Andi Robbins, tasting room manager for Orange Bike Brewing, places a gluten-free Summer Ale on the bar. The Portland-based company brews gluten-free beverages exclusively and is among the reasons for those who can’t tolerate gluten, central and southern Maine are good places to eat and drink. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

In the 16 years since Maine’s first gluten-free bakery, Wildflours, opened in Brunswick, the options for those with celiac disease or gluten intolerance in Greater Portland have only grown. Back then, “gluten-free eating was still a bit of an anomaly,” as Wildflours website puts it. Today, though, whether someone on a gluten-restricted diet likes to eat out, enjoy a beer at a local craft brewery or snack on a special bakery treat, there are plenty of places where they can do so safely.

At least 50 spots in Portland can guarantee diners a gluten-free meal, according to Abby Helman Kelly, owner of Wicked Gluten Free, a Connecticut-based business that mounts gluten-free expos and produces gluten-free dining guides for New England.

“Fifty is all I have for Connecticut, and I live here,” she said.  “So that’s a lot, for Portland. I don’t know how many cities you can go to and enjoy the regional delicacies safely. That’s a sign of a city that can do it well.”

Chef Krista Kern has noticed an uptick in diners looking for gluten-free food and chefs willing to address their needs. Kern has been in the restaurant industry for 40 years, and says that 15 years ago, she might have one person with celiac a year come into her restaurants. Now, just about every day she serves diners with gluten intolerances or allergies.

“Portland is getting there,” Kern said. “It’s still a small community. It will take some time. It’s hard for chefs in places where they know they have flour in the kitchen on a regular basis to offer gluten-free (dishes), because there’s going to be cross contamination. But I feel like Portland is open to it. There are so many great chefs and cooks who care.”

A cone of No Churn Corn Ice Cream with Maine Maple-Blueberry Compote at Bresca & the Honeybee. Owner and ice cream maker Krista Kern stopped eating gluten four years ago, and all the items at her ice cream shack in New Gloucester are gluten-free. Photo courtesy of Krista Kern

After she stopped eating gluten herself four years ago, Kern converted her ice cream shop, Bresca & the Honeybee in New Gloucester, to be 100% gluten free. She plans to do the same in October with The Purple House, her cafe/bakery in North Yarmouth.

Though “gluten-free” has been a bit of a buzz phrase for the past quarter-century, not everybody knows what the diet actually entails. Gluten is a protein in wheat, barley and rye, and its pesky pervasive nature means it shows up in not just bread, but also foods where you might not expect it, such as soy sauce, licorice candies and tomato soup.

For those with celiac or serious gluten intolerances, cross-contamination is also a problem. A few stray motes of flour, say, that wind up in their food can make them ill. Others just want to experiment with removing gluten from their diet in hopes of reducing inflammation or stomach pain.

CHEERS, FOR BEER WITHOUT GLUTEN

Two craft breweries cater to Maine’s gluten-free market. That may not sound like much, but out of nearly 10,000 breweries in the United States, only 19 are completely gluten-free, according to Bev Pigeon, co-owner of one of them, Lucky Pigeon Brewing Co. in Biddeford. In other words, Maine has 10 percent of the nation’s gluten-free breweries.

Bart Watson, Chief Economist at the Brewers’ Association thinks he knows why. Breweries in Maine’s highly developed beer scene are always looking for specialties to give them a competitive edge. “Gluten-free is one of those niches,” he said.

Data from the Brewers’ Association’s Great American Beer Festival, which takes place every five years, suggests interest in gluten-free beer is growing nationally. In the festival’s 2013 competition, 14 brewers entered beer in the gluten-free category. By 2018, the number had jumped to 38 and in 2023, it was up to 47.

“It’s still a very small group of people doing this. It’s a labor of love to do this kind of thing. You have to have a strong reason to do it,” said Bev Pigeon, who founded Lucky Pigeon brewery with her wife, Kathleen, and other family members after Kathleen was diagnosed with celiac disease.

The couple used to enjoy going to breweries with Bev’s sister and brother-in-law (brewery co-founders, Lesley and Nic Bramer). But once Kathleen was diagnosed, their regular outings had to stop.

