There are two forces behind Drums & Crumbs. Some say we make an unlikely team due to the differences in our personalities (more on that later), but the common elements of our backgrounds and shared vision for the business have resulted in us being pretty great partners.

Today, we are introducing Arthur.

Arthur is a born and bred southerner hailing from Memphis, Tennessee. An elevated appreciation for food and an entrepreneurial spirit must run in his blood, because his father was a celebrated and acclaimed chef and restauranteur in Memphis. Consequently, Arthur saw the ins and outs of the restaurant business from a young age, busing tables, bar tending, performing various food preparation jobs in the kitchen, and learning to cook.

While in college at the University of Tennessee, he forayed into the world of wine, taking wine education classes and working at a local wine store. Arthur spent a year at law school but discovered the legal life was not his calling and instead managed a wine store and taught classes on wine tasting.

His first “career” began when he moved to Nashville to work in finance, which paved the way to New York City where he worked for a couple of well known financial firms over the next seven years. Even then, food was always on his mind. Arthur took food writing and wine tasting classes and actively explored New York’s inspirational and limitless culinary scene.

By 2012, Arthur knew it was time for something else. He weighed his options inside the world of finance, even studying for and taking the Chartered Financial Analyst exam, but he knew his passion laid elsewhere.

When Arthur encouraged Rachel to take her first non-legal job at a bakery in the city, he had no idea that he was setting his own fate into motion. Rachel moved to California in early 2012, and by June of that same year she had convinced him to take a trip to the west coast to explore the idea of opening a business together. Two months later, Arthur quit his job in finance and took a three-month sabbatical to savor the last of his time in New York and travel to London. In November 2012, he moved to San Francisco to help bring Drums & Crumbs to life.

Arthur’s strengths include his business background, intimate familiarity with the food and beverage industry, determination, self-discipline, gentlemanliness (apparently that is really a word) and lifelong love of food. He’s also somehow held on to his sweet Tennessee accent.

Categorised as: Background