Gluten Free Bakery Grows

Just because a food is gluten free doesn’t mean it has to taste bad.

That’s the idea behind Sally’s Gluten Free Bakery, a newly opened business in the North Fulton area.

And, while new customers may be trepidatious, siblings and owners Sally Chasteen and Taylor Owings try to quell their fears by letting them sample items before they buy.

“People are certainly skeptical,” Owings said. “They’ve been burned before spending a decent amount of money on things they end up throwing away. We’re big believers on letting them sample things.”

Although it opened just 7 months ago, the Johns Creek store on Kimball Bridge Road is almost as busy as the bakery’s Sandy Springs location and is on track to become the busiest of the two.

“Both Alpharetta and Johns Creek are huge communities, and there are a lot of families,” Owings said. “And, that’s our clientele.”

Sally’s Gluten Free Bakery sells a variety of baked goods, its biggest sellers being its chocolate chip cookies; a breakfast toast made with cinnamon, raisins and walnuts; and cupcakes.

“The cupcakes, you could honestly trick somebody,” Owings said. “They can’t tell the difference. The cupcakes have been a big hit since we launched them a year and a half ago.”

But making gluten-free goodies taste similar to baked goods containing gluten isn’t easy. Owings said it takes 15-20 tries to find a good recipe adaptation.

“We’re big about everything (being) something to be excited about,” Owings said.

That’s important to people who need to cut gluten out of their diets for health reasons, whether it be from gluten sensitivity, which Chasteen suffers from; joint pain, which Owings deals with; or obesity.

“For some items, there’s definitely a difference in taste, but the goal is to have a return to normalcy,” Owings said. “We truly try to not put something out to customers to make it available for sale until we’re truly excited about what we’ve made. That’s our brand.”