04/06/2011 
Food Front Cooperative Grocery has two locations in Portland: NW and Hillsdale. The location I’m writing about is the Northwest location. It’s a small neighborhood market with many treasures tucked inside. Their focus is high quality foods and merchandise from local, organic, and sustainable producers.
They’ve got a great selection of gluten-free products, in their own area of the store.
My favorite part of Food Front is actually in the back of the store…the deli. Everything is made from scratch. All their cooked meats and salads they offer have a number of marked gluten-free options; for example, like their honey roasted chicken and almond-quinoa salad (just to name a few). They’ve got different hot dishes every day of the week, and most of the time they have a gluten-free option. They always have vegan and vegetarian selections too. Here are just a few samples I tried over the course of a few days:
- Mac & Cheese (vegan & gluten-free) – Served every Monday, this stuff ROCKS! A must have.
- Shepherd’s Pie (gluten-free) – Includes all the traditional ingredients you’d expect, like potatoes, green beans and peas. But Food Front adds their own personal twist by adding chicken and asparagus spears. The ultimate comfort food on a cold, rainy day. Another must have. I keep hoping for it to reappear in the deli case each time I walk in.
- Cauliflower lasagna – They had a vegetarian version or a vegan version, both were gluten-free. Another “comfort food” type of dish, I had the vegetarian version. Pretty mild in flavor, but tasty.
- Gumbo (gluten-free, pictured below) – No heat, like I’d expect from a gumbo, but not bad. It’s actually quite mild, but I had to add a little hot sauce to spice it up a bit.
There’s no gluten-free bread offered for getting a sandwich made, BUT you can get a gluten-free wrap here. There’s a blackboard up above the deli counter with a menu of sandwiches to choose from. The guy behind the counter suggested two sandwiches that worked best for wraps: The TCC and the Beeftacular.
It was a tough call, but for my first gluten-free wrap I went with the Beeftacular: roast beef with havarti, lettuce, tomato, and onion. Very good, and very filling! Will definitely be back for the TCC, but I keep finding distractions in the hot deli case to deter me.
How do they make a gluten-free wrap? With Sonoma Teff tortillas.
They’ve got an amazing flourless chocolate cake located in the deli area, a small single-serve portion or you can split it with a buddy. It’s a bit pricey at $6, but worth a little splurge at least once, right?
Food Front Locations:
Food Front Northwest
2375 NW Thurman St.
Portland, Oregon 97210
Tel: 503.222.5658
Fax: 503.227.5140
Food Front Hillsdale
6344 SW Capitol Highway
Hillsdale Shopping Center
Portland, Oregon 97239
Tel: 503.546.6559
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