Bloomfield's Liberty Avenue has welcomed generations of Pittsburgh businesses into its tight-knit commercial corridor. On May 18, the street adds something it has never had before: a bakery built entirely around the premise that great pastry should be accessible to everyone, regardless of what flour is in the dough. Jill Pennetti's The Forgotten Flour, at 4731 Liberty Ave, opens its doors with a grand opening from noon to 4 p.m. and a case full of Pittsburgh's most sought-after gluten-free baked goods.
The name carries a wry charm. Gluten-free baking has long occupied the awkward margins of the pastry world — the afterthought menu section, the single shrink-wrapped muffin behind the counter. Pennetti's intention with The Forgotten Flour is to flip that narrative entirely, starting with a product roster that would impress in any bakery regardless of dietary category. Oatmeal creme pies. Gobs — the Western Pennsylvania staple, done properly, without a trace of wheat. Brownies. Cheesecake bites. Specialty crusts that have already found their way into some of Pittsburgh's most beloved cafés.
That last point is perhaps the most telling sign of where The Forgotten Flour stands before it even opens its retail doors. Pennetti has been quietly supplying Grim Wizard and The Garden Cafe with gluten-free baked goods, building both a production operation and a reputation through wholesale partnerships. Millie's Homemade Ice Cream has featured her cookie crust in its Cookie Monster flavor — a product so visible that many Pittsburgh ice cream lovers have already eaten Pennetti's work without realizing it. The grand opening on Liberty Avenue is not a launch so much as an arrival: a baker who has been doing the work finally having a place to call home.
"Gluten-free baking has been the forgotten part of the pastry world for too long. Pittsburgh deserves a bakery where this is the whole point — not the footnote."
Jill Pennetti, founder, The Forgotten Flour
The shop will operate Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with appointment-based ordering available for custom requests and wholesale accounts. The business model reflects both the realities of artisan baking at this scale and a deliberate approach to growth: build the product first, prove the demand, then expand the footprint. Pennetti has followed that approach to the letter, funding part of the buildout through a community crowdfunding raise on Honeycomb, a Regulation CF platform that lets small businesses raise capital from their own customers and community.
A Gap That Bloomfield Was Ready to Fill
Pittsburgh's dining scene has evolved considerably over the past several years, and gluten-free options have improved across the city's restaurants and cafés. But a fully dedicated gluten-free bakery — one where cross-contamination is eliminated by design, where someone with celiac disease or a serious gluten sensitivity can walk in and order anything in the case without interrogating the staff — has been conspicuously absent. Pennetti identified that gap early and has spent years building toward filling it.
Bloomfield was a natural home. The neighborhood's Italian-American heritage made it the kind of place that takes food seriously, and Liberty Avenue's mix of longtime institutions and newer food-focused businesses reflects a street that has remained relevant across multiple generations of Pittsburgh's culinary growth. The Forgotten Flour joins a corridor that already includes coffee shops, specialty grocers, and destination restaurants, adding a category that simply did not exist here before.
The community's response, evident both in Pennetti's crowdfunding success and in the steady following she has built through wholesale and pop-up work, suggests the appetite for what she is building goes well beyond the gluten-free community strictly defined. Good pastry has no dietary prerequisites. And if the gobs and oatmeal creme pies that have been circulating through Pittsburgh kitchens are any indication, Liberty Avenue is about to have a genuinely good bakery on its hands — one that happens to not use wheat at all.
The grand opening is May 18, noon to 4 p.m., at 4731 Liberty Ave, Bloomfield.