Clockwise from left: Kindler’s teriyaki chicken, chicken Cobb and lemongrass shrimp bowls.
Young Kwak photo
For some, dining out is a luxury. And that’s not just because of the rising prices, but because the menu might not have options for people with dietary restrictions.
That’s a regular reality for members of Celiac Safe Spokane, a local group of people with celiac disease who are always on the lookout for truly celiac-safe eateries. So it was an exciting moment when, on Sept. 3, about 80 members got to preview the new fast-casual Spokane Valley eatery Kindler’s ahead of its Sept. 14 grand opening at 14816 E. Sprague Ave.
There, they didn’t have to question every ingredient as they ordered one of the restaurant’s gluten- and seed oil-free bowls.
“When I heard people say, ‘Gosh, I’ve never been able to share my dinner with my husband,’ or ‘Worried what my kid’s gonna touch,’ [or] ‘We haven’t been able to go out in years,’ I mean, it almost got to me a little bit,” says Kindler’s CEO Ken Batali.
The eatery’s owner, Conrad Manfred, was diagnosed with celiac disease five years ago. After his personal struggles and with his 11-year-old daughter also recently being diagnosed, he decided to help fill that safe dining demand and started planning Kindler’s a year ago.
“Throughout that process of trying to figure out how to eat … you come to the realization you can’t eat out almost anywhere,” Manfred says. “So I saw a huge need for it because I know a lot of people who are either gluten-free or gluten intolerant, and then also there’s a huge need for healthy fast food. So we tried to combine all of it into one.”
Kindler’s owner Conrad Manfred plans to open more locations of the celiac-safe eatery.
Young Kwak photo
Kindler’s culinary director, Heather Nucifora, got to work on the menu in January and whittled it down to 11 bowls, with a variety of homemade-style protein and base options.
With a background as a registered dietician who later attended culinary school, Nucifora combined her knowledge about dietary needs with healthy, flavorful cooking.
“Heather developed food that was delicious first, and almost worked backwards to make it gluten free,” Batali says. “She developed a really well-rounded menu, and then we scratched and clawed to find products that we could make. And that supply chain has been a challenge.”
Preventing gluten cross contamination starts long before ingredients make their way into the kitchen. The Kindler’s team had to thoroughly check with each product manufacturer — even down to the spices they use — to make sure there’s no gluten contact on the factory lines.
“I can pronounce every single ingredient, and so can you, in our sauces,” Nucifora says about their menu’s transparency.
“Really, the diligence that’s gone into that to get this kind of unique certification has been kind of extraordinary,” Batali adds. “I’ve been opening restaurants for years, and none of them with these limitations.”
However, Nucifora is confident that Kindler’s food appeals to a larger customer base than just people with restrictive diets due to her prioritization of flavor from the start of her recipe crafting process.
“I took what I was interested in, what I like to explore with when I eat out, what my friends like to explore … and then also mixing that with living in Spokane,” Nucifora says.
Diners can find familiar, comfort flavors in Nucifora’s personal favorite, the steak and potato bowl ($16.95) topped with grilled sweet onion and crispy onion, wilted garlic kale, feta cheese and a garlic honey mustard sauce.
Then there’s more adventurous international bowls like the Korean beef bowl ($15.95) that’s braised overnight and that also stacks housemade cabbage slaw and quick-pickled cucumbers on top of chilled soba noodles with a sweet chili sauce. The Filipino-style chicken adobo bowl ($13.95) has a sweet-and-savory glaze paired with fresh cucumber, tomato, bell pepper and green onion over rice.
Further breaking away from fast food norms, Kindler’s also has high-quality seafood bowls, too, like the wild-caught teriyaki salmon ($16.95) and a lemongrass shrimp ($15.95).
“That salmon’s just off the charts,” Batali says. “It is rich, moist and delicious.”
While the bowls on the opening menu are intended to guide customers to some of the best flavor combos, they’re also welcome to customize proteins and bases. To accommodate a vegetarian diet, there’s a chickpea protein option, while other bases include salad greens, tri-color quinoa and sweet potatoes.
“If we’ve got the product in house, we’ll do whatever [customers] want,” Batali says.
Soon, Kindler’s will expand its hours to include a breakfast menu with some handheld items, as well as offer catering services. The regular menu will likely fluctuate, too, depending on customer demand and seasonal changes.
“I think you’re just going to find a lot of things here that are broad in their reach and exciting, and the minute they become not exciting, we move on,” Nucifora says. “And that’s the beautiful thing about the kitchen that we’ve designed, too, is that we just have this amazing ability to pivot when we feel like we need to pivot.”
Nucifora’s six years of experience as a commercial kitchen designer came in handy when she got full creative freedom over Kindler’s kitchen equipment and layout.
“The equipment that we’re using are the things you’d see in high end restaurants,” she says of the Rational combi oven and an iVario Pro tilt skillet essential to its operations.
The combi oven cooks with steam and hot air, making it more efficient to slow cook meats, while the smart skillet combines multiple kitchenware devices into one with boiling, searing, frying and braising capabilities. Both are valuable to balance the labor-intensive prep work of chopping whole ingredients, making scratch-made sauces and more.
That way, if you opt to go through the drive-thru, your meal is hot and ready to go by the time you roll up to the window.
Rustic meets modern in the dining space with swaths of rich orange and teal and natural wood features, plus agricultural homages in the space and Kindler’s branding, including its logo depicting a farmer.
The space came together in about six months after breaking ground on what was formerly an empty lot back in March. Owner Manfred has been in the construction business for 11 years and employed his company, Kodiak General Contracting, to get the project done timely and under budget despite being their first restaurant build.
Currently, two more locations are slated for Millwood and Spokane’s South Hill. The Kindler’s team hopes their concept will eventually be nationwide.
“We’ve had cars pulling into the driveway all day today,” Batali said last week before the grand opening. “So we’re pretty anxious to get open and do this for real.”
Kindler’s • 14816 E. Sprague Ave., Spokane Valley • Open Mon-Sat 11 am-9 pm; Sun 11 am-8 pm •
eatatkindlers.com • 509-555-0182