Mrs. Dude and I met up with some friends of ours in Princeton, NJ Saturday night, one of our favorite towns. I told her early on that I will totally go with the flow when it comes to food. Whatever they choose I am totally cool with and if I can’t find anything to eat, I’ll just grab a Naked Pizza afterwards for the drive home.
It can get real annoying when everyone’s meals need to be centered around the celiac and I just wanted to have a fun night…food be damned.
We ended up at Triumph Brewing Company…a very cool place that brews it own beers. I used to LOVE this restaurant pre-celiac days. It lost some of its luster when I could no longer have beer, but it’s got a cool vibe and there’s always vodka.
We sat down to eat and I started with my usual speech to the waiter.
“I have severe celiac disease. Do you know what that is?”
The waiter did not.
Crap…this isn’t a good start.
When I told him I can’t have gluten, a light went off in his head and he said that they accommodate many people who can’t have gluten and the chef will even come out to the table to talk about your needs.
That was an absolute first for me. The place was packed and the chef would come out and talk to me? Really??
I told the waiter that I’d pick out a few things from the menu and ask some questions when he comes back.
About two minutes later, he presented me with my own gluten-free menu.
A place that specializes in brewing their own beer has a gluten-free menu. Totally, absolutely, unequivocally awesome!
Here’s the menu in all its glory. And in case you were wondering, I went with the Butternut Squash Risotto.
Thanks to Triumph Brewing Company for making a celiac feel at home, even for just one night.
This is as it should be. Look at the publicity that chef and restaurant are getting for doing it right. I’m glad you had a great night out and I think it’s super important to acknowledge (promote) these folks. I have a restaurant here in Denver that totally caters to my GF needs. I rarely go out, but when I do, I go to DUO Restaurant in the groovy Highlands area of Denver. I love it and I’ve never gotten zapped. Life is good!
Melissa
PS How about we provide the links to our favs on your Facebook post? Would that be alright. OR, let’s do a blog hop where we each feature our favorite restaurant (short post) in our city and make it into an blogging event? What do you think, GD?
LOVE the idea Melissa. I will post something this week and ask for submissions for people’s favorite gluten free restaurants, with explanations of how they do it right and links to the restaurant website. Everybody wins!!
Wow!!!! Now THAT’S accomodating! I’m guessing it’s “clean” too as you’d know by now. You got to partake in a social meal AND come away feeling good! Isn’t it great to have a go-to place that’s
safe? I only recently found such a spot here in Edmonton called
“Noorish” and it means so much to know that these places actually exist, doesn’t it.
They are few and far between Sue but they are indeed keepers.
Cool!!! I know where I’m going next time I’m in Princeton 🙂
Thanks GD!
Look me up when you get here 🙂
You got it, Dude! I don’t know when it’ll be, but I’ll definitely let you know when I do. Thanks for sharing this with us!
I had the opposite happen to me saturday night…thin crust pizza place in town, separate ovens, prep spaces for the GF pizza. Certified gluten free.
It was bleeping awesome. I needed a few minutes to myself afterwards.
Then, the next day at a birthday party with my nine year old, i needed a whole lotta minutes to myself. Motherbleeper.
grrrrrrrr….
Jersey Girl
Grrrrr is right 🙁
Glad to hear that Gluten Dude! So far I have only ventured to chain restaurants with a gluten free menu. Didn’t get sick. Going to celebrate a friends birthday soon. He said to pick out a gluten free friendly place and good to go. Yay! Hope you had something good.
I am so happy you had a great dining out experience. Kudos to the restaurant for being so gluten-free savvy!
And I agree with Melissa’s idea about posting some restaurants on your blogs. .I’d be delighted to add a few restaurant “kudos”and shout-outs to those who get it right!
I’ve been having some great meals while traveling. I am not at all getting hit or suffering any ill effects (and you know I’d be in deep doo-doo if that happened–as it would put me down for a week).
Find Me Gluten Free is a wonderful resource. More often than not, a high end restaurant is the best bet and I have had some great chats with chefs and managers. Most people are very accommodating and if we are polite, but firm in our requests, we can almost always get what we need. (we’ve all been zapped, but mostly, it goes well if we choose wisely)
I did have one funny waiter in the Keys named Joe who made me laugh every time because he teased me with “yea, yea, no gluten… blah blah blah!”….and then, he whispers to me “We don’t really give a shit, you know” while smiling at me. (He was only kidding. We had a blast with this guy. I did have to school him on not letting the GF rolls touch the gluten ones, though. He took it well. The next time–he brought separate baskets. 😉 ) The menu and the restaurant’s policy statement from the chef told me they “get it” (if I could post it, I would)…..and every meal was fantastic.
Life is very, very good! 🙂
So glad to hear Irish!!!
Yay to a menu with choice and a successful night’s dining! I agree that we should get our heads together on the places to go. Happy to add to the UK’s GFOKUK list for any one heading our way. 😉
Now that is a great example of customer service! I hope the risotto was tasty – sure sounds good!
So glad to hear you had a good experience, Dude!
The Mr. and I have found a restaurant that does it right here too!
They have a special menu, the manager comes and speaks with you and double checks your order with the chef. Then personally brings the food out to make sure nobody accidentally contaminates the plate. The guarantee against cross contamination. Everywhere else I’ve been to has a disclaimer at the bottom of their menu saying cross contamination isn’t their fault and they aren’t liable. This place doesn’t. The funniest thing is that it’s part of a chain… there are 4 in this city and this is the only location that has this kind of allergy policy.
The last time I was there, I was in a group and my friends had ordered a plate of sweet potato fries. The server came over to refill and was incredibly concerned – she thought I might have been eating the fries and wanted to make sure I knew that they were not gluten free.
I just feel very cared for as a consumer when I eat there. It’s definitely taken a bit of the bite out of CD.
Embrace that place…it’s a rarity. So glad you have it.
That is a good feeling GD when they understand and care. When in Victoria Aug. 2010, went to Irish Times and next door restaurant, lots on menu to choose from and gf beer. Bringing sleeping bag next time and will hide under some table. I still haven’t tried my hotmail account yet. Must get that working this week.
This is awesome man! It’s always great to see restaurants go above and beyond just to make your GF dining experience just a little bit better.
Have you ever thought about publishing an ebook or guest authoring on other blogs?
I have a blog based upon on the same subjects you discuss
and would really like to have you share some stories/information.
I know my audience would appreciate your work. If you’re even remotely interested,
feel free to shoot me an e-mail.
I actually ate at Triumph in Princeton a week ago and had a difficult experience but for different reasons. I feel safe eating off their gluten free menu, but it does frequently change. My 2.5 year old has Celiac as well and that was the sticking point. Everything available last week was very spicy or was just a plain burger. I guess I can’t complain if we didn’t get sick but I’ll have to take this one off my list until he’s a little older. :/
give then a 31.215% tip?