In late January of 2015, the newly revamped Crumbs Bake Shop opened up its new North Shore location in Highland Park–and it’s not too crumb-y.
Crumbs Bake Shop is a New York based cupcake shop, which, according to the official Crumbs website, Marcus Lemonis and Fischer enterprises saved from bankruptcy last July,
When Crumbs Bake Shop re-opened after nearly closing its doors forever, it had an entirely new range of products. Imagine a mix between the famous Dylan’s Candy Bar and any cupcake shop you’ve ever been to. According to assistant manager of Crumbs Bake Shop in Highland Park, Gloria Garcia, “[Crumbs] partnered up with Dippin’ Dots, so eventually we will be selling ice cream, alongside Sweet Peet’s candy as well. We’re still a bake shop, but we’re becoming more of a sweet shop as well.”
And it happened not a moment too soon, seeing as the gourmet cupcake craze was leaving a sour taste for some. As junior Owen LaCava said, “Cupcakes are so overrated. All these fancy designer cupcakes are really just an average cupcake covered with an ungodly amount of frosting.”
The new and hopefully improved Crumbs Bake Shop is off to a relatively good start, according to Garcia. “Weekends are by far our busiest, while weekdays are definitely slower. I assume a lot of people don’t know the location is here, so hopefully that will change,” said Garcia.
However, customers that know about the shop in its new location have come out of the bake shop less than satisfied, if the two star Yelp rating is anything to go by. As described by Yelp user Mitchell Y., “The cake itself was dry and the frosting had kind of hardened into a shell.” Yelp user and self proclaimed “cupcake lover” Diana P., described her experience at Crumbs Bake Shop as well, saying “for a cupcake lover, Crumbs was very underwhelming. We picked up a variety of 6 cupcakes for Valentines Day and although they LOOKED amazing, they were not good. Even the kids didn’t finish their piece, I mean, seriously!?”
Others seemed to find their Crumbs experience more than fine, like junior Kristen Anklewicz. Anklewicz said, “I thought that the cupcakes were really good. Personally, I liked them.”
According to Garcia and the store’s sales, customers are drawn to the Red Velvet, Cookies and Cream, Cookie Dough, and the Birthday Cake cupcakes. Unfortunately, I tried none of these.
What I did have, however, was pretty standard. Crumbs, while they have fancy sounding flavor and toppings, gives you a basic, glorified gourmet muffin. That being said, even the worst cupcakes are usually pretty decent. I had the Milkshake cupcake, described on site as “Marble cake filled with vanilla cream cheese frosting mixed with chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs, topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting swirled with chocolate cream cheese frosting and edged with chocolate crunchies.” I’m sorry to say that the description was more overwhelming than the cupcake itself.
The cupcake was pretty large in size, to almost justify the $4.29 price. The marble cake was a fun way to try both flavors, and the filling was really the best part of the entire cupcake. Both the chocolate and vanilla flavors were very true to what I knew to be classic chocolate and vanilla. The actual frosting was surprisingly good, especially to a frosting hater like me. Sweet, but not sweet enough so that it makes your jaw seize up or your mom complain about how the sugar hurts her teeth.
All in all, the cupcake was tasty, looked good, and filling. Just nothing particularly special. The staff, on the other hand, was welcoming and helpful, and the decor can only really be described as adorable. Essentially, I’d sum up my Crumbs Bake Shop experience to be just as basic as Instagramming your Starbucks drink.