Gluten-Free Bakery Estelle Is a Nostalgic Powerhouse

The town of Springfield, Oregon — about two hours from Portland and 10 minutes from Eugene — is actually the pastiche of what one might expect a town that happens to share its name with that town made famous in the Simpsons. Not a ton going on. One Main Street that lives up to its name. The Willamette River gurgles beneath a green blue bridge chunk of Oregon Route 126 that charts through town. Paintings of Bart, Lisa, Moe, Barney, and Homer adorn walls of businesses throughout town.

Estelle — a new bakery from Rachel Estelle Rossi — breaks through the sleepy din in fantastic fashion. Rossi already built up a fan base popping up at farmers markets throughout Portland and Eugene. Estelle represents her first storefront; it’s just her and one front of house employee captaining the ship. No matter: Estelle might be the best gluten-free bakery to hit the West Coast. For anyone who suffers from celiac or a wheat sensitivity, the menu and ambiance feel like it was made just for them.

A tremendous array of well-made options proves it. The cherry bar should be studied in a lab: The cherries, studded through the surface, are moist and in-tact, parlaying into a structural marvel of chewy and sweet center meeting firm base and sides. Paul Hollywood will find no soggy bottom on the structurally sound almond peach cheesecake, with a filling that’s light yet rich, a subtle fruit note carrying beneath heaven’s helping of cream. The flaky broccolini and ricotta galette brings phyllo to mind. Dishes arrive on the grandma-core plateware of your Instagram feed’s fancy. Chai and coffee come from Blue Lotus and Wandering Goat, both girding the menu in fine fashion.

Rossi’s journey to gluten-free baking dominance is not the stuff of Food Network careerism. She stumbled into it after getting an undergrad degree in art history. (“My bad,” she says with a laugh.) Her sister and she both were diagnosed with celiac in their early 20s. Both felt they could take their smattering of years in the restaurant industry — mostly front of house — into a gluten-free baking business of their own. Her sister decided to go back to school, so Rossi took the business into her own hands in 2018. Commissary kitchens didn’t last long as she couldn’t guarantee gluten-free spaces. She ran a food truck in Portland for a while, built up a few wholesale accounts, then the pandemic struck. It wasn’t until 2022 that she reemerged at farmers markets and wholesale, this time in Eugene, where she grew up.

Estelle is not just Rossi’s middle name, but her great-grandmother’s. She was a baker, too. It’s a fitting namesake given that Rossi doesn’t have any formal baking experience, instead relying on formatting family recipes through a wheat-free lens, often adding more liquid or wet ingredients to balance the terrifying spectrum of gluten-free pastries: way too gummy or bone dry. y A lot of places go wrong in trying to imitate gluten, Rossi says, noting that it’s better to recognize some dishes — such as croissants — are “unicorns” that wheat-free diners may never have. The reception to this straight-up approach has been enormous.

“I think I might have underestimated the need for this [bakery],” Rossi says. “I’ve had so many people tell me they’re so thankful to not worry about cross-contamination and have all these choices.”

It’s hard to find a dedicated gluten-free facility that doesn’t feel, well, gluten-free. Elizabeth Pruett took wheat-free baking to a new level in 2004 when she debuted her gluten-free muffins at Tartine Bakery in San Francisco. Today, Pruett runs a Substack dedicated to gluten-free baking called Have Your Cake, one Rossi follows. But Tartine’s obviously never been a gluten-free facility. Wholesome Bakery went gangbusters in San Francisco after debuting in 2018, securing deals for gluten-free and vegan cookies with Whole Foods. That storefront closed in 2023. In Portland, Gregory Gourdet’s handiwork at Kann and Sousòl platformed the possibilities of wheat-free upscale eating; so did Berlu Bakery for gluten-free patisserie. New Cascadia Traditional provides a strong Rose City example of a decade-old fully gluten-free baking operation, pros in bagels and pizza. Within 100 miles of Estelle, there’s Eugene’s Elegant Elephant, storied and somewhat old school by comparison.

But Rossi’s operation feels like one of few to merge modern aesthetics with the premium baking quality so many have begged for since they got their celiac diagnoses. On a stray Monday morning, the vibe strikes the balance of a neighborhood cafe and upscale sweet shop with deftness. There are couches and stools at a bar, sunlight soaking the store from a host of windows. Vintage paintings hang from the wall, much of it for sale from a local artist. For remote workers and farmers market fans alike, Estelle is unlike any place in Springfield.

That said, Rossi’s not sure what the future holds. Most presently, she is very pregnant; she found out she was going to have a baby a few weeks after securing the bakery’s first lease. She doesn’t want to take on too much all at once — she’s focusing on what’s next, rather than overextending. “Who knows,” Rossi says of the future. “I’ve worked towards the bakery for so long.”

Estelle (349 Main Street, Springfield) is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.