Mother and daughter meet gluten-free need with treats and eats at Almond & Berry

Gluten-free goodies aren’t the easiest to find.

That fact alone earns Almond & Berry, a gluten-free bakery and juice bar in Rhinelander, a place on the must-visit list for those with celiac disease or other gluten sensitivity.

It’s the sheer deliciousness of Almond & Berry’s delights, served up by their friendly staff, that keeps folks coming back, though.

Located at 310A North Brown Street, Almond & Berry is the creation of Anita Theiler and Brittany Bex, a mother-daughter team of second- and third-generation Rhinelander residents.

“The neat thing about us is,” Bex said, “people like to think gluten-free means gross or dry or not flavorful. But because (my mother and I) aren’t gluten-free, if we don’t like it, if it doesn’t taste normal to us, then we won’t sell it. So we can make things gluten-free-safe for people who are gluten-free, but you don’t have to be gluten-free to enjoy our items.”

Bex’s youngest daughter, Kate, now 9, was diagnosed with celiac disease at age 3. That disease, estimated to affect about one in 100 people worldwide, causes the body’s autoimmune system to attack the small intestine if gluten is eaten. 

Gluten is found in wheat, barley and rye, and in foods that happen to come in contact with those grains. Two years ago, Kate had an extremely painful episode after some gluten made it into her meal at a restaurant during a family trip. 

At the time Theiler was working in real estate and would bake gluten-free things for Kate. Bex, whose eldest daughter Kalli, 16, has brain cancer, was going to school to study nursing for pediatric oncology, to help other families who have kids with cancer.

“I called my mom up,” recalled Bex, “and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this.’ We went to quite a few kids’ funerals that had passed from cancer, and I … couldn’t do it. It was really hard. So I was like, I need to find something else to do. And my mom was baking for Kate, I loved making juices at home, so I said, ‘Why don’t we open a gluten-free bakery instead, a mother-daughter duo?’”

Theiler leaped aboard, and they began testing their wares at the YMCA’s indoor farmers market in 2024.

“It was really successful,” said Bex. “We had people even coming down from the U.P. to buy gluten-free stuff from us at the YMCA in the middle of winter. So we were like, ‘we need a storefront.’

“We started out at one place and quickly realized that it was not going to be big enough for what we needed for kitchen space and stuff, and then we found this (Brown Street brick-and-mortar location). It was just over a year ago that we took down all the walls and the ceiling and kind of redid it all, and now here we are.”

Theiler emphasized that the airy, high-ceilinged shop, complete with tables, chairs, and even bleachers to sit and enjoy its goodies, is a testament to the skills of Bex’s husband, Kevin. “He worked so, so hard to make this what it is,” she said.

Almond & Berry opened its doors last June and was welcomed so enthusiastically, four summer helpers were needed. Visitors came from as far as the United Kingdom, Bex recalled with a laugh, “so our reach was far and wide!”

“We had so many people come in and say we need to be in Wausau, we need to be in Minocqua, Milwaukee, Arizona, and I was like, that’s a little far!”

Bex noted that the bakery case never looks the same twice.

“We’re always changing our flavors,” she said. “The only things that are consistent are our cinnamon rolls and our Hodag muffins. Those are our specialty.”

She said the cinnamon rolls are their most popular item. “Since we opened at the end of June, we’ve sold over 3,000 of them. That’s what we’re known for here.” 

“A girl came in and she cried when she got a cinnamon roll,” Theiler said.

“It was the first cinnamon roll she’d had in years, and she was crying while eating it, because it had been so long,” Bex added. “It feels so good to be able to make that kind of impact for people. What a rewarding thing!”

And how about those Hodag muffins?

“They’re a recipe I made up,” Theiler explained. “They’re corn muffin-based. They have Wisconsin cheddar, bacon, chives, spinach, and I do some Tabasco but it’s for flavor, not spicy. That’s our savory item, because almost everything else is sweet.”

Artificial coloring isn’t used in their offerings, she pointed out. “We try to stay with all natural ingredients so it’s a healthier option than adding all that coloring in.”

“Same thing with the juices and smoothies,” agreed Bex. “We don’t add any extra sugar or additives to it. The smoothies are just frozen fruit and milk, that’s it. The same thing with the juices, it’s all fresh fruit that goes into it.”

Certain special orders are also available. “We’ve done large cupcake orders, we’ve done brownies for kids’ birthday parties at school, things like that,” said Bex.

In these slower winter months, the mother-and-daughter team are the shop’s only staff. 

Theiler usually bakes while Bex decorates the goodies and handles the juices and smoothies — but not always. 

“We just communicate and trade roles every now and then,” Bex said. “She gets a day off where I do everything and then I get a day off where she does everything, so that we’re not burning ourselves out.”

Any food that’s left over at day’s end is frozen and donated to the Rhinelander Area Food Pantry. “It’s a loss for us, but it’s not a waste that way,” Bex noted.

In the future, she said, the Almond & Berry’s menu may expand to include soups, sandwiches and “cafe-style foods so people can sit down and eat.”

“And then I would really love to add coffee, because while I was in school for nursing I was being a barista at Starbuck’s. It’s so much fun — kind of got into it way too much!” she admitted with a laugh. “I’ve done a lot of research on coffee beans, where they’re sourced and things like that.”

All four of her children have juices or smoothies named for them, and they’re enthusiastic taste-testers.

In addition, “Kameron (11) and Kate both enjoy baking; it’s kind of like a science, following recipes and putting things together and then getting to eat it,” said Bex. “My other two (Konner, 15, and Kalli) love cooking, not so much baking.”

Almond & Berry is open six days a week. Its regular hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. 

For the convenience of local customers, they’re also on DoorDash.

On Sundays the Almond & Berry space is available to rent for events such as birthday parties, baby showers and bridal showers.

Occasional live music performances and other fun events add to the flavor there, too. The latest, a Valentine-themed photo shoot, will happen tomorrow (Wednesday), Feb. 11, from 6 to 8 p.m..

Ardith Carlton may be reached at [email protected].