The Difference Baker — Restaurant in Virginia

I have a dairy allergy, but can eat gluten. This business is certified gluten-free and peanut-free and they will not allow you to bring in outside food or drink. Because of my own issues, I always appreciate allergen-free bakeries and want to support them.

I think if you have celiac’s disease and can’t have gluten, that you would really appreciate and enjoy this place. For me, there is a distinct texture that these gluten-free baked goods have that I don’t love (but maybe if it was the only alternative for sweets, I wouldn’t mind). The flavors weren’t really there for me. Nothing I tried tasted bad, but nothing was very good either. For the cupcakes, the vanilla frosting was super sweet—the chocolate was better. A lot of the items don’t taste bad, but taste like they’re missing something-flavor wise. I think I wouldn’t mind or notice the texture difference if the flavors were better.

Again, this is coming from someone who can tolerate gluten and has never done gluten-free baking. So, I’m not sure if it’s just an artifact of the ingredients they have to use or not. The place was clean, opened a few minutes earlier as us and another car waited outside, and the staff were helpful. I also thought the prices were not bad at all, especially with the restrictions.

The only thing that was slightly maddening was that they advertise all these allergens they don’t have—including mollusks and fish—but then use dairy in things(???). I found this super odd. It also says vegan on the building and with all the no allergen signs, I assumed I was safe. I started ordering before my boyfriend looked around, saw something, and warned me there could be things with dairy in them and that I’d need to double check.

To sum up, if you have celiac’s disease, this place is totally for you. If you can eat gluten, there are better options out there (like Midnight Cookie, Out of the Bubble Bakery, and others).

Updating with specific items: Chocolate cake donut with chocolate frosting: This was actually really good. I would totally eat this again. Chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting: cake was good--has the texture mentioned above, but the frosting was sweet Chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting: cake was good--has the texture mentioned above, frosting was too sweet --For both cupcakes, I scraped most of the frosting off and ate the cake Cinnamon roll: decent, but just really missing something--I ate about a third from the center out and then just didn't want to finish it Cinnamon pop tart: Really did not care for this item--pretty dry and...

What a fantastic place. Many, many truly gluten-free, dairy-free, and some even sugar-free options, both sweet and savory.

Highly recommend everything we tried, to include the mini cheesecakes—sweetened with monk fruit! the breakfast sandwiches, which were so flavorful, and the gluten-free donut my partner had. He made a point to tell me it was, “the best donut he’d ever had, gluten or otherwise.” And he used to work at a donut shop!

The staff is so friendly, and it was wonderful to connect over food allergy issues. In some—if not all—cases, the staff has direct experience with this and knows what a challenge managing these can be for families.

If you or someone you know struggles with auto-immune, inflammatory illnesses, please tell them about this place. The Difference Baker...

My son brought home a friend who is Vegan and I wanted to be sure they had something for breakfast and treats. I was pleased with the selection and the friend is a vegan baker themselves and ate up almost everything so...I think that must mean it was good. I ate the cupcake that was left and was surprised by how good it was. I'm a non-vegan home baker and was expecting it to be more dense and dry, but it was quite good. I think the guy who waited on me thought I was quite funny when I asked for a sticker to show the ingredients, but I really wanted the friend to feel confident I was not giving them something they would not want to eat. (They don't have stickers btw.) Lol I just took their...