Clean Crumbles Opens Gluten-Free Bakery and Café on West Front Street

A decade of recipe testing, a severe food intolerance, and a Front Street storefront that opened up at just the right moment: that is the origin story of Clean Crumbles, Traverse City's newest bakery and café.

Mary Westbrook took over the ground floor of the Kayak Bike & Brew building at 436 West Front Street for the soft launch of Clean Crumbles. Westbrook, who started baking at a young age, spent the last decade perfecting her recipes after developing severe food intolerances, and began selling her baked goods as a side passion project. Korzek discovered her products when the single Traverse City mom began selling them out of her home to make extra money.

Westbrook thought it would still be years before she opened her own café, but when the Front Street space became available, "it just all lined up immediately," she says.

The business features 100 percent gluten-free and dairy-free offerings for both food and beverages, with the menu featuring house-made cinnamon rolls, mini pancakes, banana bread, protein bars, desserts, and coffee and tea bars. Westbrook has perfected a collection of gluten- and dairy-free recipes for baked goods that people with celiac disease, wheat and milk allergies, and related dietary sensitivities can eat.

The lounge area is outfitted with board games, books, magazines, and seating to "socialize, gather, and relax," Westbrook says. Her goal is "just really creating a community that feels comfortable coming in here to be able to enjoy food, gather around food. A lot of people connect in that way. So for them to have a space to come, do that is really important to me."

Along with an emphasis on minimal clean ingredients, Westbrook says Clean Crumbles will stand out among local bakeries for its hours. "I could just never get to these little places when I worked a 9-5," she says. She's planning off-season hours of seven days a week, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., with late-night hours and a storefront walk-up window offered in the summer.

Clean Crumbles describes itself as a "gluten and dairy free retro café and lounge in downtown Traverse City, focusing on bold flavors and clean ingredients.