California Gluten-Free Bakery Kirari West Is Expanding to Portland This Fall | Eater Portland
"Opening in mid-to-late October at 1668 NW 23rd Avenue in the former Boxer Ramen space, I’m excited that one of Southern California’s best gluten-free bakeries is bringing its supple wheat-free breads and daytime cafe fare to Portland. Owner Hiro Saito—who debuted Kirari West in Redondo Beach in 2014 after his family opened Kirari in Fukushima in 2010—plans to operate the Portland spot as a bakery, cafe, and smoothie bar with an all-day menu of sandwiches, bowls, smoothies, and more (it will not offer cake for the foreseeable future). Breakfast will include items like brioche toast with ricotta and jam and overnight French toast with Oregon berries, while lunch skews savory with quinoa bowls, paninis on homemade bread, and seasonal salads. The star, though, is the standalone loaves and stacked pastry cabinet: brioche loaf, house loaf, rustic boule, muffins, cinnamon brioche, almond brioche, and scones. Smoothies include the Berry Nice (strawberries and blueberries) and the Grass is Greener (kale, spinach, and banana). Saito selected Portland after seeing an uptick in online sales and is partnering with Ramen Ryoma owner Yoshinari Ichise and manager Soichiro Kato to lease a larger space; though he isn’t gluten-free himself, he’s spent the last decade perfecting wheat-free baking using a flour blend made mostly from rice flour and aims to surprise people so they say, “Wow, is this really gluten-free?”" - Rebecca Roland
