In 2019 Thistle’s Summit was born first 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 and a global pandemic, led owner, Marti Payseur, to transform her business into Iowa’s first gluten-free + vegan bakery. While neither vegan or gluten free herself, she believes deeply that food is how people connect. That connection can’t be facilitated unless everyone around the table can enjoy something delicious without compromise. That simple guiding principle is still the lighthouse for Thistle’s Summit bakery today.

In 2022 Thistle’s Summit Storefront opened on a sleepy street in Downtown Des Moines. In 2023 Olio Oddities, owned by Megan Bannister, opened in the loft space of the bakery's storefront. Becoming Des Moines go-to shop for weird and wacky vintage, unique home goods and unusual decor. Olio Oddities is dedicated to bringing you colorful, eclectic goods to brighten your home & daily life.

In 2025 Payseur and Bannister, lifelong friends and co-conspirators, closed the storefront that they had outgrown to make space for bigger, brighter, better things. Olio Oddites can now be found reimagined at Funky Finds downtown Des Moines.

Thistle’s Summit continues to produce mind-blowing baked goods for custom orders and retail partners throughout the metro. While a full service resturant + bakery is part of the long term vision for the business, for the moment, the focus is to ensure that anywhere you go in the Des Moines metro, your life can get a little sweeter with a Thistle’s Summit treat. We believe that dessert is for everyone, regardless of how you eat or who you love. We believe in queer community and making Iowa a little safer and sweeter for everyone.

Marti PaySeur

Owner + Magic Maker

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 had built. Holding a B.A. from Drake University in Writing and Women’s Studies, the path forward was clear- hospitality.

After a successful career in events + hospitality for over a decade, working for internationally recognized museums, she wanted to burn it down and work with her hands. 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. She bought an old house in a tiny town and opened a B&B to serve the queer population in an idyllic safe space, and the rest is has been a long, strange trip.

Now you can find her obsessively pursuing flavor and pleasure, swearing like a sailor, probably listening to Mac Miller and baking her ass off. Her life’s work is to make people feel seen, loved and taken care of (and to maybe to become the Alt Martha Stewart 🤞🏻).