Crumbs Bakeshop Announces Relaunch With Nationwide Delivery

Nearly 20 years ago, the world was infatuated with cupcakes and those who were diehards knew CRUMBS Bakeshop was the OG cupcake spot. Founded by husband-and-wife duo, Mia and Jason Bauer, in 2003, CRUMBS grew quickly to having 50 stores nationwide before being sold in 2012. Sadly by 2016 all of the CRUMBS stores had closed and the brand was no more—until the need for nostalgia hit in the pandemic and the Bauers found themselves on a soul searching adventure that led to the decision to bring back CRUMBS. That’s right, cupcake lovers, starting today CRUMBS is back and better than ever.

A lot has changed in the last 20 years, and the Bauers are committed to making CRUMBS 2.0 an experience that’s evolved with its customers. Rather than finding a new brick and mortar home, CRUMBS cupcakes—and their new cookie jar line—will be available via nationwide shipping through the company’s website, with same day delivery available where the CRUMBS story began in NYC through UberEats, GrubHub, Doordash, Seamless, and Postmates. Plus the high-quality baked goods will be available in select grocery stores including ShopRite, Fairway, and Westside Market NYC before the end of the year.

I got the chance to chat with fellow dessert lovers, Mia and Jason Bauer about the new era of CRUMBS, what’s different, and their favorite cupcakes. Here’s what they had to say.

Amber Love Bond: It’s been ten years since you sold the company! What prompted the idea of bringing it back — and was it before or after the final store closed?

Mia Bauer: It’s been ten years since Jason and I sold and exited CRUMBS and six years since

the final store closed. During the pandemic, we had time to think back and reflect on the business we built and how it really changed not only our lives, but so many others as well. Even all these years later, so many of our fans still talk about the special times they celebrated with CRUMBS cupcakes.

When CRUMBS was in its heyday, we were juggling a hyper-growth business and being parents to two very young children, our kids are now teenagers and we have the time it takes to nurture a business. We realized that everyone is in this nostalgic mode right now—in the foods they miss and the fashions that are coming back, everywhere you look people are eager to get a taste of those simpler, sweeter days. That’s when it dawned on us that this might be the perfect time to bring CRUMBS back and accomplish all the things we never had a chance to do with the brand like creating a line of CRUMBS products for supermarkets, including a new signature line of cookies in these really novel cookie jars. There was still so much we wanted to do with the brand. The stars aligned to bring us to this day.

ALB: What are the biggest ways the brand has evolved and changed in this CRUMBS 2.0 version?

Jason Bauer: The biggest and most prominent change is our shift from our own brick and mortar stores to our new direct-to-consumer and CPG model. You have to remember, when CRUMBS was around the first time we were living in a totally different world. Now you can get almost anything shipped to your door within days, hours, or even minutes.

Folding CRUMBS into that model of online ordering and local delivery makes the most sense for our fans who are based all over the country and for us as we strive to reunite them with CRUMBS wherever they may be. We are launching on grocery shelves of hundreds of supermarkets in the northeast before the end of this year, adding something fun and fresh to the bakery departments of local markets.

Customers will also be able to get CRUMBS for same day delivery in New York City—a little nod to our original home base—through our delivery partnership with REEF. We couldn’t be more excited for this new, modern, reinvigorated era of CRUMBS.

ALB: What are your personal favorite cupcake flavors and are there any new ones coming

into the mix?

JB: At one point, we were selling almost 100 different flavors in every store, every day, but it was very much the 80/20 rule. When we decided to relaunch CRUMBS, we picked our top selling 13 flavors that our fans loved and brought those back. Our fans will still have the opportunity to create their own assorted packs and pick from the 13 varieties and have them delivered right to their home or office. For our new supermarket line, we created a number of retail packs including a “Best Seller” and a “Fan Favorite” pack which will be available soon in hundreds of supermarkets.

As far as favorites, Jason’s favorite cupcake is the squiggle (a nod to the old school hostess cupcake) and Mia’s favorite is the raspberry swirl, she’s a vanilla fan (and loves anything with fruit in it)!

ALB: Cookies! Everyone loves a cookie—tell us more about those and why it felt like the right time to add them to the CRUMBS family!

MB: I always made my cupcakes enormous and over-the-top, and I always made my cookies bite-sized (or two-bite sized) and full of surprises. There are lots of crunchy cookies out there, but not many soft buttery cookies, and I felt it was time to share mine with CRUMBS fans. Many of the cookies are reminiscent of CRUMBS cupcakes, like Cotton Candy and Red Velvet, and some are fun new flavors like Chocolate Cherry. They remind me of the cookies I grew up with but with a twist. We often have a ton of kids in our kitchen, and watching them devour the cookies was my market research.

ALB: How many flavor options are there for both the cookies and cupcakes?

JB: Our direct-to-consumer cupcake line will be available in 13 signature flavors, and our (patent pending) new cookie jar line is launching with nine different cookie varieties, many of which were inspired by our cupcake flavors, all of which can be ordered in single-flavors or in mix-and-match variety packs on our website. The new CRUMBS retail line of products for supermarkets consists of 19 different SKUs (both cupcakes and cookies) and will be on grocery shelves really soon.

ALB: Do you see a future in opening brick and mortar stores again?

MB: Right now, our focus is on selling through our website and getting into grocery stores where we think we can elevate the cupcake assortment currently sold. The same CRUMBS you loved back in the day is back and better than ever—and now more convenient and more available than ever, too!

Head to www.originalcrumbs.com for all the delicious details about the relaunch.