lindylynn's Blog

Today's topic is restaurants. Really good ones, not just the chain places like Outback.

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I used to love eating out at fine restaurants (OK, and on our yearly road trip from NY to Louisiana to visit my husband's family, it was always Cracker Barrell). So where does a Celiac eat?

On road trips now, the easiest thing is to scout out the nearest Outback or Boston Market. And I pack a cooler with cottage cheese, carrots, apples, hummus, tortilla chips, grapes, rice crackers and my favorite Midel Animal Crackers (yes I am over 40, but I love these cookies). The trip takes three days and most motels have a fridge where I can keep stuff cool overnight and refreeze my freezer thingies. Works quite well.

Living in the NY area is helpful, because of the Gluten Free Restaurant Awareness Program, which educates restaurants about our needs. Some have gluten-free menues, which makes things a lot easier.

When I go out, I bring my "no gluten" card, choose the one or two items from the menu that sound like I can eat them and ask the waiter to bring the card to the chef and check. This usually works ok. Once a chef came out of the kitchen to check with me if steak was ok because the cow might have eaten wheat. I thought that was nice of him (and the question kind of stumped me, but I assume it's fine). I've had a few mishaps, like the time I was eating my steamed vegetables and found a penne pasta noodle in it.

My best dining experience ever was at a restaurant in NYC called Rissoteriea (I'm probably spelling that wrong), where all the waiters wear tee-shirts that say "No Flour Power". They handed me a breadstick so yummy, I asked the guy if he was sure I could eat it. They had gluten-free pizza, beer, cookies and sandwiches! I had a Pannini (grilled sandwich) for the first time in years. I was in heaven.

The next day I found a local hotdog place that is gluten-free, opened by two moms with celiac kids. I had bread for two days in a row (I've pretty much cut bread from my diet because I haven't found one I like).

Another fav place of mine is a place called New World Cooking in Saugerties, NY (near Woodstock), where the chef and staff is so aware of gluten-free that the waiter brought me rice crackers when he brought my husband's bread. Ahh, what a relief to be so acknowledged.

All this talk about food is making me hungry. I think I'll go make myself some gluten-free pancakes!