Food Original: Jewel’s Bakery & Café, Valley’s First Full-Service Gluten-Free Restaurant
By: Brian Garrido
Jewel’s Bakery & Café, owned by chef Julie Moreno, is schedule to serve dinner in early June. “I’m very excited,” says Moreno. “We will have hush puppies and our famous Chicken and Waffles. Someone wrote on our Yelp wall that they flew to Phoenix just to eat them.”
Julie Moreno, Chef & Owner of Jewel’s Bakery & Café
As the saying goes, “necessity is the mother of invention” – which is what makes the success story behind the east Phoenix eatery more poignant. In 2009, Moreno’s second to oldest daughter, Sophia began suffering severe gastro-intestinal issues. Her daughter’s intense pain, as witnessed by her mother, a former teacher, led the family to seek treatment through standard medical doctors. At the time, the diagnosis was a possible gallbladder or appendix removal, maybe both.
“(She) was around nine – I think – at the time and hooked up to morphine. We couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but the doctors would show me the MRI’s and nothing was enlarged to show it needed surgery,” Moreno recalls. “By this point, I’m really upset and wondering what to do. We consulted a naturopathic practitioner out of desperation. After a series of tests, we found out she was gluten intolerant.”
Gluten intolerance happens when eating gluten – foodstuffs made from wheat, barley, rye – leads to damage in the small intestine. Currently, the condition affects nearly one in a hundred people worldwide.
Understanding the problem was food-related, Moreno sought out how to cook for her daughter – and the rest of her growing brood of five, including a husband – without making separate meals. (“It would be too difficult to cook one meal for her and then another for everyone else.”) Henceforth, a chef was born. Moreno, always a home cook, was ignited with a greater sense of familial purpose as she approached the stove.
“Over time, I came up with my own blend of flour making sure my family liked it. Then, we started taking our stuff to the farmers markets. Friends wanted me to bake for them. That’s how it began – in 2011,” she says. “Eventually, I was baking all the time. I renovated my kitchen to accommodate the orders.”
Finally, in 2014, the wholly self-taught panadera (with the help of a couple of angel investors) opened the Arcadia dining room on Thomas Road. Currently, with a staff of twenty, Ms. Moreno crafts artisan goods including breads, cakes, and pastries using an original blend flours consisting of rice, potato, tapioca and certified gluten free oats. (“The oats must be from a field which is exclusive to their growth and not near wheat”). Beginning with breakfast and lunch – as well as a robust catering business – the restaurant has seen an increase in customers not because they have health issues, but because the food is delicious.
The café additionally serves as a small boutique offering of Jewel’s exclusive housemade all-purpose flour blends including pancake, brownie, cookie and corn bread mixes to be made at home.
Soon, Jewel’s Bakery and Café will dish-up dinner, including Jewel’s exclusive chicken and waffles, hush puppies made with their flour blend house-made chorizo and caramelized onions, gluten-free pastas, and a full cocktail menu which is slated for an early summer reveal. Exact dates have not been disclosed, but the first week of June launch is expected. Ultimately, the bistro will become the Valley’s first full-service, completely gluten free restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, wine and cocktails.
In her early forties, the working mother (of now six children, plus the spouse), says, “I don’t cook at home as much after being in the kitchen all day, but I do bring food home.”
Born of necessity, Jewel’s Bakery and Café is here to stay.
Jewel’s Bakery & Café
4041 East Thomas Road
Phoenix, Arizona 85018
602.714.5243
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