Gluten-Free Boston: a dedicated tea room, bakery and poke bar, plus the North End, for celiacs

Boston’s centre is compact, and most of the places on this page sit close to the Freedom Trail. The three entirely gluten-free places are all in or near downtown: Silver Dove Afternoon Tea Room on Tremont St, about 5 minutes on foot from Park Street station, where the trail starts in Boston Common; Jennifer Lee’s Bakery, inside Boston Public Market, about 5 minutes on foot from Faneuil Hall Marketplace; and POKE by Love Art on Beverly St, about 10 minutes on foot from the Paul Revere House. The four North End places, Antico Forno, La Famiglia Giorgio’s and Libertine North End on Salem St and Modern Pastry on Hanover St, are each about 5 minutes or less on foot from the Paul Revere House. Among the other mixed kitchens, Kane’s Donuts on Oliver St is about 5 minutes on foot from the New England Aquarium, Haley Jane’s in the High Street Place food hall about 5 from South Station, and 4th Wall on Tremont St in the Theatre District about 5 from Boston Common. Two are further out: Faccia a Faccia on Newbury Street, about 20 minutes on foot from the Public Garden, and Capo Restaurant on W Broadway in South Boston, about 30 minutes on foot from South Station. The old centre is walkable: Boston Common and the Public Garden are about 5 minutes apart on foot, and so are Faneuil Hall Marketplace and the Paul Revere House. The Museum of Fine Arts, the Gardner and Fenway Park are west of the centre, about 50 minutes on foot from Park Street to the MFA; for Fenway, take the Green Line (Kenmore is the closer stop), and Harvard Yard is across the river in Cambridge, where the Red Line goes. All walking times and distances here are our estimate from the map.

A day that works (not on a Monday or Tuesday, when Silver Dove is closed): start in Boston Common, walk through the Public Garden next door, then follow the red-lined Freedom Trail from Park Street. Book the afternoon tea at Silver Dove Afternoon Tea Room, a few steps from the trail, online and up to 30 days ahead: it takes no bookings by phone or email, and everything it serves is gluten-free in its own words. Follow the trail to Faneuil Hall Marketplace; Jennifer Lee’s Bakery in Boston Public Market, about 5 minutes on foot from there, is entirely gluten-free in its own words and good for cupcakes to take with you (its waffle cones are made on a gluten-free oat base, so skip them if you avoid oats). Walk on into the North End for the Paul Revere House (daily 10am to 5:15pm) and across the river to USS Constitution: the museum next to it says the ship is free to visit, Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm; check the US Navy’s security rules before you go. On the way back, POKE by Love Art on Beverly St, about 15 minutes on foot from the ship, has a menu that is gluten-free from start to finish in its own words. Its site posts no opening hours, so check before you go, and don’t confuse it with its sister restaurant, Love Art Sushi, which is not a gluten-free restaurant.

In the US, “gluten-free” on packaged food is a voluntary claim under the rule of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and a product that carries it must contain less than 20 ppm of gluten. The rule covers packaged foods. For restaurant menus the FDA only recommends that a “gluten-free” claim matches its definition, so a GF on a menu is the restaurant’s own word. Two programs of the Gluten Intolerance Group go further: GFCO certifies products, which must test below 10 ppm (or below the country’s limit, if that is lower), and GFFS validation (Gluten Intolerance Group) reviews a restaurant’s policies and procedures, recipes, ingredients and training. A third, Chef to Plate, is a separate program with a lower bar: the Gluten Intolerance Group itself calls GFFS validation the one with higher standards and an annual audit. Whatever the menu or the sticker says, say you have coeliac disease every time: “celiac” is the spelling staff in the US know.

Boston’s classic food leans on wheat: fried clams and fish in batter, chowder that is often thickened with flour, and the pizza, pasta and cannoli of the North End. The four North End places on this page all work with wheat too, so ask every time. Antico Forno has a gluten-free pizza crust and organic gluten-free pasta, but its site doesn’t say where the crust is baked: ask whether it shares the oven with the wheat pizzas, and whether the pasta gets its own pot and water. La Famiglia Giorgio’s has gluten-free pasta, pizza and bread on its dinner menu and says nothing about pots, pasta water or the pizza oven, so ask about all three. At Libertine North End every dish except the ravioli has a gluten-free option, in its own words; the ravioli come from the same kitchen, and it is closed on Tuesdays. Modern Pastry keeps a small gluten-free line, including a gluten-free cannoli, in a shop where everything else is wheat pastry; its ingredient page lists plain oat flour in several gluten-free items, and the gluten-free shell is fried. Fries are the classic trap everywhere, because many kitchens fry them in the same oil as breaded food, and US allergen labels must name wheat but not barley or rye, so watch for malt and beer in batters and sauces. The eateries in Quincy Market have no card on this page: we haven’t checked them. We haven’t checked a Boston hotel kitchen ourselves either: when you book, ask about gluten-free breakfast and pick a room with a fridge.