Friday afternoon the building that was home to The Dotted Lime, the beloved gluten-free and nut-free bakery and restaurant, burned. The Fire Marshall is currently investigating the incident.
“We are sad and shell-shocked,” said Chrissy Jensen, co-owner of the restaurant with her husband, Paul, on their Facebook page. “Our building, equipment, memories, baking mixes, ingredients, and paperwork are all destroyed. We don’t know what happened yet. We don’t even know what we need to do next.”
While the Jensen’s have already moved to Big Sky Montana where Chrissy has taken the position of Executive Pastry Chef at a private resort, they were still selling their baking mixes online and storing the mixes in the old The Dotted Lime building. The mixes are now all gone and the baking mixes have been taken off line. Those whose orders can no longer be filled have received refunds.
Chrissy could never find gluten-free mixes she liked, so she created and marketed her own. They carried all-purpose flour, biscuit mix and cake mix from The Dotted Lime’s online store.
Paul is a fourth-generation chef from New York, and Chrissy suffers from celiac disease so her body cannot handle gluten, which was the inspiration for the creation of the restaurant and bakery. The community embraced their scratch-made food made from meat and organic produce sourced from local farmers before ever knowing it was also very healthy food. A favorite from their bakery was the cinnamon rolls.
Over time the restaurant, which also employed their 13 children, became a haven for those with food sensitivities. Sadly, between the pandemic and the current economy, they were forced to look into other opportunities. That loss was felt greatly by the community they had created.
“I’m crushed but so excited for your new endeavors,” said one former customer online. “Honestly, your food has helped me through some of the hardest times I’ve personally walked through. It was such a comfort to know I could come and find safe food that my body could tolerate when I was going through the worst of my health struggles.”
Their plans to continue to sell their mixes online are now on hold.
“I don’t know what else to say or do,” added Jensen, “we are heartbroken, confused, feeling all the things….”
