Behold the tastiest BLT you will ever have. In November, my brother got married in North Carolina. After doing a search on the Find Me Gluten-Free app, I found out that Merritt’s, his favorite BLT spot was GF friendly! They even have a choice of GF breads to use for their sandwiches! My parents picked me up a sandwich when they were out running errands. She said that when she told the lady at the counter that I was Celiac, that she was extremely careful. She washed her hands, used a clean surface, and even opened up a new jar of mayo to make sure there was no cross contamination from the non-GF items that they serve there. The result was an amazing BLT on a gluten-free sourdough roll!
Tag Archives: gluten free
Merritt’s Store & Grill
6 JanBlue Tavern
6 Jan
Holy moly it has been a long time. I will try to catch up on some posts this week. My whole family was here to end 2013. While they were here, we tried Blue Tavern. Let’s start with the positive. The food that I had was really tasty. They serve some corn and salt on the table when you sit down, but this is not gluten-free as they use a contaminated fryer. I started with the Beet and Heirloom Tomato Salad. I would order this again as the combination of the beets, tomatoes and pesto was quite good. For my main dish, I had the Quinoa Risotto.
This had parmesan, wild mushrooms, arugula and parsley oil. I have always had an aversion to mushrooms but I didn’t find these offensive. Rather, I found the dish was nice and flavorful. Overall, I enjoyed my food. But there were two incidents that overshadowed the night for me.
When we sat down, they asked if we wanted Santa Barbara water or bottled water. We said the tap water was fine. They brought over two carafes of water. Half of our table had normal tasting water from one of the carafes. My half of the table however was poured water that tasted like extreme salt water. When we said something to our waitress after spitting it out, she asked if we wanted bottled water then. I asked her if she wanted to taste it as there was something very wrong and I wanted her to see what we meant. She then said that they had heard that from other people, but she did not apologize or offer to get other tap water. She asked us if we wanted to then order bottled water. It was so ridiculous of a situation but we said fine so that we could have water. At the end of the dinner when we got the bill, we had spent an excessive amount on just bottled water as we were a party of nine.
Our table had ordered two orders of the potato gratin (which was GF). When one of the food runners brought out the second order, she said this is compliments of the kitchen. I then explained that we had actually ordered the item, so there was no need for it to be complimentary. She responded, “That is what the kitchen told me to say” and then walked away. When we checked the bill at the end of the meal, they had charged us for both orders, so it was very odd that they would have said that at all.
Even though the food was good, these other things that happened just seemed so off that I have a hard time wanting to go back. Hopefully, they figure out their water situation and their communication skills so that they can be successful!
The Bourbon Room
24 Oct
Tonight, we headed to The Bourbon Room as I was craving a burger. I had heard that they offer gluten-free rolls for their burgers so I was very excited. Once we got there, I found that in addition to the rolls, they also had GF pizza! Since I am eating for two, I rationalized that it was totally normal to order two main dishes. The gluten-free cheese pizza was pretty good. The waitress assured me that they cook it on a different surface than their regular pizzas. The crust was on the thin side and stayed together well. I also ordered a cheeseburger on the GF bun.
I couldn’t have the fries since they were in contaminated oil, so I got a side salad without the croutons. It was so nice to be able to have a burger with a bun! As I had just consumed a whole lot of food, I turned down dessert as tempting as it sounded. Our waitress had informed us that they had a GF chocolate chip cookie pie. This is definitely a reason to return!
As a reminder, we will be holding our Fall Gluten-Free Santa Barbara Meet-up on Wednesday at Shoreline Park. For more details, please visit our Facebook page.
Arlington Tavern’s Menu Addition
20 Oct
One of the joys of social media includes finding out that places like Arlington Tavern now have GF macaroni and cheese. As soon as I read about it, I dreamed about the time when I would finally get to try this dish. Before going to a show at the bowl on Thursday, we headed over there. I found out that they cook the GF pasta in a clean pot and use separate, clean utensils when preparing it. They also omit the bread crumbs that typically come with their mac & cheese. The gruyere cheese made this wonderfully gooey. I think this may be my new go-to craving when it eventually gets cold here in Santa Barbara!
The Lark
29 Sep
I have to admit. I went to The Lark about a month ago and had a pretty poor experience. My waitress did not know much about what gluten-free meant and I definitely did not dine with confidence. However, my Celiac comrade told me about her experience which had been much different. This past week, we both went back and it was like night and day. I had a different waitress who clearly knew what she was talking about. First off, I like any restaurant that serves popcorn instead of the usual bread. The popcorn had mint, ginger, cilantro, lime salt, lime zest, chile de Arbol and olive oil. We easily polished off a few bowls of this. We then shared their new Autumn Kale Salad. This had pepitas, roasted apples, pomegranates and pecorino. It was plenty to share as a first course. For our second course, we shared the Half Roasted Mary’s Chicken.
