In Search of Safe Dining
Having a food allergy of any kind makes it a challenge to dine out and it is particularly difficult when someone has a gluten allergy or celiac disease. Since gluten can be found in so many different foods, such as sauces and dry rubs, seemingly innocent foods can cause a problem due to what they're cooked with. In addition, there are cross-contamination concerns. You might order a salad with an oil-and-vinegar dressing that’s safe but if it’s tossed in a bowl that was previously inhabited by a salad with a gluten-spiked dressing, there could be a problem. Fortunately, it does seem that there is increasing awareness of gluten intolerance in the restaurant and food industries. If you put some forethought into it, going out to eat and bringing your allergy (or that of your afflicted loved one) with you can be greatly simplified.
Your first and easiest stop is the internet. If you have a particular restaurant in mind, go to their web site and look for links such as menu, nutrition, or FAQ’s. A number of restaurants, especially corporate chains, are posting food allergy information on their sites. I have found gluten-free menus in unexpected places such as Steak ‘N Shake’s web site (ok - yes, we were craving milkshakes). Other restaurants, Outback Steakhouse and Carrabba’s Italian Grill among them, are participating in an initiative of the Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG) to provide details about which regular menu items are gluten-free. Of course, they “assume no responsibility for its use and any resulting liability or consequential damages are denied” and their “management teams and service staff are not trained on the intricacies of Celiac Disease or gluten intolerance and cannot be expected to provide recommendations or other advice on this issue” but we have to appreciate their effort. And in fact, my husband and I did eat at Outback recently without getting what he calls “glutenized”. They even had a separate, printed gluten-free menu which is available upon request from the host or hostess.
Even if a restaurant’s web site is lean on specific menu details, you may be able to find their corporate phone number and speak to a human. Imagine that. Most sites have a “contact us” form which you can use to send an inquiry. I’ve had mixed results with this. I tried contacting two different restaurants owned by the same company; one (Bahama Breeze) got back to me within a couple of days but the other (Seasons 52) took two weeks. Even so, I recommend trying to contact corporate instead of the individual restaurant for two reasons. First, the corporate office of a restaurant group is where policies come from and they are the ones concerned about giving you proper information so they don’t end up getting sued. Second, the more times their corporate HQ hears a request for gluten-free menu options, the more aware they’ll become of an issue that affects millions of people, and possibly do something about it.
On the other hand, when you call a restaurant, the phone will most likely be answered by a person who doesn’t know what gluten is and is not concerned with getting sued. You will have to repeat the word “gluten” one, maybe twice, and possibly spell it. After this inauspicious start, they’ll put you on hold while they try to track down their manager who, chances are, is not well-versed in food allergy concerns and is very busy with the lunch rush. Your confidence level in their answer will decrease in direct proportion to the amount of time you spend listening to their on-hold music. In most cases, it is not much better when you are actually seated at a table and you ask your server. But that’s a whole other blog for another time. . .
The main thing is you usually can’t spontaneously go out to eat unless you’ve already found that safe place. Do some research ahead of time and you’ll be ready to dine out. Check out www.glutenfreerestaurants.org for GIG’s restaurant listings. Bon appétit.
Your first and easiest stop is the internet. If you have a particular restaurant in mind, go to their web site and look for links such as menu, nutrition, or FAQ’s. A number of restaurants, especially corporate chains, are posting food allergy information on their sites. I have found gluten-free menus in unexpected places such as Steak ‘N Shake’s web site (ok - yes, we were craving milkshakes). Other restaurants, Outback Steakhouse and Carrabba’s Italian Grill among them, are participating in an initiative of the Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG) to provide details about which regular menu items are gluten-free. Of course, they “assume no responsibility for its use and any resulting liability or consequential damages are denied” and their “management teams and service staff are not trained on the intricacies of Celiac Disease or gluten intolerance and cannot be expected to provide recommendations or other advice on this issue” but we have to appreciate their effort. And in fact, my husband and I did eat at Outback recently without getting what he calls “glutenized”. They even had a separate, printed gluten-free menu which is available upon request from the host or hostess.
Even if a restaurant’s web site is lean on specific menu details, you may be able to find their corporate phone number and speak to a human. Imagine that. Most sites have a “contact us” form which you can use to send an inquiry. I’ve had mixed results with this. I tried contacting two different restaurants owned by the same company; one (Bahama Breeze) got back to me within a couple of days but the other (Seasons 52) took two weeks. Even so, I recommend trying to contact corporate instead of the individual restaurant for two reasons. First, the corporate office of a restaurant group is where policies come from and they are the ones concerned about giving you proper information so they don’t end up getting sued. Second, the more times their corporate HQ hears a request for gluten-free menu options, the more aware they’ll become of an issue that affects millions of people, and possibly do something about it.
On the other hand, when you call a restaurant, the phone will most likely be answered by a person who doesn’t know what gluten is and is not concerned with getting sued. You will have to repeat the word “gluten” one, maybe twice, and possibly spell it. After this inauspicious start, they’ll put you on hold while they try to track down their manager who, chances are, is not well-versed in food allergy concerns and is very busy with the lunch rush. Your confidence level in their answer will decrease in direct proportion to the amount of time you spend listening to their on-hold music. In most cases, it is not much better when you are actually seated at a table and you ask your server. But that’s a whole other blog for another time. . .
The main thing is you usually can’t spontaneously go out to eat unless you’ve already found that safe place. Do some research ahead of time and you’ll be ready to dine out. Check out www.glutenfreerestaurants.org for GIG’s restaurant listings. Bon appétit.
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