Willow's Bagels

I don’t want to rate this yet but the owners wife has celiac and he says she eats here all the time without issue, so I gave it a go and am going to see how it goes. Owner says they wipe everything down and make the gluten free bagels separate in the morning before the other glutinous bagels, change gloves, separate toaster, “every precaution is taken” - I’m assuming this means separate utensils etc. Ordered a gluten free everything bagel with roasted onion vegan cream cheese. they have two options for gluten free bagels: everything and plain At least five different vegan cream cheese flavors which is cool! If you’re going to give it a try I definitley recommend going while the owner is on staff (gray haired gentleman with short beard) as he will best be able to answer any questions you have!

Update: I was not okay, this bagel made me extremely extremely ill. Guess it depends how sensitive you are...2 week long reaction :/

How confident are you that this establishment takes safety precautions against cross-contact?

— Not at all

Hi Rayy, Very sorry you had a reaction! I was bummed to hear about your experience years ago. I noticed you updated something "a month ago," (it says here, at least) so I claimed the business on here, and figured I'd send you a note. It sounds like you spoke to my father, who helps out in the shop from time to time. He was out of line telling you about my mom's lack of reaction in order to convince you to go for it. I told him that it was out of line after we got your review years ago, and he doesn't do this anymore. If anything, I'm grateful for the negative review because I had no idea he was doing this! Gave me something to fix. Since your review, we also shifted flours, and the bagels are dramatically different. Fluffier, less sugar, more flavor. However, they are still to be eaten at your own discretion. We process ~1k lbs of high gluten flour a week, and even though we do take every precaution prior to production, it's still in the same space with the same air and the same possible human error at every turn. We could never guarantee it wouldn't have a reaction unless we became a gluten free production space.

That said, I am happy to talk about the bagels, the process, the GF flour, etc. whenever. If you're at the shop, ask for Tyler. If I'm not there, my staff can give you my business card. Or you can reply to me here and it'll go to my email.

Best,

Tyler

As a non-celiac, I was directed here by a local friend for a delicious & quick GF breakfast. They make their gluten-free bagels every Monday after sanitizing their kitchen. Since they were closed the Monday before my visit they were out of gluten-free bagels the entire weekend I was in town, including the Monday morning before we were set to leave. Helpful to note if you want the freshest bake to go early in the week, as the weekend bagels are 5-6 days old. Thankfully they had gluten-free bread, so I was able to order a breakfast sandwich instead.

How confident are you that this establishment takes safety precautions against cross-contact?

— Somewhat

Safety Feature Ratings

• Staff is knowledgeable and can answer questions

Is there a gluten-free menu?

— Gluten-free items are marked on the main menu

How much of the menu is available gluten-free?

— Not Much

How would you rate the taste and quality of the gluten-free food you tried?

— Below Average

Hi jayzombie, We prep the bagels on Mondays, usually finishing in the early afternoon. so we're not pulling from that bake off until Tuesday. The only note I wanted to make for anyone reading the review, is that we have always made bagels once a week to reduce possible cross contamination. We boil, bake, slice, and freeze them on Mondays for use during the week, so when they are pulled from the freezer and toasted, they are refreshed to essentially fresh bagels. We would never serve bagels that have been sitting out for 5-6 days. Yuck! Glad you were okay getting the bread!

Is there a gluten-free menu?

— Gluten-free items are marked on the main menu

How much of the menu is available gluten-free?

— Some

How would you rate the taste and quality of the gluten-free food you tried?

— Good