How Crumpets Became Austin’s Cult-Favorite Bread

“‘What the heck is a crumpet?’”

Jacob Weiser says this is the question he and his wife, Frida Silva-Carreira, got asked by nearly every visitor after they stopped by the Weiser’s Crumpet Bottom stall at Austin’s Sunset Valley Sustainable Food Center Farmers Market. Since the pop-up began appearing at the market in May 2024, it’s been the couple’s mission to define it.

Crumpet is just a fancy way to say English muffin, right? Wrong.

Weiser explains that unlike an English muffin, which is made with a bread-like dough, crumpets start with a pancake-like batter. Crumpet Bottom’s is made up of a simplistic mix of Barton Springs Mills flour, yeast, and coconut milk to keep it accessible — a combination that Silva-Carreira, who has worked at local baking legends like Sour Duck, swears by. While Silva-Carreira and Weiser combine their expertise and experiences to formulate the mixture, Weiser acts as a master on the flat top, where he crisps them on the bottom, watching as the heat bubbles to form a softer, chewier top as he bakes them fresh each day.

@instadarringram

Weiser says his passion for food started when he was a child and later inspired him to go to culinary school. Silva-Carreira grew as a baker by practicing at home before Mark Buley of Eastside cafe, bar, and beer garden Sour Duck Market took her under his wing. By the time Silva-Carreira found her stride baking sourdough at home, she heard word that the team behind Odd Duck was hosting a bake sale to promote their then-upcoming bakery, Sour Duck. She eventually landed a gig there that turned into a career. “If it wasn’t for [Buley] giving me a chance, I wouldn’t be a baker today,” she says.

Silva-Carreira and Weiser met while working at All Star Burger in Bee Caves, Texas, and worked together at Austin mainstays like Franklin Barbecue and Sour Duck. A trip to the Crumpet Shop in Seattle changed their trajectory. Suddenly, the couple says, they felt in awe of how irresistible English baked goods could be. Weiser began pitching ideas for sandwiches and pizzas that they could create, but the idea of a crumpet pop-up won Silva-Carreira over. After a year or two of working with Weiser to perfect his recipe, Silva-Carreira resolved that it was time to name their business. Playing off the term “muffin top,” they saw fit to call their pop-up Crumpet Bottom, with its logo, drawn by Silva-Carreira, featuring a crumpet with a puckered derriere. By May 2024, the duo had their own stall at the Sunset Valley farmers market, where they built up a community of regulars and support from market stall neighbors like Pickle Envy, which now supplies pickles to them. The Crumpet Bottom stall quickly became an intersection of crumpet fanatics — the couple came across a niche of Anglophiles who had long searched for a well-made crumpet in Texas — and first-timers.

@instadarringram

Though crumpets can be simple — enjoyed on their own with just a dollop of butter and some salt, Silva-Carreira and Weiser wanted to add flavors that showcase the versatility of the griddle bread. Guided by Silva-Carreiras’s background as a baker, Weiser builds crumpet recipes from his experiences, yielding a playful lineup of breads that often teeter the line between savory and sweet. He’s infused the batter with cocoa powder and chocolate chips to yield fluffy circular discs reminiscent of s’mores Pop-Tarts, a childhood favorite of his, while also experimenting with savory crumpets that use pimento, tomato jam, and homemade potato chips — these remind him of summers at home when Spaghettios and grilled cheeses with tomato soup were a staple.

Such flavor combinations exemplify why innovative or modern takes on old classics can be successful. The soft, almost pillowy, crumpets deliver a sweet and earthy fudginess or nostalgic umami mix of cheese and tomato, while their namesake crisp bottoms add a textural element that a pizza bagel or Pop-Tart can’t replicate. Crumpets also have bonus pockets of flavor in the bubbly tops, which allow shmears, butters, jams, and sauces to sink into their nooks and crannies. The Lucy, one of Crumpet Bottom’s standouts, pairs a chocolate crumpet with chocolate chips and a smear of nutty black sesame paste; the result is a crumpet that tastes more like a fantastical piece of chocolate than bread. On the savory side, diners can find the Nightshade Nightmare, a crumpet topped with Engel Farms peppers, Pedernales River Farm eggplant, and silky eggplant caponata.

Crumpets are made fresh each day, with Weiser firing up the griddle and Silva-Carreira prepping the toppings to round out their menu that day. The duo has made crumpet fans out of local diners and chefs in Austin’s restaurant scene: Fellow pop-ups like Custard Prison have promoted them on Instagram, and Zak Drummond, owner of the pop-up hot dog stand and catering company Zee’s Wiener System, was one of the first to try Crumpet Bottom’s crumpets, after which he gave a glowing review in an Instagram comment.

Going into 2025, Silva-Carreira and Weiser say they’re shifting their focus to mainly operate Crumpet Bottom as a pop-up that stops into coffee shops around East Austin since they both still have day jobs. The days of these magical crumpets being a hidden gem might be more limited, so get your hands on Silva-Carreira and Weiser’s crumpets while you can.

@instadarringram

Follow them on Instagram to see where else the duo pop up around town @crumpetbottom.