Gluten-Free in Upper West Side

An Ancient Grain bagel, kettle-boiled the real way, with the scallion cream cheese. One reviewer who ate his way through 202 NYC bagel shops ranked this the third-best bagel in the whole city, gluten or not. The black-and-white cookie and the babka are the other reasons people cross the park.

Orly Gottesman built the gluten-free flour blend herself after her husband was diagnosed celiac, then opened the shop. The entire place is gluten-free and nut-free (and kosher), so you order off the full menu and ask zero questions. Go on a weekend morning and freeze a dozen for later.

The almond cookie is the award-winner, crunchy outside and chewy in the middle, though Manhattan tends to vote chocolate chip. The real insider order is the gluten-free oat challah on a Friday.

Helene Godin walked away from 22 years as a lawyer to build this. The oat challah sells hundreds of loaves every Friday, it's 57% oat flour, and she developed it with a rabbi so it qualifies for the Hamotzi blessing. Everything is gluten-free, kosher, and mostly dairy-free, so it's the bakery that works when the room has every allergy at once.