Working from a domestic kitchen from her East Main Street location, owner Mary Ann Grace still uses a hand mixer to whip up her gourmet lunch selections.
“That’s the reason our food tastes good,” she said. “It doesn’t have that hotel edge.”
Traveling through Europe, particularly Paris, Grace said she has always been impressed with the area’s Al Fresco dining. It was an atmosphere she wanted to bring into her Hendersonville business.
“I always knew that if I ever opened a café, I wanted to have outdoor tables with red umbrellas,” she said.
As for the name Café le Crumbs, the slogan says it all – where the portions are great and the crumbs are few.
Grace doesn’t believe in using cookie cutter recipes and wants patrons to have a one-of-a-kind dining experience when they come to Café le Crumbs.
“I try to keep ahead and trendy,” she said. “Everything on my menu is my own recipe except for the carrot cake,” she said. “That came from a friend.”
The menu at Café le Crumbs includes a variety of gourmet sandwiches like downtown chicken salad, bleu roast beef, California turkey club and green thumb veggie – alfalfa sprouts, provolone, lettuce, tomato and honey mustard dressing on a European bun.
Salads include strawberry almond, cobb, Greek, club and blackened chicken.
Homemade soups, salad dressings, a daily special and decadent desserts top the lunch fare, with the favorite of many being the famous Crème de la Crumbs carrot cake.
“I personally have lunch there every chance I get,” Mary Benet Davis said. “The soups are wonderful, and the pumpkin cookies with butter crème frosting are amazing. They don’t made the food until you order it.”
Road closing hurt drive-by trafficGrace said the closing of Callender Lane definitely hurt her business and the fact that the city won’t allow her to display a sign at the road also makes it harder to draw business in.
Café le Crumbs in Hendersonville is one of two of the restaurant’s locations. Grace also has a second location at 327 Union Street in Nashville.
She also runs a successful catering business with the help of husband, Harlan, called M.A. Grace Catering.
“We do lots of corporate catering, mostly box lunches and hot buffets,” Grace said, adding that some of the most popular catering choices included finger foods, chicken salad and jumbo crab cakes.
Davis, manager for Volunteer Veterinary Clinic also uses Grace for her business and personal catering events.
“She is just phenomenal,” Davis said. “She and Harlan are a great team. They love what they do, and that comes out.”
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