The Gluten-Free Polish Feast You Never Knew You Could Have

A gluten-free version of Little Walter’s pierogi ruskie will be available on the gluten-free night menu. / Photograph by Gab Bonghi

In order to be a good neighborhood restaurant, you have to be able to respond to the needs of your neighbors. To listen when they’re telling you what they want and then and then, you know, give it to them.

Little Walter’s in Kensington? It is a great neighborhood restaurant. It serves the kind of Polish food that chef Michael Brenfleck grew up eating — pierogi and kielbasa, pickled beets, and chicken cutlets, his mother’s Eastern European comfort foods and his grandfather Walter’s signature smoked sausages. I have loved this place pretty much since the first time I set foot inside, sat down, and had someone push a plate of pierogi ruskie and a glass of cherry nalewka across the table to me. But to the unending credit of the house, the staff, and Brenfleck himself, the place has never stopped evolving.

When the neighbors demanded a Polish brunch, Little Walter’s added a brunch service. Happy hour? Sure. An anniversary pierogi party? Absolutely. When they wanted special, seasonal menus, the kitchen (and bar) obliged. And when the house tried a gluten-free night, it was so popular that they had to double-down and make it a regular thing. For a while, Little Walter’s was doing monthly GF nights. But because the community kept asking for more, it just recently went to a bi-weekly series, happening every other Tuesday.

So, here’s how it works: Twice a month, the kitchen at Little Walter’s goes completely gluten-free for the night so that guests with gluten sensitivities or allergies can enjoy dinner without having to worry about any potential cross-contamination. On the Monday before, the entire kitchen is deep-cleaned. Then, on Tuesday, the restaurant focuses on core menu items that can be done without any gluten. They do dishes like the aforementioned smoked pork shoulder kielbasa with coriander and marjoram, stuffed cabbage golabki with brisket and tomato sauce, a spread of surówka (pickled and raw vegetable salads), bigos with rotisseries pork, and, of course, pierogi—made in this case with gluten-free flour, but otherwise almost exactly the same. Because no matter what Little Walter’s does, their pierogi will always be the big draw. Seriously, they could turn the place into a sushi restaurant or a hamburger stand, and every single table would still attempt to eat their weight in pierogi ruskie with caramelized onion and sour cream.

Being able to set aside entire nights just for his gluten-sensitive customers was important to Brenfleck. “Since I’ve been open,” he says, “I’ve heard so many gluten-free folks ask for pierogi they can eat, but I never felt comfortable with the possibility of cross-contamination.”

Doing it like this, though — with certain nights dedicated exclusively to GF cooking, and all the prep and cleaning the night before — makes Little Walter’s a safer option for those with the same concerns.

So if you’re interested (and you should be), the next gluten-free night at Little Walter’s is scheduled for June 9th. After that, it’s June 23th and July 7th, and on like that at least for the rest of the summer. Of course, this can always change, so I’d keep an eye on Little Walter’s Instagram just in case, but if you’re living the GF lifestyle and looking for a good spot to get your fix of Polish food, now you know where to go.