This morning, one of my favorite celiacs joined me for breakfast at Savoy. She got the spinach and feta scramble without the feta and with egg whites. It was served with greens and some gluten-free toast. I got the GF French Toast.
It was delicious, as always. I finished all of my holiday shopping and everything has been shipped, so it was a relaxing morning. As an added bonus, I got to spend time with her 3-month old who gets cuter every time I see him.
We wanted to try something new for brunch today, so we went to Cafe Stella. I had the fines herbs and gruyére omelette with caramelized onions added in. With the egg dishes, you have your choice of home fries or potato gratin. After confirming that there was no flour used for the potato gratin, I ordered my omelette with that. Well done, me. I will order a side of the potato gratin next time I go here because it was that good and cheesy. The restaurant was pretty large. It felt like a good place to have a rehearsal dinner or special event. They even have a nice outdoor patio if you want to bring your pooch.
This morning, we took the pup for a walk at the Douglas Preserve. It is a great off-leash area for dogs that has an amazing view of the Santa Barbara coast. After our walk, we decided to go to the back patio of Savoy since it is dog friendly. This was the perfect time to try their gluten-free pancakes. YUM. I don’t know what it is about powdered sugar, but it just makes everything look and taste better. There was also some GF pumpkin bread for purchase but I held off as I was trying a new thing called self-control.
I love when I don’t have work on Sunday mornings because there is something about going out for breakfast on a Sunday that is just so enjoyable. Today, we tried Scarlett Begonia. As soon as we sat down, I saw that there was a gluten-free polenta and pear muffin on the menu. This was served warm and had a really good taste to it. While we started to devour that, we were served an amuse bouche. It didn’t appear GF so I stayed clear. I then had the soft scrambled eggs with spinach and aged gouda.
As I mixed the dish around, the aged gouda melted perfectly. This was a hearty dish as there were plenty of potatoes on the bottom. Finally, at the end of the meal, there was a little surprise that came with our check. It was homemade toffee. When I was trying to check what the ingredients were in it, the woman who I asked made it seem very difficult to get an answer. This brings me to my next point. I thought the food was really good but there was something about the service that rubbed me the wrong way. I was eavesdropping at the conversation between the waitress and the table next to us. The diners were explaining how they had seen the iPad ordering system at another local eatery. The waitress then had some attitude saying that they were the first ones to do it. Additionally, the way certain things were presented to us felt like they wanted a pat on the back. It wasn’t enough to prevent us from coming back, but it just felt like they thought very highly of themselves and wanted others to know that.
That toffee by the way? Pretty fantastic.
I don’t know why it took me so long to make it to Savoy Cafe and Deli, but I am so happy I finally did. You know when you find one of those places where there are so many gluten-free items available and you can’t pick just one? That was me this morning. Above is the GF banana nut bread that I started my breakfast with. It was as good as it looks. Then, I had a hard time deciding between gluten-free french toast or pancakes. I ended up picking the french toast.
With strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and powdered sugar, this dish was unbelievable. It was also a very large portion. But I didn’t stop there. There were GF cookies in the display case. I ended up taking a chocolate chip cookie and snickerdoodle cookie to go…. you know… for the blog. I wouldn’t want to skimp on showing you how fantastic these looked.
While there, I noticed that there were sandwiches offered for lunch. Since they clearly had gluten-free bread available, I asked an employee if they could make their sandwiches with the GF bread. She informed me that they can! Woohooo! I have found a gluten-free sandwich place! AND… if you are a chocolate person (which I am not), you can also find a GF brownie here at Savoy. Looks like I have found my new favorite place in Santa Barbara!
If you were to ask me what my top three breakfasts in Santa Barbara were, this would be one of them. It isn’t even a breakfasty type dish. But for me, it is the most wonderful way to start a day. Tupelo Junction‘s red beans and rice is so colorful and delicious. It consists of red beans, rice, roasted shallots, corn, spinach, tomatoes and parmesan. Yum.
For breakfast this morning, I thought I would try Backyard Bowls. The Backyard Quinoa Bowl is entirely GF and seemed like a good item to get to go and eat at the Sunken Gardens with my pup. I don’t know if it was the tastiness of the bowl, or the perfect weather over at the courthouse, but it was one of those mornings that just made me so happy to be back in Santa Barbara.
I know that most people on a GF diet would run in the other direction rather than eat at a place that is a bakery. Don’t. This morning I had one of my favorite breakfast items… the huevos rancheros at D’Angelos. It is hard to put it into words how tasty this dish is. If you are not a fan of huevos rancheros, you should order one of the omelettes at D’Angelo. They are equally as good as long as you ask for no bread.
gluten-free in sb 