Rise Bakery

Amazing bakery. Their blueberry muffin is dairy free, soy free, gluten free, and nut free-​honestly never had a better muffin. Cinnamon roll was the best cinnamon roll I’ve ever had and the coffee they offer is excellent. They have fresh baked gluten free bread in a freezer next to the counter. Very small area to sit but good location in Adams-​Morgan, defying all stereotypes on gluten free baked goods!

Can you fall in love with a bakery? I did– and I am so enamored that I think about Rise like an adolescent crush. Everything is delicious. Croissants are to die for. Staff as sweet as their cinnamon rolls. Oh yeah and now they have scones, delicious buttery scones, SCONES, need I say more.
My boys and I are so excited about Rise!

Rise Bakery provided all of the desserts for our wedding — four wedding cakes and six pies! Our guests scraped the plates clean, and we’ve been getting compliments ever since. I highly recommend the team at Rise — they were very responsive, fun to work with, and extremely reasonably priced. I only plan to get married once, but we’re going to keep buying breads and desserts from Rise for a long time.

Let’s see where do i begin? Ok. I was in DC with a group of 8 for the Army 10 miler, so of course it’s only right to eat our way through the city and try bakeries. One of the girls that was a part of our group also my maid of honor, has stomach issues and has to eat gluten and dairy free foods. She has a GF/​DF app that gives a list of GF/​DF restaurants and bakeries. So with it popping up on her app she wanted to try it. Myself and a few other ppl in the group eat DF/​GF items every now and then so we know what to expect as far as taste and texture.
…So we get around trying it on our quest. We get there and there was 1 person in front of us. There was 1 worker that was working as cashier and the person who was bagging the goodies. So we waited and waited a little longer. We stood there for about 10 – 15 min while the cashier is now helping the person in front of us. They kept going back and forth as to what this guy wanted. Meanwhile, there was a worker standing in the corner drying dishes (I assume) that’s what he was doing. Also, there were more ppl that came in behind us. Now they have a small line with 1 girl working, 1 guy just standing in the corner like (shrugs, I’m clearly washing/​drying dishes and have no desire to help), and then 2 more employees emerge from the back. These 2 just come out messed around for a little and then the girl decides to help ppl. I guess bc I had a disgusted look on my face and looked at her and the guy like I know you see these ppl. Make yourself useful!
Onto the goodies. That didn’t taste so good * Now after our wait and FINALLY getting service we were able to order. My friend orders a Lemon Raspberry Cupcake and a Chocolate Cupcake. Lemon Frosting and Raspberry Cupcake. Chocolate cupcake with pumpkin frosting and sugared pumpkin seeds on top. She said the cupcakes were very dry and didn’t have the flavor they were named to be. They tasted like a regular cupcake. Her mom also ordered the Nutella Brownie. Her mom said it had good flavor but was a little dry. She also got a bag of bagels out of the freezer. She said they were DISGUSTING. The bagels were dense and straight onion flavored. As she bite into it and started to chew, she immediately started spitting it back out.
I ordered the Nutella Brownie and a Snickerdoodle Cookie. The Nutella brownie was ok. Just average nothing special. The Snickerdoodle didn’t taste like Snickerdoodle cookie. It had a shortbread flavor and was hard as crap. I broke a piece off to give to my husband and it just crumbled and was like saw dust texture. VERY crispy!
Overall we won’t be back. There are definitely better gluten/​dairy free bakeries in the area.

I gave up dairy and wheat last year in an effort to rid myself of a pretty serious baked good obsession. I don’t have any intense allergies or sensitivities– but avoiding gluten and dairy helps me feel my best! Unfortunately the vegan cupcakes from Rise are so good I may just fall off the baked good wagon;)
Try to snag a vegan chocolate pumpkin spice cupcake. Heavenly. I ate it so fast I didn’t even Instagram it!!! Yum:)

Wow. I just tried the chocolate croissant, and I must have finished it in thirty seconds — it was THAT good. The staff is friendly, and the ambience is relaxed, which is an added bonus. Definitely stop into Rise Bakery when you’re in the area. I know I’ll be back!

