opened in July at the former location of Café la Reine. Photo/Carol Robidoux
MANCHESTER, NH – Evan Lang, like many people during the COVID pandemic, turned to bread-making as a way to pass the time and try something new.
Unlike many COVID bakers, though, Lang’s baking adventures morphed into a new career. He opened Dishon Bakery in his native New Jersey two years ago, then upgraded to a commercial kitchen in Philadelphia.
When his wife, Salomé, got a job in New Hampshire, Lang was determined to keep the bakery going. They’d done too much work and come to far to just walk away, he said.
Dishon Bakery, specializing in gluten-free bread, opened at 915 Elm St. last month. It features a variety of locally made gluten-free pastries and other products, but its flagship offering is hand-made artisan gluten-free bread.
The Langs started making gluten-free pizza during the pandemic at their home in New Jersey, but it wasn’t long before they started experimenting with bread.
Lang, who has celiac disease, couldn’t always find bread and other products that he could enjoy. He started the baking project with Salomé out of curiosity. “But we started to have really good results,” he said in an interview with Ink Link.
When friends and family, even those who are not gluten-free, gave them positive feedback, “We just kind of ran with it.”
Under their state’s cottage bakery laws, they first made their bread in their home. They soon outgrew that, however, and moved the operation to a commercial kitchen in Philadelphia, selling it both wholesale and at farmers’ markets.
Lang knew nothing about Manchester or its business climate, but the Manchester Economic Development Office and the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce got him up to speed. MEDO helped him find a “great” location, and both have offered support and resources, getting a shout-out on the bakery’s Facebook page as opening day approached in July.
It quickly became clear to Lang that he wasn’t in Philadelphia anymore.
Things there, he said, were much more competitive, even cut-throat.
In Manchester, “Businesses in town are so collaborative and willing to help…this city has been amazing.”
Dishon Bakery is in space that was home to Café la Reine, which closed in June 2023 after 10 years at the location. Café la Reine owner Alex Horton has been “incredibly helpful,” including filling him in on the quirks of the Victorian-era building, Lang said.
Neighboring businesses, like Dancing Lion Chocolate, have also offered support, including as taste-testers.
“They’re very knowledgeable, and their palates are really refined,” he said. “We can always bring stuff over and say, ‘What do you think?’ and get some good feedback from them.’”
When Lang began baking a few years ago, he was employed in digital marketing. “I didn’t have a background in food or come from a household that is very culinary-focused or food-oriented,” he said.
There wasn’t a lot of information on the internet about making gluten-free bread. He did find information in books, mainly from Australia.
Once he had the process down, he started changing things based on his taste and what he wanted out of the product.
“I am learning all the time, and there’s still so much progress I can make,” he said.
That said, Lang has developed a gluten-free bread that’s as close to traditional bread as he can get it. Commercially produced gluten-free bread tends to be crumbly, loaded with starches and sugars. For bread-lovers, it’s not a great bread experience.
The former Cafe la Reine has a whole new vibe as Dishon Bakery, which opened for business in July.
Those types of bread are made with a batter, which is poured into a pan, similar to cake. Lang’s process is to make bread dough similar to how traditional bread is made, but using flours that are gluten-free, such as rice flour, sorghum, millet, buckwheat, oat flour, and others.
The flour, water, salt and yeast are mixed, the bread is shaped, and then it’s put it in the refrigerator to cold ferment overnight. The loaves and boules are baked directly on the oven hearth.
Locally sourcing gluten-free flour is a challenge, particularly since Lang is adamant about using certified gluten-free ingredients. It’s expensive – one of the flours is six times the cost of wheat flour. Dishon Bakery tries to keep the cost of its bread as affordable as possible, but Lang acknowledged it’s more expensive than the average loaf of bread, or even supermarket gluten-free bread.
“Our goal here is not to gouge or take advantage of anybody, but just to provide a product in a sustainable way that will allow us to grow,” he said.
He knows first-hand that people don’t have many options when it comes to gluten-free bread. “We don’t want to be seen as, because there’s no options, that’s why it’s expensive,” he said. The flour is six times as expensive, but that doesn’t mean the bread is six times as expensive as a regular loaf of bread, he said.
In exchange for the cost, buyers get quality bread. “It is an artisan product that is made by hand, from scratch, every day,” he said. “[The price] reflects the nature of the product.”
Dishon works with a small New York company to source its flour, rather than a large distributor, and tries to stay as local as possible.
The store also sells pastries, pasta, coffee, and other items made by gluten-free producers from New Hampshire and other parts of New England. The prices of those products are competitive with other similar products.
“We’re really trying as much as possible to work with local small companies,” he said. “It’s really win-win. It gives them an outlet for their products, and it allows us to offer other products that we don’t make.”
When in Philadelphia, Dishon Bakery sold its bread and bagels wholesale and at farmers’ markets. The change in location also brought a change in business model. The bakery is focusing on retail sales in the store and online. There is no wholesale element, though that could change down the road, Lang said.
Aside from Lang, the store has a staff of two and just announced expanded hours – Tuesday -Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. – serving coffee (from Rare Breed in Nashua) and other frozen/grocery items Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and then fresh-baked breads and pastries available Thursday through Saturday.
Lang said he hopes the bakery is seen as a place that anyone can stop in and pick up a pastry and a cup of coffee.
The main focus, though, is the bread, made daily and offered in several varieties of boule and loaves.
It’s been a demanding journey over three years, from the Langs’ kitchen in New Jersey, to a commercial wholesale kitchen in Philadelphia, to a storefront bakery on Elm Street in Manchester.
Feedback from people who can’t eat gluten is “one of the things that keeps us going.” Lang said, “They feel like they can have bread again for the first time in a very long time.”
BELOW: Baking the bread at Dishon Bakery. Video/Carol Robidoux