Gluten Free Friends is a fun trip to treats-ville, minus the wheat

Previous SlideNext Slide

In times of yore, ordering gluten-free foods at cafes or restaurants meant tedious, tasteless things with an air of health camp severity were brought to the table bearing an invisible flag saying, “This is not fun.”

Having coeliac disease or an intolerance to gluten is equally un-fun but being served a section of cardboard posing as bread spread with indifferent “health” toppings bereft of flavour ain’t the answer.

This is partly why GFF, aka Gluten Free Friends, a new takeaway shop offering savoury and baked gluten-free and coeliac-safe food has opened. Run by Christopher Palamara, Kenneth Rodrigueza and Karen Rodrigueza-Labuni, who are known for their Redfern shop Donut Papi, GFF is treats-ville for anyone unable to stomach certain proteins found in cereal grains.

It’s also a ray of sunshine aesthetically. The front windows are plastered with oversize cartoon characters ranging from a smiling doughnut to a cheerful fried chicken drumstick, a grinning sunflower and biscuit so peppy it’s giving the peace sign while dancing the two-step.

Inside, the walls are a deep sunshine yellow, the counters are white-tiled with glowing order and pick-up signs edged by hearts and butter-hued shelves carry marshmallows, earthenware ceramics, ethical coffee beans, nut milk and pastel-decorated packets of Crum, a Milo-like, gluten-free product you can sprinkle over ice-cream or stir through milk.

‘We’ve had people actually jump up and down and high-fiving each other.’

Christopher Palamara

It’s like entering a cross between the late 1960s TV series The Banana Splits, McDonalds in the 1970s and every dreamscape of people yearning to eat food that doesn’t mean a trip to the doctor.

The savoury menu, which is seasonal and changes as the trio develop new offerings, features breakfast and lunch options. Mornings include bacon and egg muffins, sausage and egg muffins, hash browns and bacon and egg rolls. Lunch, which until recently included a memorable tuna melt, ranges from the OG chicken burger to a fish fillet burger, the Bacon Slayer with chicken and cheese and the Happy Hotdog featuring pork sausage.

The other linchpin to GFF’s evident popularity is its baked goods range. People queue chattily for birthday cake cookies, choc-chip biscuits, apple cinnamon muffins, madeleines with a honey or lemon glaze and loaf cakes with pistachio and Nutella variations.

You do not have to be gluten-intolerant or have coeliac disease to eat all of the above. Which is the key to GFF. The OG chicken burger is luscious, plump and ready in minutes. Equally, the bacon and egg rolls, which ooze bright yolk between generous layers of bacon.

Even though my brain rails at calling a biscuit a cookie, the choc chip and birthday cake cookies (aargh) are the stars of the baking display. Soft, sweet but not so much that your teeth jangle with sugar or they fall apart in your hands.

It’s also worth ordering an iced Crum and sipping a delightful chocolatey milkshake without fear.

Rodrigueza, Rodrigueza-Labuni and Palamara, who has coeliac disease, say customers are primarily filled with joy at having such choice.

“We’ve had people actually jump up and down and high-fiving each other,” Palamara says. “They’re just amazed they don’t have to worry about asking if there is cross-contamination. It’s a really happy moment to share when people walk in.”

GFF is not trying to be all things to all people. Vegetarian options are mainly in cake form and a strictly gluten-free focus means oat milk is not available for coffee. There are other dairy-free options and the trio have plans for vegan dishes including vegan soft-serve ice-cream.

Outdoor tables for dine-in customers are due in coming weeks and the trio are considering offering whole gluten-free cakes.

“The coeliac community is looking for something that is a treat, a bakery, a fast-food place, that doesn’t feel like it’s all about a healthy lifestyle,” Rodrigueza says.

“That’s what’s been missing in Sydney. Then they leave here, people are just saying, ‘Thank you for opening, thank you for existing, thank you for thinking of us.’

“GFF is a bakery, a food concept, that’s for everyone. It just so happens to be gluten-free.”