In the 1940’s and ‘50s, people were having this same conversation about ice cream stores,” he said, adding, “I don’t pay attention to whether this is a trend or this is a fad… People will stop eating cupcakes when they stop eating dessert.”
Judging by the looks of the cleared-out case of cupcakes, Crumbs will only get more successful. One lone vanilla coconut sits in its tray, proving its status as one of the best cupcakes Crumbs has to offer.
“I look at that cupcake in the case I and say to Mia, ‘Remember when you used to make these on the weekends just for us?’ And now look where we are.”
kholliday@theeagleonline.com
