Beau Monde whips up gluten-free treats, breads
Melissa and Michael Zimmerman saw a need and filled it — with gluten-free goodies.
Their Beau Monde Bakery, which opened in August at 2380 N. Buffalo Drive, specializes in products for those who have an allergy or sensitivity to wheat gluten.
“It’s been underdiagnosed,” Melissa Zimmerman said. “People are becoming much more aware of it. We thought we had a very good product to offer.”
The Zimmermans aren’t celiacs, but they do have medical backgrounds; she’s a licensed intensive-care nurse and he’s a physician. And they received plenty of assistance from a friend who started a similar bakery in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
“She’s a celiac and she knew that there was a niche here that needed to be filled,” Zimmerman said. “She’s been baking for herself for a large part of her life. We were just fortunate to know her.”
Melissa Zimmerman said gluten-free products are becoming more obtainable, noting that Whole Foods Market has a fairly wide product line. But because gluten-free products are extremely perishable, foods such as breads normally are frozen.
“I think the fact that they’re able to get fresh bread for a day is huge,” Zimmerman said of Beau Monde. And yes, only for a day; Zimmerman advises customers to freeze their bread before they go to bed on the day they purchase it.
She bakes one to two breads fresh daily. Most in demand, she said, are the Italian flatbread, coffeecakes and cake slices.
“We do cake pops and they seem to be very popular,” Zimmerman said. “And custom cakes; we’re the only one that I’m aware of that does custom cakes” that are gluten-free. Beau Monde has a cake decorator and has branched out into birthday cakes as well as wedding cakes.
In addition to the Italian flatbread, she carries cheese flatbread and four loaf-style breads — artisan white, eggless, flaxseed and raisin-cinnamon. The bakery also sells frozen hamburger buns and partially baked pizza crusts and has just started selling frozen waffles. Zimmerman said gluten-free products tend to be a little higher in price because of the ingredients used.
Its three main customer groups, Zimmerman said, are celiacs, those who are gluten-intolerant and people who are allergic to wheat but not gluten.
The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.
Contact reporter Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0474.
