diff --git a/src/persist-client/Cargo.toml b/src/persist-client/Cargo.toml
index 3abc1d3848931..2a41d3868009f 100644
--- a/src/persist-client/Cargo.toml
+++ b/src/persist-client/Cargo.toml
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ tonic-build = "0.12.3"
 
 [features]
 default = ["mz-build-tools/default", "workspace-hack"]
+turmoil = []
 
 [package.metadata.cargo-udeps.ignore]
 normal = ["workspace-hack"]
diff --git a/src/persist-client/src/async_runtime.rs b/src/persist-client/src/async_runtime.rs
index 82a7a85df6479..88f41c2d9a5fe 100644
--- a/src/persist-client/src/async_runtime.rs
+++ b/src/persist-client/src/async_runtime.rs
@@ -75,6 +75,15 @@ impl IsolatedRuntime {
         IsolatedRuntime::new(&MetricsRegistry::new(), Some(TEST_THREADS))
     }
 
+    #[cfg(feature = "turmoil")]
+    /// Create a no-op shim that spawns tasks on the current tokio runtime.
+    ///
+    /// This is useful for simulation tests where we don't want to spawn additional threads and/or
+    /// tokio runtimes.
+    pub fn new_disabled() -> Self {
+        IsolatedRuntime { inner: None }
+    }
+
     /// Spawns a task onto this runtime.
     ///
     /// Note: We purposefully do not use the [`tokio::task::spawn_blocking`] API here, see the doc
@@ -86,10 +95,11 @@ impl IsolatedRuntime {
         F: Future + Send + 'static,
         F::Output: Send + 'static,
     {
-        self.inner
-            .as_ref()
-            .expect("exists until drop")
-            .spawn_named(name, fut)
+        if let Some(runtime) = &self.inner {
+            runtime.spawn_named(name, fut)
+        } else {
+            mz_ore::task::spawn(name, fut)
+        }
     }
 }
 
@@ -98,9 +108,8 @@ impl Drop for IsolatedRuntime {
         // We don't need to worry about `shutdown_background` leaking
         // blocking tasks (i.e., tasks spawned with `spawn_blocking`) because
         // the `IsolatedRuntime` wrapper prevents access to `spawn_blocking`.
-        self.inner
-            .take()
-            .expect("cannot drop twice")
-            .shutdown_background()
+        if let Some(runtime) = self.inner.take() {
+            runtime.shutdown_background();
+        }
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/persist-client/src/cache.rs b/src/persist-client/src/cache.rs
index cc9e14b03320d..b47ee3ce92ffb 100644
--- a/src/persist-client/src/cache.rs
+++ b/src/persist-client/src/cache.rs
@@ -111,6 +111,39 @@ impl PersistClientCache {
         )
     }
 
+    #[cfg(feature = "turmoil")]
+    /// Create a [PersistClientCache] for use in turmoil tests.
+    ///
+    /// Turmoil wants to run all software under test in a single thread, so we disable the
+    /// (multi-threaded) isolated runtime.
+    pub fn new_for_turmoil() -> Self {
+        use crate::rpc::NoopPubSubSender;
+
+        let cfg = PersistConfig::new_for_tests();
+        let metrics = Arc::new(Metrics::new(&cfg, &MetricsRegistry::new()));
+
+        let pubsub_sender: Arc<dyn PubSubSender> = Arc::new(NoopPubSubSender);
+        let _pubsub_receiver_task = mz_ore::task::spawn(|| "noop", async {});
+
+        let state_cache = Arc::new(StateCache::new(
+            &cfg,
+            Arc::clone(&metrics),
+            Arc::clone(&pubsub_sender),
+        ));
+        let isolated_runtime = IsolatedRuntime::new_disabled();
+
+        PersistClientCache {
+            cfg,
+            metrics,
+            blob_by_uri: Mutex::new(BTreeMap::new()),
+            consensus_by_uri: Mutex::new(BTreeMap::new()),
+            isolated_runtime: Arc::new(isolated_runtime),
+            state_cache,
+            pubsub_sender,
+            _pubsub_receiver_task,
+        }
+    }
+
     /// Returns the [PersistConfig] being used by this cache.
     pub fn cfg(&self) -> &PersistConfig {
         &self.cfg