diff --git a/backend/app/db/__init__.py b/backend/app/db/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/backend/app/db/crud.py b/backend/app/db/crud.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0141c16
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/app/db/crud.py
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+from sqlalchemy.orm import Session
+
+from . import models, schemas
+
+# We declare functions that the endpoints in app/routers/*.py
+# use to interact with the tables in the database
+
+
+def create_user(db: Session, user: schemas.UserCreate):
+    db_user = models.User(
+        email=user.email,
+        first_name= "",
+        last_name="",
+        location="",
+        profile_picture="",
+    )
+    db.add(db_user)
+    db.commit()
+    db.refresh(db_user)
+    return db_user
+
+
+def get_user(db: Session, user_id: int):
+    return db.query(models.User).filter(models.User.user_id == user_id).first()
+
+
+def get_user_by_email(db: Session, email: str):
+    return db.query(models.User).filter(models.User.email == email).first()
diff --git a/backend/app/db/database.py b/backend/app/db/database.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cb5b2b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/app/db/database.py
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+from sqlalchemy import create_engine
+from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base
+from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker
+
+# TODO: Parameterize this
+SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URL = "mysql+pymysql://user:password@localhost:3306/db"
+
+engine = create_engine(SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URL, pool_pre_ping=True, echo=True)
+SessionLocal = sessionmaker(autocommit=False, autoflush=False, bind=engine)
+
+Base = declarative_base()
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/backend/app/db/models.py b/backend/app/db/models.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9f26d57
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/app/db/models.py
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+from sqlalchemy import Boolean, Column, Integer, VARCHAR, BLOB
+
+from .database import Base
+
+# Creating the User class as a subclass of Base
+# will let us create the users table in
+# app/routers/users.py
+class User(Base):
+    __tablename__ = "users"
+
+    user_id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True, index=True)
+    first_name = Column(VARCHAR(50))
+    last_name = Column(VARCHAR(50))
+    email = Column(VARCHAR(50), unique=True, index=True)
+    location = Column(VARCHAR(50))
+    profile_picture = Column(BLOB)
+    recipe_driven = Column(Boolean, default=True)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/backend/app/db/schemas.py b/backend/app/db/schemas.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1714092
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/app/db/schemas.py
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+from pydantic import BaseModel
+from typing import Union
+
+# This defines the type Schema for classes like User
+# For the database schema/models, see ./models.py
+class UserBase(BaseModel):
+    email: str
+
+class UserCreate(UserBase):
+    password: str
+
+class User(UserBase):
+    user_id: int
+    first_name: Union[str, None]
+    last_name: Union[str, None]
+    location: Union[str, None]
+    profile_picture: Union[str, None]
+    recipe_driven: bool
+
+    class Config:
+        orm_mode = True
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/backend/app/deps.py b/backend/app/deps.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..66adad6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/app/deps.py
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+from app.db.database import SessionLocal
+
+def get_db():
+    db = SessionLocal()
+    try:
+        yield db
+    finally:
+        db.close()
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/backend/app/main.py b/backend/app/main.py
index 0d17c9b..f17f15e 100644
--- a/backend/app/main.py
+++ b/backend/app/main.py
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 from fastapi import FastAPI
+from .routers import users
 
 app = FastAPI()
-
+app.include_router(users.router)
 
 @app.get("/")
 async def root():
diff --git a/backend/app/routers/__init__.py b/backend/app/routers/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/backend/app/routers/users.py b/backend/app/routers/users.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3902f75
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/app/routers/users.py
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+from fastapi import APIRouter, Depends, HTTPException
+
+from sqlalchemy.orm import Session
+
+from ..db import crud, models, schemas, database
+from ..deps import get_db
+
+# This line creates the tables based on the subclasses of
+# of Base we created in app/db/models.py
+models.Base.metadata.create_all(bind=database.engine)
+
+# We can delegate all calls to the /users route
+# to be handled by this router. We can give the
+# APIRouter arguments for the prefix /users for
+# brevity and the users tag for the local docs info
+router = APIRouter(
+    prefix="/users",
+    tags=["users"]
+)
+
+
+@router.post("/", response_model=schemas.User)
+def create_user(user: schemas.UserCreate, db: Session = Depends(get_db)):
+    db_user = crud.get_user_by_email(db, email=user.email)
+    if db_user:
+        raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail="Email already registered")
+    return crud.create_user(db=db, user=user)
+
+@router.get("/{user_id}", response_model=schemas.User)
+async def get_user(user_id: int, db: Session = Depends(get_db)):
+    db_user = crud.get_user(db, user_id=user_id)
+    if db_user is None:
+        raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="User not found")
+    return db_user
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/backend/requirements.txt b/backend/requirements.txt
index f0615cf..e241501 100644
--- a/backend/requirements.txt
+++ b/backend/requirements.txt
@@ -1,2 +1,5 @@
 fastapi
-uvicorn
\ No newline at end of file
+uvicorn
+sqlalchemy
+pymysql
+pymysql[rsa]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/database/tables/users.sql b/database/tables/users.sql
index 86b1898..686a94c 100644
--- a/database/tables/users.sql
+++ b/database/tables/users.sql
@@ -15,10 +15,10 @@ CREATE TABLE `users_table` (
   `user_id` INT NOT NULL auto_increment,
   `first_name` VARCHAR(50),
   `last_name` VARCHAR(50),
-  `email` VARCHAR(50),
+  `email` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
   `location` VARCHAR(50),
   `profile_picture` MEDIUMBLOB,
-  `recipe_driven` BOOLEAN,
+  `recipe_driven` BOOLEAN DEFAULT 1,
   PRIMARY KEY (`user_id`)
 ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;