Gluten-free bakery Halelife closes Clearwater location and announces new St. Pete bistro

One of the leading local vegan and gluten-free businesses is continuing its Bay area expansion.

Halelife Bakery, a Pinellas-based business, just announced that its new bistro will soon open at ​​11270 4th St. N in St. Pete. While its Instagram post says its new location will soft open on Oct. 30, Halelife owner Laura McCutcheon tells Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that an official grand opening will take place on Saturday, Nov. 4.

“We will have a very soft opening starting next Monday to continue to offer our Clearwater customers a storefront to access our baked goods while we finish our front of house,” McCutcheon explains. “Our new location has lots of seating in a warm homey atmosphere and a large patio filled with comfy furniture to lounge and relax in.”

With the opening of its new St. Pete bistro comes the immediate closure of its flagship Clearwater bakery.

If you’ve never stopped into one of Halelife’s many locations throughout Tampa Bay, the bakery specializes in a variety of gluten and allergen-free baked goods, sweet treats, breakfast sandwiches and grab-n-go bites. Popular items include seasonal doughnuts, avocado toast, focaccia bread, cupcakes and unique mocktails courtesy of N/A bottle shop Herban Flow.

Halelife’s full-service bistro location was originally planned for St. Pete’s Warehouse Arts District, but eventually encountered development-related issues, according to social media.

In addition to celebrating the launch of the new Halelife headquarters, the bakery also celebrates its 7th anniversary next week.

McCutcheon first launched her business in 2016 with a mission to provide sweet and savory goods to Tampa Bay’s food restricted community. Her and her son both have Celiac disease and are unable to consume ingredients like dairy, gluten, soy, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts, and make sure their products are extremely safe for both themselves and their customers.

Just last week, the local bakery was named one of USA Today’s Best Gluten-free Bakeries in America—the only Florida-based business to do so.

“Our sole mission is to be an oasis of delicious food that allows for you to safely enjoy things you thought you’d have to give up forever,” the Best of the Bay-winning bakery writes on its website. “We focus on safe ingredients first and then phenomenal taste and texture.”

Alongside St. Pete’s new bistro location, there are Halelife bakeries in South Tampa, Carollwood and downtown St. Pete.

For the latest news on Halelife Bakery’s new bistro, head to its Instagram at @halelifebakery.

UPDATED 10 a.m. 11/2/23: Added Halelife’s recent USA Today accolade.

Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.

Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

This article appears in Oct 19-25, 2023.