The Red Bandana Bakery

The Red Bandana is a happy, healthy little bakery in Bethesda, MD. We like to make people happy with celebratory dessert food but we don’t want to feel guilty about what we’re feeding them so we try to make it as good for their body as it is for their soul. Owner/operator Jaimie Mertz went to culinary school in 2011 with the plan to become a pastry chef, and a year later doctors put her autistic brother Jack on a gluten-free casein-free diet to try to help with some behavioral issues.

Jaimie began modifying the recipes and techniques she’d learned in school and on the job, and decided there was a need for a bakery that was totally gluten-free to avoid any cross-contamination, but also specialized in serving other restricted diets so that all kids could feel included and be able to have a safe birthday cake. We opened our doors in November 2017, and Jack sadly passed away at the young age of 18 in May of 2018, having taught us so much and left such a legacy at that very young age.