I can’t even tell you how much I love this place. I haven’t been able to eat wheat for a while. When I see croissants, I get really sad because I love them and can’t eat them… until now.
Everything I’ve had from here is incredible, and it’s all gluten free! The buttery, tender gluten-​free croissants were so good I wanted to cry… after I ate two of them in a row! The apple cinnamon muffin was moist and delicious, with a perfect balance of sweetness and spice. The bagels are excellently chewy and tasty.
The staff here are great, too. Super friendly and awesome.
The only thing I’d say is to go early in the day, before everything is sold out!

Great gluten free, vegan friendly bakery the staff was well informed on different diets and very friendly.
Prices are reasonable, atmosphere is light and fun, service quick.
The peanut butter chocolate pie was a creamy mousse on top of dates. Good balance of sweet and salty.
The lemon raspberry cupcake was super pretty and moist without falling apart like a lot of cupcake places have.

Unfortunately, their coffee is absolute garbage and I NEED good coffee with my baked goods. I have actually considered making it a BYOCoffee affair, because they make an absolutely heavenly croissant. The cinnamon roll was dense, as many gf baked goods are, but forgivably dense and I might even consider getting it again if croissants for some reason aren’t an option. But the coffee. Guys. Ick.

I can’t even explain my excitement when I realized that Rise Bakery existed! I went in and was just overwhelmed by the amazing options for a gluten free chica like myself. I have never had a gluten free chocolate croissant and it was so flaky and delicious that it could have been mistaken for the real thing! I also loved the focaccia and gluten free challah. What an amazing haven for those with celiac disease and their friends and family, who will not even know the difference!

Gluten-​free usually means crumbly or off-​tasting baked goods. Not so here at Rise Bakery. The butter croissants are absolutely delicious. Buttery as they should be with a touch of sweet to compliment the salty. The brownie is dedicant and divine. The bagels are very dense, but hardy and more like any other gluten-​free bagel you can find. The other desserts (muffins, cupcakes, cookies) are on the sweet side, but all very good. Service is excellent. Will definitely be back.

YES!!! I am happy Rise is not within walking distance of my place or I would spend my whole pay check there as well as gain about 40 pounds. This place is incredible. I had a birthday cake ordered and couldn’t stop dreaming about it weeks after. The best part of Rise is not only that it’s one of a kind, but you can go in knowing that every baked good they make is gluten free. Thank you for being here, Rise! See you sometime this week.

Do you live a gluten-​free lifestyle? Are you feeling depressed that all the «gluten-​free options» when you go out are always blah, boring, uncreative, or just plain mediocre? Well, fear no more. Rise Bakery is here to turn that frown upside down.
I tried 2 cupcakes: the Brown Butter Pecan & the Red Velvet.
If you’re a fan of frosting that is creamy in texture and richness that is decadent in flavor and fat, then you will enjoy the Brown Butter Pecan. It wasn’t my cup of tea because it was too over-​saturated with sweetness. But again, it is a question of preference, the quality is certainly there.
Being that I am NOT a Red Velvet fan, I was skeptical. But it was highly recommended. Turned out to be my fav! How can this be??? All the flavors, moist, and perfection with no sacrifice. I almost teared at first bite.
A gluten-​free croissant awaits for breakfast, I will let you know how it goes.

Deliciousness at a great location! My favorite is the Almond crossisant, absolutely mouth watering! Thank you for creating wonderful gluten free baked goods at a reasonable price!
:)
Mahalo.

Visiting DC I was looking for somewhere I could find some gluten free baked goods. Not only is this place 100% gluten free, it is delicious. I bought some everything bagels to take home and as far a GF goes, they are pretty damn good (toasted is better). They also have croissants. I’ve never even heard of someone attempting that. They were yummy and as close to a real croissant as I’ve had in the 3 years I have been gf.
Basically, if you are gluten free, you need to come here and eat all the things. Next time I find myself in DC I will definitely be back.

