Gluten-Free Denver: dedicated Mexican, arepas, bakeries and coffee, plus burgers and pizza, for celiacs

Denver’s centre is compact, and most of the places on this page are within reach of it. Three of the entirely gluten-free kitchens are north-west of Union Station: Just BE Kitchen on 15th Street in LoHi is about 15 minutes on foot from Union Station, and Teocalli Cocina on Boulder St, also in LoHi, and Quiero Arepas, a counter inside the Avanti food hall on N Pecos St, are about 20. Carne RiNo on Larimer St is about 15 minutes on foot from Coors Field, and Anise and DiFranco’s, both on Lincoln St south of the State Capitol, are about 10 to 15 minutes on foot from the Denver Art Museum. The two bakery-cafés and the coffee roaster are north-east of downtown: Moore. Cafe and Bakery on N Downing St is about 15 minutes on foot from 38th & Blake, the A Line station for the RiNo Art District, and Rivers and Roads Coffee on E Bruce Randolph Ave about 25; Green Bus Cafe & Starfish Bakery on E 22nd Ave is about 25 minutes on foot north-east of the State Capitol. Blue Pan Pizza in Congress Park is about 20 minutes on foot from the Botanic Gardens. Little Wolf on Lowell Blvd in North Denver, about 4 km north-west of Union Station in a straight line, and Blue Hummingbird GF Foods on South Trenton Way, about 12 km south-east, are for a bus or a car, not a walk. Downtown itself is walkable, and Visit Denver, the city’s official marketing agency, says its streets are wide and flat: Union Station and Larimer Square are about 10 minutes apart on foot, and the free 16th Street FreeRide runs along 16th Street from Union Station to Civic Center. All walking times and distances here are our estimate from the map.

A day that works: start with pastries and a coffee at Moore. Cafe and Bakery, an entirely gluten-free bakery and café started by a founder with coeliac disease (open every day from 8am Monday to Friday and from 9am at weekends, but only until early afternoon). Walk about 15 minutes to 38th & Blake to look around the RiNo Art District, then take the A Line to Union Station. For lunch, Just BE Kitchen, a paleo kitchen that is 100% gluten-free in its own words, is about 15 minutes on foot from Union Station; check its hours before you go. In the afternoon, walk through Larimer Square to 16th Street and ride the free FreeRide to Civic Center: the Denver Art Museum and the Clyfford Still Museum are about 5 minutes apart on foot, so pick a day that isn’t a Monday (Clyfford Still closed) or a Wednesday (Art Museum closed). For dinner, ride the FreeRide back to Union Station and walk about 20 minutes to Teocalli Cocina in LoHi, where the kitchen is 100% gluten-free in its own words: check that still holds when you book, and ask which drinks are gluten-free. If you’d rather stay near the museums, Anise and DiFranco’s on Lincoln St are mixed kitchens with gluten-free dishes: say you have coeliac disease when you order.

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.

Denver is a beer city, and a lot of its comfort food is wheat: breakfast burritos wrapped in flour tortillas, and green chile that is often thickened with flour. Fries are the classic trap, because many kitchens fry them in the same oil as breaded food: ask about the fryer every time, at Carne RiNo too, where the fries are marked (GF) on a menu that also has bread and ravioli. US allergen labels must name wheat but not barley or rye, so watch for malt and beer in batters and sauces. A gluten-free menu is not a gluten-free kitchen: Blue Pan Pizza’s own pages don’t say how the gluten-free pizza is kept apart, so ask about the oven, the pans, the cutter and the toppings; and at Little Wolf, where everything except the standard challah bun is gluten-free, ask for a gluten-free bun every time. Quiero Arepas is entirely gluten-free, but it is one counter in a food hall with shared seating: order and eat from the arepa counter only. The bakery-cafés close early: Moore at 2pm Monday to Friday and 3pm at weekends, Green Bus Cafe at 2pm and only Wednesday to Sunday. We haven’t checked a Denver hotel kitchen ourselves: when you book, ask about gluten-free breakfast and pick a room with a fridge; Blue Hummingbird GF Foods, an entirely gluten-free shop, sells bread and frozen entrées to take away, and Just BE Kitchen sells weekly meal plans.