Many people still don’t really know what “gluten-free” means, says Charles, who works alongside his wife, Leslie, at The Baker’s Corner Gluten-Free Cafe & Coffeehouse.
“A lot of people think when you say ‘blank-free’—like low-fat or sugar-free, it’s going to taste bad,” he said. “Sometimes it’s true. But not here.”
Even though everything at Baker’s Corner is gluten-free, Leslie and Charles say the food still tastes just as good as anything you’d find in a regular restaurant.
It’s also “the only dedicated gluten-free” restaurant in the “whole Mid-South Memphis area,” Charles said. For people with celiac disease, he said, “there’s no worry about cross contamination.”
Leslie explains gluten-free food as “no wheat, barley, or rye in that product. And it has not come in contact with it.”
She found out she was gluten-intolerant at age 31 after years of migraines that doctors couldn’t solve. “I finally went to an allergy wellness doctor,” she said, which led her to change the way she cooked and ate.
Cooking gluten-free eventually became second nature. “I guess I’ve been doing it so long it just comes naturally,” she said. “There is a misconception that it’s hard, but it’s really not if you just put a little effort into it.”
When she discovered there weren’t many gluten-free recipes available, Charles encouraged her to write her own. “I told her, ‘You need to offer this to the world.’”
Leslie’s love for cooking started when she was 11, growing up in the bootheel of Missouri. She would make desserts for her dad, starting with chocolate no-bake cookies. She went on to study at Le Cordon Bleu in St. Louis and later worked in several restaurants, learning pastries, savory dishes, and even perfecting St. Louis’s famous Gooey Butter Cake.
She moved to Mississippi in 2019, and in 2021 opened a small gluten-free bakery inside a local boutique. Earlier this year, she moved into a bigger location- an old house across from the Hernando post office, growing from 400 square feet to 2,000 and from four seats to 70.
At the new spot, the couple shifted from a bakery to a full café, offering breakfast, lunch, and a full coffee bar. They serve RoZark Hills coffee from Arkansas and make most items in-house, including gluten-free white bread and casseroles.
The menu includes three types of quiche, several avocado toasts, sandwiches, açaí bowls, and Southern staples like chicken salad and pimento cheese. The most popular item is the Oatmeal Cream Pie, made with gluten-free oats, molasses, and marshmallow filling.
Leslie describes Baker’s Corner as “cozy, inviting,” a place where many people like to study or work. Someone has already asked about franchising the business, but she says she’s “not ready for that yet. Maybe one day.”
For now, Leslie and Charles are focused on serving the Hernando community—one gluten-free dish at a time.
