The gluten-free Parisian bakery opens a shop on Upper Street.
Copains Bakery has the markings of any other Islington coffee shop. It has a grey, minimalist interior, boasts a signature matcha, and a pastry will set you back at least a fiver.
Stepping inside the Parisian bakery’s newly opened London branch on Upper Street, you are met with rows upon rows of delicate pastries, from flaky croissants to swirling babkas. The bread is displayed like art, behind glass screens and illuminated by downlights. Everywhere you turn, there are huge display cabinets filled with baked goods; choosing just one feels impossible. This scene is made even more remarkable when you realise everything at Copains is gluten-free.
Copains first opened its doors in Paris in 2021 with the aim of providing delicious but healthy food. Its founders, Giovanni Amico and Baptiste Borne, say they are committed to building an “eco-responsible project”, meaning all packaging is plastic-free and made from recycled materials. After the success of their first London shop in Covent Garden, Copains opened a new branch in Islington on February 19th.
I arrive at Copains on a wet Friday afternoon. It is relatively quiet, but the shop assistants give you time to size up the many, many baked goods. Your mouth is watering by the time you reach the counter.
Overwhelmed by choice, I ask which items are the specialities, and am guided around the store by a poised assistant with a French accent. She offers me a sample of pain suisse. The pastry is filled with a perfectly sweet custard, complemented by flecks of bitter dark chocolate. One bite and you immediately commit to buying more than you’d planned.
I choose a variety of sweet and savoury goods and make my way to the counter. I agree to “try” their ‘intense signature matcha’ – a trial that costs over £5 – and swipe my card. Hypnotised by the smell of freshly baked bread, I only realise my total is nearly £50 when I hear the beep of the card machine. The spell is broken somewhat.
Starting with savoury, the ‘Luca’ bagel is stuffed with serrano ham, tomato cream, mozzarella and rocket. The bagel is, of course, gluten-free and given my previous run-ins with gluten-free cardboard, I am pleasantly surprised. It is the lovechild of a bagel and focaccia and tastes of good-quality olive oil. The filling is a little bland – the tomato cream isn’t sweet enough, and the mozzarella lacks tang – but this is a bakery, not a deli.
Next, French classics: their madeleine and éclair. The madeleine’s hard chocolate shell is delicious, but, for the first time since stepping into the bakery, the use of gluten-free flour is noticeable as the sponge is dense. Similarly, the éclair’s chocolate filling is light and mousse-like, but the choux pastry lacks airiness.
The texture of the pistachio babka is also slightly off. The glistening pastry peppered with nuts had a lot of promise, but the pastry crumbles rather than flakes, once again not quite replicating the glutenous original.
I am slightly disappointed. Everything tasted delicious, but given that I’d spent a small fortune, I’d hoped to find a perfect recreation of French patisserie sans gluten.
As I leave the café, a man walks in and asks, “Is everything here gluten-free?” When the shop assistant tells him they are a fully gluten-free bakery, he beams, “I’m a coeliac, so this is my dream.” It is a much-needed reminder that while Copains may not live up to the classic bakeries of Paris, for those who can’t eat gluten, it’s a game-changer. Such variety is rarely offered to coeliacs who’ve grown accustomed to cardboardy bread, which falls apart as soon as you spread it with a little butter.
As gluten-free options go, Copains is up there. What its pastries lack in texture, they make up for in flavour, and though the prices are high, there is serious skill required to make pastries this delicate, let alone when you are using flour alternatives.
The coeliac is still weighing up his options as I walk out the door. He claps, finally reaching a decision: “I’m going to try everything!”
Isabella Steinmeyer is a Newspaper Journalism MA student at City St George's University. She was previously Deputy Editor of Varsity, Cambridge's student newspaper.