Flying Apron Bakery

If you like your coffee shop comfortable, homey, and gluten-free, then glide on in to Flying Apron Bakery & Café.

I visited on a Saturday morning and met a friend. As a nutritionist, she’s very familiar with gluten-free baked foods and why a person who does not have celiac disease would choose to eat them (more on that later). I ordered an Americano with cream and a blueberry oat scone. She got a latte with almond milk and a dairy-free cinnamon roll. We sat in stuffed easy chairs at a low wooden table and chatted while the locals dropped in and out.

The seating was comfortable and the noise level was not too loud, so our conversation flowed like the perfectly brewed coffee. My scone was delicate and yet hearty. I wasn’t hungry again for a few hours. The cinnamon roll was light and slathered in a frosting that magically contained no butter.

Flying Apron originally opened in the U District in 2002 and moved to Fremont in 2007. Their vision was to serve coffee and tea with vegan and gluten-free goods that were so delicious, you wouldn’t feel deprived. They experimented with different combinations of flours and tested and sampled their way to the best muffins, pastries, cookies, cinnamon rolls, donuts, pies, and cakes (including custom wedding cakes). They sweeten with organic sweeteners including agave, maple syrup, and evaporated cane juice. They even make their own cheese out of nut milk (i.e., a milk substitute made by blending raw nuts with water and filtering out the pulp).