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About Us

Everything at Crushcakes Café is made on site, from scratch with love!  We always use the freshest and finest ingredients including Callebaut Chocolate, real vanilla beans, fresh fruits and veggies.  We prepare breakfast and lunch every day, 7 days a week and offer catering, wedding and event cakes, dessert bars and more.  

In 2020 we started the C2C Project (Crushcakes to Communities).  With every purchase of a C2C cupcake, we donate the profits to different community based non-profits supporting social justice such as Black Lives Matter, Fair Fight, ADL, Planned Parenthood and Pacific Pride Foundation.  Help us spread love, not hate :)

We hope you will come visit us soon… you will always remember your first crush!

A note from the owner...

My name is Shannon Gaston.  I am the original owner and operator of Crushcakes Cafes and Crush Bar. After many years in the corporate world of HR and Law, I went to a yoga retreat in Sonoma during the Spring of 2007, where I was inspired and drawn back to my restaurant roots during deep meditation and solitude.  By February of 2008, I said goodbye to the "golden handcuffs" of HR and opened the first Crushcakes in Santa Barbara.

Since then it has been quite an exciting adventure!  We have have had A LOT of ups and downs over the years.  From the recession that started soon after we opened, to fires, mud slides, pandemics and civil rights movements, we have been here for it all.  Still making our delicious food, cakes, cupcakes and coffee, we hang in there because we are passionate about what we do and the community we serve!

Another thing that really motivates me is the ability to support women in important places. Since the time of our inception until now, we have hired women Managers, Chefs, Baristas, Bakers, Bookkeepers, CPAs, Lawyers and more! These amazing women have kept our business afloat during good times and throughout the hardest times.  We are so thankful for these hard working kick-ass incredible women and all they have done to keep Crushcakes going over the years!

Our success here has also come in part from the awesome support of our family. As Crushcakes has grown so has our family and we are a very diverse group; Jewish, Middle Eastern, Black, White and everything in between. We continue to support each other and those in our community through employment, donations and more. We do this because we genuinely love what we do each day and this community we get to be a part of.  

Thank you so much for supporting our family run business, we would not be here if it were not for you all, our AMAZING customers!  If you have any thoughts or suggestions about how we can do things better, please feel free to reach out to us anytime, we love to hear from you! 

Always & Forever, 

Shannon ♥️  


Shannon Gaston, Founder



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a drawing of cake pop sticks