Gluten-free and good-Daily Camera March 2011

Boulder's Gluten-Free Bistro expands to grocery stores

By Aimee Heckel Camera Staff Writer

Posted: 03/24/2011 09:27:01 AM MDT

Julie McGinnis, left, Kelly McCallister and Barb Verson, founders of Gluten-Free Bistro, will be selling their products at Whole Foods and Ideal Market in Boulder. (Cliff Grassmick)

Barb Verson walks down the aisle at Whole Foods and points at different gluten-free products.

"White. White. White," she says. "There's another white -- whatever."

To Verson, of Boulder, all of this whitewashing means two things. Unhealthy. And disgusting.

Even as a certified nutritionist running a gluten-free business, she has to admit: Her kids wouldn't touch most gluten-free products; they're often dry and bland. Quite comparable to cardboard. And Verson says she wouldn't feed those products to her children, anyway. To her, the whiteness is a sign that the food is nutrient-void, packed with white flours, starches and preservatives, she says.

She says she wanted food that her whole family could -- and would -- eat together, despite her gluten intolerance.

"Something that if I brought to a party and never told you it was gluten-free, you would still like it, and I wouldn't have to go around explaining that it's gluten-free," Verson says.

She wanted it. So she created it.

And now more than 80 restaurants in the Rocky Mountains and Midwest have it, including nearly all Nick-N-Willy's Pizza chains. It hits grocery stores next month.

Verson, along with Boulder dietitian Julie McGinnis and Kelly McCallister, who has a background in the local restaurant industry, joined together two years ago to create The Gluten-Free Bistro.

The local company makes gluten-free pizza, fresh-style pasta and an all-purpose flour blend. The products are made out of whole grain flours, instead of starches, so they are rich with protein, fiber, minerals and B vitamins.

The recipe was not easy to create, says McGinnis, who also has a master's degree in nutrition.

She says she and Verson got the idea nearly a decade ago, shortly after McGinnis learned that gluten was making her suffer from a ration of health problems, including gastrointestinal pains, nose sores and skin rashes. As soon as she cut out the ingredient, she says her overall health improved.

But her menu didn't. Back then, gluten-free was an anomaly.

"I wondered why can't I go pick up a gluten-free pizza from Nick-N-Willy's?" she says. "This is ridiculous. I live in Boulder, where everyone's on the nutrition bandwagon. It's a food hub, but I can't believe I can't get a descent pizza."

They began exploring recipes, but then both Verson and McGinnis got pregnant and put the mission on hold. Several years later, McGinnis says her friend, McCallister, was having gastrointestinal issues, migraines, nose sores and other problems. Once again, it looked like gluten intolerance. It was McCallister's self-diagnosis that rekindled the original idea.

After eight months of playing around to find the "perfect blend of flours" and meet the three women's high standards for taste and nutrition, they launched their product -- a "revolutionary" 76 percent whole grain, 20 percent starch -- in the north Boulder restaurant, Radda.

"I knew we made a really great product; we weren't going to put anything out that didn't taste phenomenal, and we had to do it very clean," McGinnis says. "When people started eating it, we were getting amazing feedback. We knew it. We knew it would be amazing."

In two years, The Gluten-Free Bistro products spread quickly -- and so did the gluten-free industry, as a whole, up 38 percent every year.

Experts say it's expected to be a $5 billion industry by 2012.

"It's insane," McGinnis says. "And it's not going anywhere."

The Gluten-Free Bistro products, including a new dough ball for $4.99, are expected to appear on Boulder Whole Foods' shelves starting April 1, and within a few months, at Whole Foods in the entire Rocky Mountain region.

In addition to the dough ball, the 10-inch frozen pizza crust is $5.99; 6 ounces of fresh pasta (penne and fettuccine) are $6.49; and a 13.5-ounce bag of flour is $5.99.

McGinnis says some people question whether gluten-free foods are a fad, like the low-carb diet. But McGinnis says it's not the same.

The Mayo Clinic estimates that one in 100 people in the United States have Celiac disease, an immune system reaction to gluten. That's four times more common today than in the '50s, and not just because it's being tested more, the clinic reports.

In addition, some estimate that as many as one in six Americans have a non-Celiac gluten intolerance -- although the legitimacy, without a doctor's diagnosis, is still somewhat controversial. In January, the American Journal of Gastroenterology published a study saying there was evidence that non-celiac gluten sensitivities do exist.

"People have been sick with a laundry list of things that no one knew what from," McGinnis says. "Now that the diagnosis is being pin-pointed back to gluten... they can't go back. ... They feel a lot better, period. I can never go back to eating it."

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