Last Night in Vegas!

I've had an unbelievable time in Vegas and am so utterly thrilled that eating here wasn't a huge issues. for our last dinner, we ate at Le Burger Brasserie and they were all very helpful in creating and figuring out something I could eat, from our server to management they were very nice and accomodating making sure that not only I had enough to eat but also I could actually eat there. Keeping in mind that we had a party of 8, it can add to the difficulty of ordering gluten free foods. Sadly though, our service pretty much sucked, to the point where we left a little comment card. Having my background in food service that I do, plus Jen's background as a manager and Diane' 's chef background, we all know and understand bad shifts, rough times, etc, but really, she was just bad and having a difficult time handling a party of 8. Regardless of that, the burgers were HUGE! The fries were delicious!!! (You can mix and match what kind of fries you want and they are ordered a la carte.) I would highly recommend them for a delicious meal on the strip that is gluten free friendly.

P.S. Just walking through the Paris is a treat in itself. The Venetian to the Paris, the designs and structure of it all it beautiful. Sadly, the smells of the foods coming from the bakeries is gut wrenching when hungry and can make temptations all to easy, so I do recommend eating before strutting through them- especially Paris, as they have real French cafe' s with French bread and pizza and yeah, it's bad, and no, I asked, they don't have gluten free.

Full Day of VEGAS!!!!

So Vegas has been amazing! With the kitchens in the room, we had breakfast in our rooms, eggs, toast, come pancakes for some, juice, cinnamon rolls and enough gluten free food to boot! I loved it. A friend that came with us is a breakfast chef for a winery bed and breakfast in California so she's very familiar with not only the kitchen, but once she found out about my diet restrictions, she was excited to try new foods on me. She even packed some gluten free food for me in her suitcase!!! With last night's dinner being at a restaurant I have back home, it was easy for me to work with... Buffalo Wild Wings though is a favorite place of mine anyway so I didn't even need to ask, I just told that I have an allergy!

I'm very curious to see how the rest of the day goes with food and my only huge concern for the whole weekend is the breakfast buffets on Sunday- cross-contamination is such a huge thing and not easily controlled in a buffet! As we go out on the strip today, here's to hoping there's food I can eat!

In VEGAS!!!!!

So we are in Vegas and just picked everyone up from the airport. Since we are saying a little ways away from the airport and more in local territory, I'm not too worried about finding food to eat. We drove past a Chili's, Buffalo Wild Wings and a couple other places to get to our resort. Our rooms at the resort (The Grandview) have full kitchens (which I knew ahead of time) so it will be really easy for me to have food in the room if I'm too worried about it. Also, I brought snacks to eat and we drove past a Whole Foods as well, so I can get what I need. YEAH!!! Vegas better be ready for us!

Vegas Baby!

So I'm getting ready to leave for Vegas and have packed some food to bring along with me. Especially breakfast food like cereals. We had talked about going to see the Tournement of the Kings at Excalibur so I emailed them ahead of time and they said that they could accomodate it and would just need my section, isle and seat number. However, here is the menu that they can prepare for me:

Garden Salad with vinaigrette instead of the cream of tomato soup (the soup contains a thickening agent)
Plain Roasted Cornish Game Hen
Baked Potato with butter and sour cream on the side
Broccoli with cheese, but if you prefer, you may have plain steamed broccoli
Fresh sliced fruit for dessert instead of the apple square.

So we'll see what we end up doing!

Zio's

So tonight we are trying out Zio's and in looking at their menu online and much to my surprise they have a pretty extensive selection to fit the gluten free diet. check out the menu. Also, they have an amazing wine selection here so I'm stoaked about that. Elton John concert should be interesting in the selection of foods and drinks that I'll be able to choose from- cause we all know that conscession stands aren't very gluten free friendly. Here's to hoping!

*sing Benny and Jets*

Buffalo Wild Wings Email

Please visit here for moved posting! Thanks!

Old Chicago's Email

Old Chicago's wrote me back, but I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the response, I've very mixed on it as it seems they aren't even attempting to make an strides to even work with gluten-free bakers and makers of pizza crusts.... Oh well, le sigh.

Unlike most of our competitors, we serve pizza and cookies...
both of which we make from scratch... This means that we carry 2 kinds
of flour and our mixer is constantly mixing 3 kinds of pizza dough and
cookies. Those prep areas are not separated from other production areas
and as a result, there is flour in the air and potential
cross-contamination is almost assured.
Also, we do not have training programs in place that teach the
nuances of gluten free requirements and affects.

All that being said... there are menu selections that could be
considered free of gluten ingredients... all of our Ken's dressings, our
Ranch & Bleu Cheese dressings are gluten free (except Dorothy Lynch
Dressing), as are many of our meats... Steaks, Ham, Turkey, Canadian
Bacon, chicken wings, pepperoni, sausage & salami. Vegetables and salad
mixes are also appropriate selections. As an individual who is sensitive
to the details of gluten-free living... Guests can certainly come in and
tailor meals, based on ingredients known to be gluten-free... bun-less
burgers, corn chip nachos, steak, salad, veggies, and dressings (except
Dorothy Lynch Dressing). We are very good at providing special orders
upon request, but at this time it would be inappropriate, given our
homemade pizza position, to encourage Gluten Intolerant folks to make us
a gluten free destination through special menuing.

I hope this helps explain our place in the industry, please contact me
back if you have additional questions or requests... We would love to
provide a special menu but, as long as our kitchens are focused on
homemade pizza dough... flour/gluten cross contamination is certainly
more possible than in establishments without pizza.

Thank you for taking the time to write to us....

my response
Thank you for your response Mike. Have you considered working with local gluten-free bakeries that provide the pizza crust? It would still be homemade and I know of a national chain that does just that. Having worked in food service all of my life I understand the possibilities of cross-contamination, but assigning an oven as gluten-free as a trial run might be something more to look into to give your guests a variety. I enjoy going there, especially since you have cider, gluten-free beer on tap at the locations in my area, but having a better food selection would also be nice. Also, do you know if your chicken wing sauces contain any gluten?

Thanks again!!