Kickshaws Market is a haven for people with dietary restrictions.
Kathy and Richard Craddock
In 2013, Fredericksburg resident Kathy Craddock spent entire days traveling hundreds of miles just to grocery shop.
“We were going to Fairfax and Richmond to buy the things we needed,” explains the 37-year-old, who had adopted a gluten free and casein free diet for herself and her two children a few years earlier. (Casein is a protein found in milk from mammals.) There were farmers’ markets where she could buy local produce, eggs, honey and grass-fed meat, but there were no stores nearby selling other locally sourced natural and organic products. “I said somebody should start a store in Fredericksburg.” So she did.
In 2014, Craddock and her husband Richard opened Kickshaws Downtown Market on William Street in the city’s historic district. In addition to fresh food sourced from area growers, the store carries bulk products, including kale powder, matcha (a specialty green tea), cocoa nibs, spices and sea salt, dried fruits and more—and all gluten free, nut free, non-GMO and natural.
Last fall, the Craddocks expanded their operation to solve another challenge faced by families like theirs—eating in a restaurant. “We wanted to have a place where people could go who wouldn’t be able to have a meal out,” she explains. They opened Kickshaws Kitchen next door in November and now serve organic meals from a dedicated gluten free kitchen. At the kitchen’s grand opening, Craddock says she met a 6-year-old boy with allergies so severe he had never been able to eat in a restaurant before. “It was heartbreaking,” she says, “but it makes me feel good about what we’re doing.”
The seasonally rotating menu includes the Lumberjack breakfast, consisting of two waffles, potato hash, scrambled eggs, bacon, cheddar cheese (non dairy or dairy-based); a local grass-fed beef burger on a house-made gluten-free bun; and a kid-friendly banana split, a sweet tower of gluten-free pancakes or waffles and coconut whipped cream topped with sprinkles, chocolate syrup and strawberries. Chia-flax and white-style breads made from flour that Craddock mills and blends onsite are also on the menu. Vegan options are available for all items, and most are made in house and from scratch.
Craddock also hosts workshops in the market such as how to make bone broth (slow cooking releases its beneficial minerals) and gut-friendly kombucha.
“We have a huge population of customers who have chronic illnesses and auto-immune diseases,” she says, “so we try to bring in a lot of products specifically for healing, healing through food.” KickshawsDowntownMarket.com
