Conversation from today when I called Tosh’s Cantina, a local Mexican restaurant across the street from work.
Me: I am wondering if you have a gluten free menu?
Employee: A what?
Me: A gluten free menu?
Employee: Sorry, one more time – a what?
Me: (slowly) A. Gluuuuteeen freeeee mennuuuu. (My coworker is in my office who now says “I’d take that as a no”)
Employee: I’m not sure, let me check.
I can hear her asking a coworker. Coworker asks “What’s that?”
Employee: What exactly is in gluten?
Me: It’s a protein found in wheat, barley, oats, rye and malt.
Employee: Well, we have flour tortillas, and flour in this and flour in that…
Me: I’ll take that as a no, then.
Hang up.
Blue Bonnet, here I come!
GFS
I had a similar experience in a Mellow Mushroom yesterday.
The manager SWORE the pizza, made with flour, was GLUTEEN
free.
Yeah, ok, let me try this again…
EPIC FAIL! We shouldn’t have to explain to the food service industry what gluten is, but sadly we have to more often that not…at least I find myself explaining it pretty often. They specialize in food, they should know what gluten is!
I love how when I tell someone that I cant have gluten they ask if I can have cheese! I have even been asked if I can eat mushrooms! Get with it people! Recently I ordered a bun-less cheeseburger and the server told me that the manager wouldn’t allow me to get the cheese because they feared a reaction! Um..cheese is not gluten!
After bringing in the gluten free ice cream list printed from THEIR WEBSITE, the workers at a local dairy still had no idea what I was talking about.
And then they stuck a cookie in my daughter’s shake. Here you go, kid! How about a nice cookie in your gluten free shake???!!!
OK, here’s what we need to do. Google “restaurants.” Then we all split up the results and start calling them. We’re a tenacious GF bunch, so eventually we will educate all the restaurants in the USA, right?
My line in restaurants is always, “I can’t have anything with flour.” And then I go from there trying to explain it a bit before I sense their internal eye-roll start to kick in. I used to say “I’m can’t have anything with wheat,” but every server seemed to respond with, “don’t worry, we have plenty of vegetarian options.”
funny. i’ve had the exact same experience at a mexican restaurant near dallas. i think it’s fair to say…when you ask if a restaurant has a gf menu and they something like “excuse me?”….it’s best to move on
Sad, very sad!
My life’s been a lot less frustrating since I stopped eating out. I know, sometimes I feel like I’m from another planet. But THIS planet is giving me enough to munch on in my own back yard just now. I still miss the fellowship of food. Working on other ways to socialize.
It’s so refreshing when you go to a restaurant that actually knows what gluten free means and what precautions are needed.
That’s always a bit disconcerting when they have no clue what gluten even is — lots of educating to do on that one! I haven’t been to the Blue Bonnet in years, but it’s on my list again. I didn’t realize they had a GF menu. Thanks, Steve!
Hope all is well with you and that you’re enjoying this cool, warm, cool again, cold, warm, brisk, tornadoey, rainy, warm, cool Colorado weather.
Melissa
That’s a shame, Steve. Mexican can sometimes be a delightfully easy place to eat gluten-free…or sometimes not, as in this case. Have you been to Mi Casa in Breck? http://noglutennoproblem.blogspot.com/2008/11/mi-casa-mexican-restaurant-and-cantina.html They’re awesome, and have a GF menu. Check em out if you’re in summit county.
Cheers, Pete
Thanks for the tip! We were in Keystone over the weekend but dined in each night. Next time, maybe we’ll make the drive to Breck!
GFS
To whom it may concern;
I am writing to inform you of our new Gluten free menu. About 4 yrs ago my sister Christine and I opened nebo restaurant at 90 N. Washington St. in Boston’s North End. Nebo is a traditional Italian restaurant offering dishes based on recipes that were passed down from our mother and grandmother. After being open for about a year, two of our closest friends were told they had Celiac disease. We then realized just how many people this disease has affected and the need for an alternative for their dining restrictions. Determined to serve our friends their favorites, we set upon making our menu available in a gluten free form. We are thrilled to say that we have now produced 90% of our menu with the same great taste as our regular menu. We don’t think there has been an accomplishment that has brought us more pleasure. If you would like us to forward a copy of our Gluten free menu please send a menu request to nebofunctions@gmail.com .
Wow, I’m sure most of us have had similar experiences! At least you found this out over the phone rather than in the restaurant. My experience was IN the restaurant (I was smart enough to ask these questions before being seated). This was a restaurant that the local Celiac group had supposedly been to on a couple outings but they definitely did not make me feel comfortable given their responses. They did “kindof” know what gluten was. Yikes! This was also a Mexican place. I am really missing the going out to eat at a Mexican place experience. There aren’t any that i know of locally that do gluten free (especially gf menus). There are pizza places and Italian places and even a BBQ place that I discovered recently but no Mexican.