Oh, Rise! I’ll keep it short and sweet.
Love — assortment of baked goods (muffins, cupcakes, breads, cinnamon rolls, croissants, rises/​savory pies, etc), some interesting items (I had an orange cranberry cream cheese muffin $ 3.25), gluten-​free choices, free wifi, and location.
Not so love — small space, plain décor, pricing spread (muffin was double the size but cheaper than the cinnamon roll?!), and I found my muffin to be low on the orange & cream cheese side.
Nice spot to check out if you’re into or need gluten-​free goodies!

Loved this place! Really excited that a gluten-​free bakery is open in the city, and that they also have dairy-​free (that is, vegan) options. I had the Everything bagel with soy cream cheese and a pumpkin spice muffin. I didn’t even finish the muffin – the bagel was a completely filling breakfast.
The coffee wasn’t the greatest, but I’m willing to let that go considering that there’s now a place that serves tasty, allergy-​free baked goods. Also, service was super friendly and amiable and made me feel right at home. It’s a small space, so I imagine if you come here to work on your laptop you probably don’t want to stay more than a few hours (if it’s busy).

ohmygosh… a gluten free bakery!!! I got the chocolate croissant and it was HEAVENLY… It came straight out of the oven, and the croissant was topped with powdered sugar… it was not as flakey as a croissant with gluten would have been, but it was just as delicious… soft and thick with melted chocolate inside…
I definitely want to go back to try the pumpkin cream cheese muffin and the almond croissant!!!

I was so excited that Rise, the city’s first gluten-​free bakery, was opening near me that I cancelled some of my plans to hit it up early in the day on their opening day, so that I could get something before they ran out of anything. Boy, was that a mistake! This place was not prepared for its opening day.
I got there just over an hour after they opened. After waiting in line for awhile, as soon as I got to the front of the line, the guy at the cash register told me he was going to stop taking orders to help fill orders of the folks who came before me, but he assured me that my order would come out right away.
Me: «How long do I have to wait?»
Him: «10−15 minutes.»
Before I let him just leave me there, as a long line grew behind me, I wanted to be sure that they actually had some vegan options available, so I asked what they had that was vegan. They do NOT label the items that are vegan, so there’s no way to know unless you ask. I did not want to wait if they didn’t have any vegan options available. He told me they had some bagels and some blueberry muffins that would be coming out shortly. «We will have some vegan cupcakes and cookies, hopefully, later in the day, when things are less crazy.» I looked him straight in the face and told him, «It’s your opening day. Things aren’t going to get less crazy.»
After waiting patiently, I tried to order 2 bagels and one blueberry muffin, to which he responded that the bagels wouldn’t be ready for at least 10 minutes, and they didn’t have blueberry muffins. WHAT? You just told me they would be out shortly. «They’re not going to be out for awhile.» So basically, he just lied to me. That is excellent customer service, sir! Where did you learn that?
I would not have waited 10 – 15 minutes if the guy had told me the truth — that there were no vegan items available. He seems to confuse customer service with just telling people what they want to hear, regardless of whether he can meet the expectations he lets them rely on. No wonder they were so backed up. What kind of bakery takes counter orders for things that aren’t actually available?
On my way out, I talked to one woman who had been waiting for 40 minutes for her order. By the time we finished talking, she had been waiting almost an hour. Mind you, this was in addition to the time she had waited in line to place her order. They also told her that it would take 10 minutes for her to get her order.
Here is what I do not get: What kind of bakery has that kind of back up? Every bakery I have ever been to fills your order as you place it. You say you want a bagel, they grab a bagel, put it in a bag. They don’t take 700 orders and then start filling them. At this bakery, just because an item was in the case didn’t mean it was «available» for you to purchase and eat, because it was already spoken for. Even with the dreadful Georgetown Cupcake you will actually get a cupcake after you wait in line for an hour to order. They don’t taunt you with cupcakes that are «spoken for.» I have no idea how Rise thinks their line should work, but it is incredibly inefficient.
Just because I was itching for further disappointment, I returned to the bakery the next day on my way home from the gym. Even though there were only 3 people in line, it still took forever. Again, inefficient. The same guy at the counter (who I later discovered is the OWNER) lied to the guy at the front of the line when asked if there were any muffins. Counter guy said no, Ordering guy’s kid whined about wanting a muffin, Counter guy says okay, we have some day-​old muffins. Seemed like a repeat of the day before when the same guy told me that there were muffins available when there weren’t any.
When I got to the front of the line, the counter guy/​owner didn’t even acknowledge my presence. He basically ignored me for several minutes while he did other things. Again, I am so impressed by his customer service skills!
Despite my well-​founded disdain for this man at this point, I still ordered some baked goods. I didn’t know at the time that he was the owner. He could have just been some poor, poorly-​trained counter dude. I wound up getting a couple of cupcakes and a hand-​pie, which, although smaller than the cupcake, was more expensive. $ 3.50 per cupcake, $ 3.75 for a small hand pie that was just dry. The vanilla cupcake was unremarkable, but the chocolate cupcake was very good.
I will probably find myself here again if only because it is close, and it will be easier to shrug off the disappointment and annoyance should I encounter it again, but I would never go out of my way for this place.
One final note: this place has weird hours for a «bakery.» Most bakeries open early in the morning, not at 10am, especially on weekdays. And they close at 7pm. It seems they’re missing the breakfast & coffee rush (which might be a good thing for customers’ frustration levels) AND the dinner crowd. Hours seem to be aimed at tourists.

