WAG-Free Bakery, SW9 - review

When you're a diagnosed coeliac, as I have been for the past eight years, dining out can be a minefield.

I've long forgotten the pleasure of an evening in an Italian restaurant, for example, with all its associated pasta dishes, pizzas and breads. Even the humble bacon sandwich from my local caff has been consigned to memory.

Coeliac UK, the charity that supports gluten intolerants, says some 55,000 of us (and rising) in the UK are now diagnosed with the condition.

Yet unlike in some other countries, finding restaurants that cater to our needs can still be a struggle.

The WAG-Free Bakery, Cafe and Deli - nothing to do with footballers' wives, WAG just stands for Wheat and Gluten - is a modest presence in Brixton Village, its all-white appearance in stark contrast to the colour of Caribbean, Nigerian and Colombian stalls nearby. WAG was only opened last November, by Brixton residents David Scrace and Ed Barrow, but it has just been named this year's Coeliac UK Eating Out Gluten-free Award.

With just a few rickety bar stools to perch on under the market's glass roof on a sweltering day, I was unconvinced by the "Eating Out" bit - WAG is very much a bakery and deli first, with the café part a work in progress. The smell of freshly baked bread is all around, with loaves made from dark brown rice flour, tapioca flour and crushed almonds.

I'd heard there were pies, tarts and quiches galore, though not during the midweek lunchtime I visited. Saturdays and Sundays are allegedly busier, with fresh pasta (£3.75), including a delicious sounding stuffed tortellini, made every weekend. The pies - steak and onion, ham and mushroom, leek and cheddar - were small (£1.60 each) but they made up for it in flavour and texture. Too often gluten-free creations crumble at the first touch but here the pastry (again made of tapioca and rice flour) stood firm, the gravy thickened with potato starch.

On to the sweet stuff, and the real pick was a delicious tart with strawberries and a redcurrant glaze (a huge Bakewell tart looked inviting too).

Local is a big theme: the Brixton Pound is accepted, while all pie meat comes from Walters butchers in Herne Hill. WAG also provides almond flour gluten-free buns for Honest Burgers, an interesting-looking newcomer a few doors down.

Yet despite all this community bonding, Scrace admitted that they might have to consider taking the WAG out of the village and into a high street premises - to which I naturally replied that my local drag in Chiswick was the only way forward.

WAG-Free Bakery
26 Brixton Village, SW9