About Us

Thistle’s Summit was born as Iowa’s Queerest B&B in Mount Vernon, Iowa with a passion for good food, inclusion and community. A strange turn of events including a derecho, a global pandemic and the health issues of her former partner, led owner, Marti Payseur to transform her business into Iowa’s first gluten-free + vegan bakery, located in the heart of downtown Des Moines. Operating as a bakery full-time since 2020, Thistle’s Summit specializes in creating baked goods that taste nothing like compromise but are safe for just about anyone to enjoy. We believe that dessert is for everyone regardless of how you eat or who you love. Stop by our retail location and see just how sweet life can be. Queer owned and proud.

Marti

Chef & Recipe Developer

she/her

Like many young Virgos, Marti grew up faking illness to stay home from school to watch Martha Stewart. Not only did they share a name, Marti felt a deep kinship with her, like one day maybe she would like the life that other Martha did. After a successful career in events for over a decade, working for internationally recognized museums, she felt further from that goal than ever. She had no time to put her hands in flour, to pursue passions or to create tablescapes from the garden. Hell, she didn’t even have a garden. So she decided to hang it up, and forge ahead towards something different, something that allowed her to do the things she loved and still make people feel seen and special. You can find her obsessively pursuing flavor and pleasure, listening to riot grrrl rock, swearing like a sailor and baking her ass off. Her life’s work is to make people feel seen, loved and taken care of.