Rise Bakery is a brand new gluten free bakery in Adams Morgan which got my attention because they have gluten free bagels. I was thrilled to learn of a place that might have some gluten free items that might not taste, well, gluten free.
After a short visit, I tried the bagels (they offer cinnamon raisin, sesame and plain) and a cinnamon roll to go. The line was a bit long and my wait for my order was upwards of 20 minutes, but I understand the place is just opening, the staff was apologetic and friendly, and I had twenty minutes to kill before the boutiques opened. When I got my pretty blue take out bag, my first thought was «dear lord, this bag is heavy», if there is one thing gluten free products are known for it is density, but this was abnormally heavy.
So I decided to weigh each bagel on a scale (not a drug dealer, I live with a food geek/​amateur chef), once again: FOR SCIENCE. The bagel weighed 181 grams, which is .40 lbs or 6.3 ounces. In the world of bagels, this a plus size model.
The calorie count of a bagel is based on the weight and the calorie counting apps and links I could find stopped at a large bagel weighing 4 oz having 320 calories (because no one in the history of man has been recorded eating a bagel this HEAVY so there is no data). If my math is right, this bagel is in the 500 – 600 calorie range.
As far as taste goes, yes the sesame and plain were heavy and bland (very little salt), and almost «mealy» or «grainy» if that makes sense. If you are a life long celiac or someone raised by anti wheat hippie parents and did not know that a bagel should taste light, puffy, with a crisp crust and slightly tangy then you will enjoy these hockey puck scones. The rest of us who had a delicious wheat filled bagel grace our lips will know better.
I am also confused that their facebook page has rave reviews saying the bagels taste like pretzels, and the pictures of the bagels look very different from what I got. I should make this clear since other reviewers were pointing out the «obnoxious» three star review: it’s not about the bagel’s weight: the fresh bagel was inedible. Something that dense is hard to bite into and chew. I did not make it past two bites. The leftovers bagels were rock hard the next day, so they consider that when taking out.
The cinnamon roll was shockingly A-​OK. It had a better hole structure than the bagel, and I am not sure if cinnamon rolls have holes. The roll had great icing and wasn’t as dense as I was expecting after the bagels. I would come back for the cinnamon roll.
Pastries are the way to go here and they offer several including danishes, cookies, cupcakes, etc.
The bakery itself is cute, upstairs from a hookah place, with a few tables inside for patrons, and a freezer of take home loaves. I haven’t been lifting much at the gym so I am kinda glad I opted for my three items, rather than try to haul a bag of heavy frozen bagels home.
I hope this bakery can perfect their bagel recipe and consider other forms of non gluttonous flour to create a better bagel. Until then, I may stop in only for pastries, or consider their baguettes.