If you ever had the pleasure of sampling goodies from Gareth Williams’ former pastry cafe in Mayfield, Covered in Crumbs, or are familiar with Ben RICHARDSON’s cafes The Autumn Rooms on Darby Street and Stockton, you’ll understand why the news that these two have joined forces is a pretty big deal.
What can we expect from Crumb?
B: Crumb is here to shake things up with next-level specialty coffee (Single O), house-made artisanal pastries, and sandwiches so good they should be illegal. The bread will be French-inspired and baked fresh in-house and the menu will change weekly. The space itself is pared-back minimalist design meets chaotic, with Eye Know by DeLa Soul playing in the background and upcycled vintage merch reimagined with modern designs. We’re all about contrast!
The minimalist space provides a blank canvas for the pastries, which are like abstract pieces of art – perfectly imperfect. It’s all open as well, so the kitchen is on display and everyone can see Gareth and his team at work, and the passion they put into their creations. We have some seating but it will be predominantly takeaway as we’re right near Lambton Park.
We felt that the area was crying out for something new and exciting and we’re stoked to be able to provide that. When so much in our lives is automated now, we’re hoping to push back on that and lean into the beauty of handmade – and really invite people to see the process.
G: My wife Paula and I have had people coming up to us on the street since the announcement. They’ve been specifically asking for certain things and remembering certain products. We’re definitely going to do reimagined classics, like our lemon sour cream cakes, or the salted caramel. But we want to provide the best of both worlds – merging the classics together with a new take on flavours. We want to experiment with different flavour combinations that you would usually see in sit down restaurants. We’re making them portable so you can take them away but still enjoy those restaurant flavours.
Gareth, what have you been up to since closing Covered in Crumbs?
G: I took a break for about three months, and then did some work with The Prince Hotel in Merewether, before moving back into restaurants. I went to EXP restaurant in the Hunter Valley and spent two years there as the pastry chef. After that, I decided I wanted to work back in Newcastle. I was actually considering getting out of hospitality all together, but I got a role doing cooking classes for an NDIS provider which I really enjoyed. At the same time, I was also doing food consulting for a range of businesses, including Research and Development for Sara Lee. When I was working at EXP, Ben [from Autumn Rooms] came out for dinner and asked me about doing some consulting for him. He had the Lambton space already but didn’t know what to do with it yet. I started working at Autumn Rooms, doing creative development and training for the other chefs, which I’ve been doing since October 2024. Then we got talking about the space in Lambton and decided what it should be.
Tell us a bit about the merch:
B: The upcycled merch all ties in with the whole idea of handmaking things at Crumb. We wanted to do things differently, so we came up with this idea of reusing t-shirts we find at charity shops and giving them new life by hand-screen-printing hand-drawn designs over the top of them, in a completely chaotic way. We’re taking things back roughly 20 or more years ago, when everything was screenprinted. It all ties back into the creativity of Crumb and the influence of the 90s.
Crumb officially opens doors on 15 March 2025 at 113 Elder St, Lambton.
https://www.crumb.coffee/
@crumb_coffee
