Owners of Flour Craft Bakery in San Anselmo, Heather Hardcastle and her husband Rick Perko, will open a second location of the gluten-free bakery in the Mill Valley Lumber Yard in the spring of 2018. The lumberyard location will offer a variety of freshly made, certified gluten-free pastries, cakes, and breads, as well as savory breakfast and lunch dishes. Serving Equator coffee, the bakery will be a place to grab a quick coffee and pastry for breakfast, or to enjoy a leisurely meal.

Hardcastle has always been interested in baking, and in 2000 she started to focus on gluten-free recipes after discovering that she has a gluten intolerance.  In 2008 she abandoned her 15-year career as a landscape designer to bake professionally.

“I have been gluten free for 18 years and have found a lack of freshly baked items of excellent quality available in the market. So, I decided to make them myself,” she said.

The landscaper-turned pastry chef opened her first location with her husband in 2013, after selling popular gluten-free goods at farmers markets for years. Last fall, Hardcastle and her husband started to look for a second location after the immense success and support garnered from their first bakery.

Hardcastle ultimately chose the Lumber Yard for its unique approach to the space. “[I] love the concept for the new space as a community gathering area with shops and restaurants. It’s a shopping center of sorts but in a non-traditional way,” she said. They will be joining businesses Ambatalia, Bloomingayles, and Guideboat in the Lumber Yard, and Hardcastle hopes to have a positive effect on them. “Hopefully we will be a draw, and my hope is that we will positively affect other businesses in the MVLY,” she said.