A God Thing Eating Out Experience

[trents]

I took a trip Seattle are this past Saturday and while passing through the area I visited my daughter who is in college there. I suggested we go out for lunch and asked her where she would like to go. She is aware that I am a Celiac and need to avoid gluten. She thought a minute and said, "Well, let's go to the Ram at the University mall. You can get a steak and baked potato or something and parking is available there. So we did. I was looking over the menu and saw some chef salad kinds of things and got the waitress' attention to ask her about the ingredients in the salad. She looked to be college age. I told her I was on a gluten free diet. I expected her to look at me like, "You're weird and what's gluten?" Right away she said, "Oh, my brother is a Celiac and so are several other members of my family. Let me go and check to see what's in the dressing they put on that." She came back and said, "All of our dressings use wheat flour as a thickener. We looked at several other possibilities on the menu and she was able to point out that they had this or that gluten-containing ingredient. She really did know her stuff. I finally settled on a steak but asked her what was in the seasonings they put on it. She said she didn't know but that they could broil one plain for me. That didn't appeal to me so I countered by suggesting they just season it with Worchestershire sauce. I explained that the brand name stuff was gluten free. She went and checked the ingredients in whatever brand they were using and reported back to me that it was safe. She also suggested some steamed broccoli for the vegie to which I agreed. Needless to say, I was quite astonished to run into a waitress so knowledgeable about Celiac disease and who could, therefore, actually be my advocate. As you can imagine, I felt much safer eating there as a result of her intervention. I'm convinced it was a God thing. At the conclusion of the meal, I called her manager over and put in a good word for her.

Steve

[Judyin Philly]

Hi Steve,

I know how it feels...Isn't it wonderful?

I've had 4 experiences like that...

One in a little Italian place, everything else in the town was closed ..off season trip to the shore..the sweet little waitress said ...oh, my sister has celiac..let me show you what i'd recommend that we've fixed for her.

Another time, the fella taking the order said, 'Oh one of our waitress's has celiac disease and she gets the chef to prepare the chicken this way as the olive oil we use here has 'soy' ..amazing... which i bet you can't have either...but we have a broth that is just pure juice from the chicken ..etc.

I've gone the gamett from 'couldn't do enough to help you' to ' being refused service and told to find another resturant' and on Easter Sunday to boot'

judy in philly

[Guest ~jules~]

Thats great! We have a ram here where I am also, maybe I'll go check it out...