This comes as a half or a whole chicken. The half was enough for both of us. It was served with a brown butter polenta, spinach, charred figs, shallots and chicken jus. For dessert, we shared the Milk Chocolate Pot de Creme.
I was not a huge fan of the smoked almond brittle that was on top of it. It was one of the reasons the dessert initially sounded appealing, but I found the smokiness way too overwhelming. The chocolate portion was very good though. Overall, my experience this time around was much better. I just hope that it wasn’t a fluke and that all of the servers and kitchen staff are being properly trained on what is and isn’t gluten-free and what cross contamination is. If I had one complaint about the evening, it was that they should have a less expensive sparkling water option. Paying $8 for a bottle of sparkling water seems crazy when a lot of restaurants are now offering it complimentary. And why was I drinking sparking water when they have some tasty sounding libations? I am excited to announce that come March, there will be a new addition to the glutenfreeinsb family!
Manuelina Ristorante
27 Sep
Okay… one more Italy post until we get back to some Santa Barbara goodness. One of my favorite meals on our summer vacation was at Manuelina. Here, they serve their famous cheese focaccia. Imagine my surprise when our waiter informed me that they make a gluten-free version! This was ridiculously cheesy and amazing. I then had their homemade gluten-free gnocchi with a pesto sauce.
This was also pretty unbelievable. Some of the others at the table had ordered pasta with a walnut sauce that they were raving about. For some reason, I thought it may be a good idea to order another order of the gnocchi with the walnut sauce.
There must have been five pounds of butter in this sauce. As a huge fan of butter, I found it quite tasty. I couldn’t manage finishing the dish, but it was definitely worth ordering!
Trattoria La Lanterna
5 Sep
Steps from the water in Riomaggiore, one of the towns of Cinque Terre, is a restaurant called Trattoria La Lanterna. Our guide for the day had called ahead so that they would be aware of our dietary needs. When we sat down, my brother and I received some gluten-free bread.
I had a view of the prep area from where I was sitting, so I could see that the bread had come from a fully sealed package. The dishes here are served family style, so we both got the gluten-free pasta with olive oil, garlic and chilis.
This dish was very light as far as pastas go. I may have preferred some more of the chilis as there wasn’t too much heat to it. The extra bread we had was very good dipped in the leftover oil and garlic.
Chuflay Restaurant at Splendido Mare
4 Sep
Chuflay Restaurant at Splendido Mare is located in the heart of the harbor of Portofino. We ate on their outside terrace which gave us the perfect vantage point for people watching. After placing our order, my brother and I received a gluten-free bread basket. It certainly didn’t hurt that the bread was served warm! I started with the Minestrone di Verdure alla Genovese, al Basilico. This Genoese vegetable soup was very good but it was also extremely filling as it was packed with beans and veggies. For my main dish, I had the area’s specialty, the (gluten-free) pasta with the traditional Genoese pesto.
Out of all of the pastas I had in Italy with pesto, this one was my favorite. This was probably due to the fact that I could taste the plethora of cheese in the pesto!
Ristorante San Marco 1957
3 Sep
After our time in Iceland, we headed to Italy to warm up. One of the days, we chartered a boat for a half day to explore the coastline. We stopped in a little area called Sestri Levante where we ate at Ristorante San Marco 1957. After showing the waiter the gluten-free travel card, I ended up getting their four cheese GF pasta. This was very heavy. The noodles were such a good consistency though… something I found a lot of in Italy. I also had a mixed salad.
Italy is a pretty amazing country for celiacs. This was the first of many spots that were fully aware of what “senza glutine” meant. I ended up having a carb fest the whole time there!
Gló Restaurant
31 Aug
After a long morning of hiking to and from Thrihnukagigur Volcano (and descending into it), we were quite hungry when we got back to Reykjavik. Walking distance from our hotel was Gló Restaurant, a healthy restaurant that focuses on using organic ingredients. I started with the coconut curry soup. It was ridiculously delicious. They were very knowledgeable about gluten-free ingredients, giving me a GF cracker rather than the bread that usually accompanies the soup.
After the soup, I enjoyed their raw Italian pasta.
The noodles were made of julienned zucchini and the “meatballs” were made of chickpeas. Everything I had was very tasty.
gluten-free in sb 