One of my favorite places to go when I am in New Jersey is Janice a bistro in Ho-Ho-Kus. Fun fact: Ho-Ho-Kus is the only double hyphenated town in the country! Janice’s has always been incredibly gluten-free friendly with items on the menu clearly marked if they can be prepared GF. This visit, I had the grilled chicken sandwich with cheddar, avocado, bacon and chipotle mayo. I also got a side of their parmesan garlic fries since they are made in a dedicated fryer.
While looking at the menu at Fresco today, I noticed something new and exciting! They now offer gluten-free bread for their sandwiches! After asking some questions about it, I found out that they make it in house. The guy behind the counter then shared the ingredients with me.
I couldn’t resist trying it, so I ordered the Turkey Club Triple Decker with a side caesar salad (no croutons).
The consistency was kind of between sandwich bread and a roll. It held up really well and I could see this being a great bread for other sandwiches as well as burgers. It is obvious that one of the reasons that Fresco has been so successful for the past 25 years is due to their efforts to accommodate the needs of their customers.
We decided to go hit some golf balls in Carpinteria today, so we stopped at Nutbelly Pizzeria for some lunch. We got two pizzas to split. The first was the GF cheese pizza with sausage (which is GF), red onions and peppers. The second one we got was the GF cheese pizza with garlic.
I still really like the crust here. It was a little less done this time, so it gave in the middle, especially for the heavier toppings on the first pizza. However, the taste of the crust was really good. I asked our waitress why they don’t do more to advertise the fact that they have a GF crust. Her answer was that they don’t want people that don’t have to eat GF ordering it all the time so that there is enough for those that have to eat GF. I can understand this as they make their own crust there which is time consuming. Additionally, when I asked about them bringing in gluten-free bread for their sandwiches, she explained that they want to have GF bread and GF pasta available, but that they want to do it right and make sure that taste is not compromised. Good answer.
Sometimes you just want to eat a burger and fries. When that craving hits (like it did today), we run to In-N-Out where I can get my burger protein style, and my husband can have the grilled cheese. The fact that they make their fries in a dedicated fryer just makes it that much better.
On another topic, a couple of nights ago we went to Pizza Guru. You may recall that last time we were there, the person that helped us told us that we could have the bread sticks made GF. Well, the people we spoke to this time around said that is not true. Has anyone ever been able to order the bread sticks there?
Also, I called C’est Cheese which is a wonderful local cheese shop in downtown Santa Barbara. They have some very appealing sounding sandwiches on their menu so I figured I would ask if they have GF bread. WELL… the lady I spoke with on the phone had just started to look into providing GF bread! It will be a while until they actually have it, but I just think that is so exciting!
Where can I get this delicious sandwich you are wondering? Savoy…. big surprise there. This is the Gaviota Sandwich which includes garlic-rosemary chicken breast, tomato, provolone, Savoy greens and dijon on the toasted gluten-free bread.
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!
Three years ago, my husband and I used to go to Dish Cafe on Calle Real a bunch. Since then, it has become Jungle George Grill. The exciting thing? They still have the sandwiches which are made with plantains and are GF! Woohoo! I got the vegetable plantain sandwich without the tabbouleh. It comes with corn chips and salsa. I also got a side salad without croutons. There must have been a little communication error because it came with croutons, but that was easily remedied by the staff.
gluten-free in sb 