From chef and restaurateur Ken Oringer and pastry chef Monica Glass comes Verveine Cafe & Bakery, a daytime counter service restaurant devoted to gluten-free goods that opened May 6 in Central Square.
The opening is a reunion for the pair; Glass formerly worked as a pastry chef in Oringer’s Back Bay restaurant Clio. Oringer is behind several restaurants in Boston in addition to Clio, including Coppa, Toro, Uni, Faccia a Faccia and Bar Pallino. Verveine Cafe & Bakery is just about a block away from his Cambridge contribution, Little Donkey, a globally inspired small plates restaurant.
“Ken found the location, and I could immediately envision a cafe there,” Glass said. “I felt like our vision would fit the vibe of Central Square really well.”
That vision for the 24-seat cafe is one that Glass described as “boho Parisian.”
“I really wanted it to have a modern but also vintage feel; I was picturing myself in Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, which is this great neighborhood in Paris that I love,” Glass said. “It’s quirky and it’s eclectic and it’s fun, it’s got a cool vibe and it just feels inviting and casual.”
Glass and Oringer’s travels also inspired the menu, which fuses different cuisines and puts new spins on old classics. The honey chili tuna melt adds tahini, pickle, red onion and hot honey to a tuna and cheddar sourdough melt; the avocado toast is topped with charred corn, radish, pickled Jimmy Nardello peppers, cotija, cilantro and hemp seed; the BEC upgrades a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich by serving it on a Japanese milk bun.
This desire to be different isn’t new to Glass or Oringer.
“When I was at Clio, Ken really encouraged me to think outside of the box: Do the familiar, but with different twists,” Glass said.
The other thing that’s different about Verveine? The menu is gluten free. It doesn’t shy away from serving dishes with bread – there are Japanese milk buns, biscuits, sourdough breads, focaccias, baguettes and even pizzas – but reinvents them using Glass’ gluten-free flour.
When Glass was diagnosed with celiac disease at 24, she considered leaving the culinary industry altogether, given she worked in pastry and gluten was her livelihood. She stayed and started developing gluten-free recipes. Unsatisfied by the gluten-free flours that were available at the time, she came up with her own gluten-free pastry flour called Wldflr that she sells online and uses at Verveine.
Oringer and Glass had discussed starting a bakery or cafe together since Glass worked at Clio. Initially, the idea was to serve gluten-full foods alongside gluten-free offerings, but when Oringer’s daughter was diagnosed with celiac a few years ago, they decided to go all gluten-free. Still, the goal is to make Verveine Cafe & Bakery appealing to everyone, not just those who can’t eat gluten.
“We intentionally didn’t specify that it was all gluten free in the beginning, and we’re not trying to highlight it now, either,” Glass said. “The gluten-free community knows, and will find us and will come, but we want to invite everyone here and we want everyone to dine together.”
Another gluten-free bakery called Violette – with a vow similar to Verveine that “if it tastes gluten free, we don’t sell it“ – relocated in January to a larger space at 1782 Massachusetts Ave., near Porter Square in Cambridge, to be able to expand its menu and offer sit-down dining. Its previous space was two doors down in the same strip of businesses, under the same ownership.
That community has found Verveine, and has come. Instagram users praised Glass and Oringer for creating the gluten-free haven. “As someone who’s been celiac since 2011, this is a dream,” one wrote. Another said, “Going on 14 years of celiac May 20 and yesterday’s wait in line was so worth it.”
The response from the larger Cambridge community has been equally positive, Glass said, with a line around the block for their first Saturday open.
“I put my heart and soul into this, and to have so many people be receptive and excited about it is super cool, and I’m so grateful,” Glass said.
The exact hours are still being determined, Glass said. Verveine is open currently from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day except Monday, but that may change if there seems to be a demand for Monday service. It is at 298 Massachusetts Ave., in Cambridgeport near Central Square.
The image of babka in this post was expanded in size via a digital retouching process using generative “artificial intelligence.” Background and foreground was added artificially; the subject of the photo was not changed.
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