Crusty Crumb Bakery — Restaurant in Port Townsend

A friend brought me an apple cinnamon roll from Crusty Crumb and I warmed it with a pat of butter in the microwave for 10 seconds. It was delicious and made me want to go back a couple weeks later to get another one. Totally different experience. I took the apple cinnamon roll home, put a pat of butter on it and microwaved it for 10 seconds. The roll was hard, so hard I could not cut it with a fork even or chew it. A couple days later the owner or management of Crusty Crumb posted about poor reviews they were getting and said this: 'We’ve seen a few reviews lately that let us know we didn’t hit the mark for everyone. While we know we can’t please every single person, we care deeply about what we bake, how we serve, and how you feel when you visit'. They followed up with this:

'If something was off during your visit, we’re truly sorry. We’re human, and we may not realize something’s wrong unless you tell us. We welcome all kinds of feedback, from the food to the atmosphere, and we’d love the chance to make things right'

So, since my experience was so recent I mentioned the hard apple cinnamon roll.

I was told that bread should never be put in the microwave - making me the reason their cinnamon roll was too hard to eat. I stand by my comment that 10 seconds in a microwave did not ruin that roll. The butter didn't even melt. Crusty Crumb asked for feedback. When I shared my experience, they were looking for accolades, not an unhappy customer and even though the said 'they'd like to make it right', they didn't mean it. I was not offered a refund for the $6 cinnamon roll nor invited to return to the bakery to get another cinnamon roll on the house hoping for a better experience. They asked for feedback but didn't really want feedback....

Port Townsend is lucky to have this great bakery. While we enjoy other great bakeries locally, this one is unique in that all of their tasty goods are sourdough based. Who would have thought that sweet baked goods could be so good with a sourdough base?!

We have tried a lot of items from here and have yet to have anything bad or even mediocre. Everything has been fantastic and we look forward to trying everything they make. Some things to call out that we recommend everyone try: Cinnamon rolls, the white and wheat boules, scones, almond croissants, all of their cookies, cardamon buns, and bagels (can't find anyone else in Port Townsend that actually makes their own bagels!).

To top it all off, the service is great! One example of going above and beyond: There was a local internet outage that affected several businesses, impacting the ability to take card payment. I had purchased ~$50 worth of baked goods (because everything is just that good here) but did not have cash on me. The owner told me to take all the goods home and come back to pay at my convenience, be it that same day, the next day or even the following week! He apologized for the inconvenience, which was not necessary. This is the type of service that I would not have expected and was more than willing to be "inconvenienced" to go get the cash and then come back for my tasty goods (since it's so worth it!!). I returned within the hour and left a large tip just because of the generosity and trust from the owner :-)

We love this gem of a business and bakery and anyone, including locals, should definitely drop by and give Crusty...

So I stopped in this establishment, I guess it's been a couple of weeks now. The pastries they had in the glass case seemed very limited to me and not very appetizing. I finally settled on a maple bar. I asked the fella at the counter who was quite jovial and pleasant, if they baked it fresh that morning. At which point he informed me that no they don't do donuts, they buy them!?

I'm guessing at Safeway or QFC and then resell them in the store, really?!. So the maple bar that I could have gone across the street at QFC, or down the street to Safeway and gotten for a buck 50, I paid $3 and some change for, the maple bar was quite delicious but, really?.

Now I'm the kind of person, that ordinarily would have been incredulous and I was, but I'm also the kind of person that more often than not would have said, thank you but I don't think so politely and left, but that fellow seemed like he was having such a good day and I didn't want to burst his bubble, I have no idea if he would have cared or not but, I did what I did.

I will however, "not" be going there again.

Only in Port Townsend! I mean...