When Marjorie Banks returned to Portland after training at Le Cordon Bleu and working at La Belle Époque in Lyon, she faced a unique entrepreneurial challenge: creating a culinary business that didn’t fit existing categories.
“The biggest challenge was creating a new category,” Banks explains. “Crust & Crumb isn’t a traditional bakery or a conventional restaurant—it’s something in between that didn’t really exist before. When you’re doing something new, there’s no roadmap.”
Banks’ vision for Crust & Crumb emerged from a pivotal moment at La Belle Époque when she was encouraged to develop savory applications for traditionally sweet techniques. This experience gave her confidence that her approach—applying classical pastry methods to create sophisticated savory dishes—had merit.
Creating a financially sustainable business while maintaining creative freedom presented significant challenges. “I needed to balance innovation with consistency and develop signature dishes that would keep people coming back while still having the space to evolve our menu seasonally,” she notes.
The restaurant’s open kitchen design, which puts pastry craftsmanship center stage, reflects Banks’ commitment to elevating pastry’s status. “In traditional restaurant settings, pastry chefs are often hidden away, their work treated as secondary to what happens on the hot line,” she observes. “I wanted to put that craftsmanship center stage.”
Looking ahead, Banks is expanding her educational programs while developing a line of specialty ingredients based on house-made products at Crust & Crumb. These ventures extend her mission of making innovative pastry more accessible beyond the restaurant’s walls.
“Success isn’t about one brilliant idea,” Banks reflects. “It’s about consistent creativity sustained over time.”