“If you’re gluten-free, you couldn’t have that taproom experience. You couldn’t sit and have a beer with your family and play some games on a Sunday afternoon,” Bev Pigeon said.

In the three years the brewery has been open, they’ve found that beer fans who can’t tolerate gluten are willing to travel to stock up on beer they can actually drink. Almost every time she is in the tasting room, Bev Pigeon said, she encounters at least one such customer.

“I was working in the tasting room this past Sunday, and a woman came

Lucky Pigeon is one of two dedicated gluten-free breweries in Maine. There are just 19 such breweries in the entire country. Courtesy of Lucky Pigeon Brewing Co.

in who drove up from Massachusetts, bought two cases of beer, got in her car and drove back,” she said earlier this summer. “We had somebody fly up from Texas and buy a bunch of beer, and put it in her checked baggage, and fly home.”

Both Lucky Pigeon and Orange Bike Brewing Co., Maine’s other gluten-free brewery, say they have many loyal customers who are able to tolerate gluten, but simply like the beer. “Seventy percent of our clientele doesn’t even have gluten-tolerance issues,” Orange Bike Brewing owner Tom Ruff said. “They just like the beer.”

But for customers on restricted diets, such breweries have special meaning. Westbrook beer fans Sylvia and Steve Dion found themselves unable to share the beverage after Sylvia was diagnosed with celiac disease many years ago. Then, in January, they visited Orange Bike Brewing and enjoyed their first beer together in 19 years.

“It was a moving experience, quite frankly, because it had been such a long time since the two of us had been able to go to a place that had one thing that we could both have,” Sylvia Dion said.

Now she and her husband visit Orange Bike at least once a week.

“In our culture, food and drink are part of our connections,” Andi Robbins, Orange Bike Brewing Co.’s tasting room manager, said. “It’s a sense of loss if you have dietary restrictions. To be able to provide that again to people is beautiful.”

A SENSE OF COMMUNITY

Wellness coach, event planner and Instagrammer Kaitlin Gee gets it. She’d like more Mainers who are gluten intolerant to find community and be able to have such eating and drinking experiences. Gee, who has lived in Portland for about a decade now, was diagnosed with celiac in 2015.

“I wanted to support people with gluten-free living, because I found that was the missing piece in my journey,” she said. “I got the diagnosis. I had a nutritionist, but (what I missed) was more the social events aspect.”

To help fill that piece, this fall Gee is hosting two gluten-free nights in collaboration with two Maine restaurants, on Sept. 19 at Sur Lie in Portland, and on Oct. 23 at Gather in Yarmouth. Find more information on these events at her Instagram account (@mrs.geefreeliving) and on her website, mrsgeefreeliving.com.

The availability of gluten-free products as well as awareness of celiac protocols have improved in recent years, she said. “Specifically the Portland, southern Maine area, I definitely think because it is such a ‘foodie’ place to go, that’s part of the reason why we have more options.”

Take Bam Bam Bakery in Falmouth, where every last menu item is gluten free. When the bakery was forced to relocate from Portland after the pandemic, owner Tina Cromwell considered shutting it down.

“But I thought about how many people struggle to find gluten-free stuff they like,” she said. “We have lots of loyal customers who have been following us around for years. Some even have my personal phone number.”

At its new location, Bam Bam is a family affair: Cromwell’s two children and her brother, chef Jim Fitzgerald, work with her. She spends much of her time perfecting recipes, or tweaking some to make them vegan or dairy free in addition to gluten-free.

Customer Tracy Warren already finds Cromwell’s baking just about perfect. Warren is neither celiac nor gluten-intolerant, yet has been a fan of Bam Bam for years. “The food is so delicious,” she said. “This is the best cinnamon roll I’ve ever had. I can’t even tell it’s gluten free.”

That’s not unusual. Cromwell doesn’t advertise the fact.

“People will come in and ask, ‘Do you have any gluten free options?’ ” Cromwell said with a smile. “And I’ll say, ‘Well…’ “