Swarthmore College offers a huge variety of food options. You have the Dining Center, Science Center Cafe, Kohlberg Coffee Bar and Essie’s Corner but the only student-run food spot is Crumb Cafe located at the Dining Community Commons (DCC). Crumb Cafe is a student-run late-night venue running from 8-11 pm, serving a range of great food and beverages.
They are open every day (aside from breaks of course) and will often collaborate with student clubs/organizations to create specialty items. The most recent one I’ve tried was an ube milkshake from a kapatiran x crumb collab (kapatiran is Swarthmore’s Filipino Student Association). Their regular menu is equally as delicious though; offering nachos, quesadillas, sandwiches, smoothies, italian sodas, hot dogs and milkshakes. It’s all customizable too. You can add protein to your nachos or quesadilla for no additional charge. You can add chocolate syrup, m&ms, oreos, whipped cream or chocolate chips to any milkshake. The possibilities are endless!
Now I’m sure Crumb may sound like just another option to eat on campus but it represents much more than a simple place to grab food.
Let’s set up a hypothetical situation to better understand why Crumb Cafe is crucial to a Swattie’s life (and by Swattie, I mean me):
It’s a quiet Tuesday night and you just got out of your Intro to Music Technology class after working tirelessly on your new music project. You’re craving something sweet and something salty; not a full course dinner but something just enough to satisfy that craving. Then you receive a text that your friends are hanging out at the DCC.
The greatest idea comes to your mind: Grabbing food at Crumb and bragging to your friends about how you’re taking a class that essentially is how to DJ.
The night ends blissfully and beautifully with yummy food and friends as company.
Crumb Cafe has been a foundational piece of my journey at Swarthmore.
Crumb was one of the main ways I grew closer to my best friends at Swarthmore in the beginning stages of the friendship. During freshman year instead of asking “Wanna hang out?” as that seemed too nervewracking, I would text my new friends “Crumb @ 9?” which would lead to a night of chatting about the most random topics. There was one night my sophomore year where my friends and I set up camp at a table and just created bracelets for each other, sipping on my go-to order, a berry smoothie. Even in my senior year, I still text the same friends “Crumb @ 8?” at least twice a week.
It’s also the place where you can see classmates outside of the environment you are used to seeing them in. There were many times where I’d see my lab partner or the member of a club I was involved in and just say hi. Crumb provides a space to run into friends unexpectedly and talk about how that test was absolutely impossible or make plans to see that new movie in Philly on the weekend.
In general, Crumb Cafe is a social space for Swatties to relax and grub on some delicious food. For me, it represents some of my most cherished moments at Swarthmore. The ones where my friends and I grab a table, run to the already forming line to order while discussing what food item to split and then spend an hour catching up on our lives. Crumb is where I’ve made memories I can’t definitively remember but regardless feel happy thinking about them.
As a senior, I’ve begun to appreciate Crumb Cafe even more and I’m sure it will continue to be a place for future Swatties to create cherished memories with friends.