Sweet Ali's Gluten Free Bakery owner Ali Graeme said she feels a great sense of satisfaction when her products convert a gluten-free skeptic. "We have customers who hold a gluten-free party but don't tell their guests and then listen to the positive comments," she said. (Jim Slonoff photo)
Ali Graeme was brimming with nervous excitement as she prepared to open Sweet Ali's Gluten Free Bakery in downtown Hinsdale in 2009. Surveying her shop's new sign from the sidewalk at 13 W. First St., a couple walked past.
"I heard them say, 'Oh, this is a bakery. This isn't going to make it,' " Graeme recounted.
Today she can reflect on 15 years of making it and baking it, serving up an assortment of delectables with the ingredients of both good health and fabulous flavor mixed in.
Back then such longevity seemed a long shot.
"At that time there wasn't much gluten-free out there," she said. "There was really a need for it but not everyone saw the need unless you had the issue."
The issue being celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder triggered by eating the protein gluten found in wheat and other grains. Graeme herself had gone much of her life undiagnosed until she discovered her son also had the disease. She boosted her medical knowledge quickly. Figuring out how to run a bakery to serve the affected population, however, was more trial and error.
"We didn't have that many products when we first started," said Graeme, who enjoyed baking but had not dreamed of doing it for a living. "I'm a business person who happens to do this also. Going into it, I probably didn't have as much knowledge as I should have had."
But an open-minded, adaptable attitude proved a vital companion. She hired capable staff and listened to customers to help shape the menu of offerings.
"People bring in new things which generate new ideas," Graeme said. "And mistakes, they can turn into a new product."
She recalled a batch of cookie dough that came out too light on sugar. Not wanting it to go to waste, the store team got creative.
"We put it in an 8x8 pan, put in M&Ms and sold it as a cookie cake," she said, noting the "oops" became a big hit. "You have to be willing to have a lot of failures before you find something that works well."
She manned booths at farmers markets and Uniquely Thursdays early on, but word-of-mouth marketing was particularly effective. After a couple years Whole Foods came knocking with an offer to put Sweet Ali's on their shelves. Shortly thereafter a Mariano's rep stopped in on a Saturday right before closing time promising space in their outlets.
"It's nice when they come to you," Graeme said. "As (the chains) grew, we grew."
In 2020 the business expanded into the space next door, right before the pandemic hit, and her staff has grown from six to 35 today.
Last weekend a woman came into the store with her daughter, who first visited in 2009 as a little girl delighted to finally have gluten-free treats she could eat.
"They were getting her wedding cake," Graeme said. "It gave me the tingles.
"I want to have a place where kids come in and say, 'Can I have that?' " she continued, "and the mom says, 'You can have anything.' "
- by Ken Knutson
