Search results matching tag 'atlanta gluten free restaurants'

Jamie's GF Kitchen

Glad to be Gluten Free — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:02:00 GMT

Jamie's GF Kitchen - Gluten Free Gem in Atlanta!

Most of you know that I organize the Atlanta GF Dinner Club, but you might not know that I have two incredible Assistant Organizers that I could not live without! Thank you to both Lori and Jamie for keeping me sane on this gluten free journey we share. I hope one day such a group as ours will not be needed, but right now I love working with these great ladies to expand our gluten free dining out options in the ATL!

Jamie actually started a gluten free food company last year called Jamie's GF Kitchen. She serves up some of the finest (gluten free) comfort food you'll find anywhere - as well as my husband's favorite dessert ever - gluten free cream puffs. Jamie even makes them with semi-sweet chocolate on request as the husband can't do dark or bittersweet chocolate. In fact, Jamie will do anything she can, to accommodate special diet needs. Everything she makes is gluten free but she can do dairy free as well if you ask her to. Please refer to her website for more information on this.

Jamie's portions are large but you can divide portions up to freeze and use as needed. There is a certain joy in knowing you have killer mac-n-cheese in your freezer that just needs to be defrosted and reheated. We had the spicy version (Jamie offers traditional as well) with fried pork chops for Valentine's Day dinner. The husband and I made everything except the mac-n-cheese. The star of the meal was of course - Jamie's mac-n-cheese. And we're both pretty good cooks....we just don't compare to Jamie in that arena.

Below: top to bottom - brownies, cream puffs, cheesecake (with chcolate chip cookie crumb crust!) , stuffed mushrooms.

Even though I prefer to eat out when I travel, it occurred to me that someone visiting our fair city might want to order from Jamie, so they have safe meals when here. This is assuming they have accommodations that offer guests in room food storage and heating. I think really a small fridge and microwave would be all you need. And if you don't plan to eat in your hotel room, then just order the cream puffs so you can experience pure gluten free bliss during your visit. Serve them to glutenoids to share the joy. They are fabulous, period. They might be free of gluten but they are FULL of incredible taste!!! This is true no matter what you order from Jamie's GF Kitchen.

Whether you live here or are just visiting - do yourself a favor and check out Jamie's GF Kitchen. You will not be disappointed! One day I hope we can enjoy Jamie's fabulous food in a totally gluten free restaurant in Atlanta. My theory is if you create it (incredible gluten free food) they will come!

Rosa Mexicano - Gluten Free gourmet Mexican fare in Atlanta

Glad to be Gluten Free — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:27:00 GMT

Rosa Mexicano opened in Atlantic Station well over a year ago and somehow I never tried it until September of this year. I’d read a rave review of the Manhattan location but thought I was reading a review for the Atlanta location as it was on Catherine’s blog. I thought she’d tried the Atlanta restaurant when visiting as she often did when at her previous job. After seeing the pictures of the food she had in NYC, I had to try and eat at the location here - if possible to do so safely gluten free. The menus vary slightly at each location but most of the menu items in Atlanta are naturally gluten free. I found this out by speaking with a company executive in NYC.

Our first visit to Rosa Mexicano was for brunch. It was good, but basic breakfast food with a Mexican twist. I had an egg and cheese scramble served in an iron skillet with rice and beans (they are both gluten free). We also had chips with red and green salsa and the red sauce was phenomenal. We have some good glutenoid friends that are always willing to try new places with us and they enjoyed their meals as well.

My next meal at Rosa Mexicano was for lunch. I met a gluten free friend there and we had the tableside guacamole service to start. It was surprisingly fast and very good. Still, the red sauce was my favorite for the chips. I could eat it by the gallon. For my meal I tried Suizas (two soft corn tortillas filled with pulled roasted chicken, topped with a creamy tomatillo sauce and queso fresco), which the server recommended and it was really good. I took half of it home for later. My friend ordered something similar to chicken fajitas and also enjoyed her dish.

Right when we thought our meal was over the server brought out desserts which the manager had ordered for us. The Chef made us Mexican Sundaes complete with both vanilla and chocolate ice cream and Mexican caramel sauce which included toasted coconut. It was amazing and I don’t even really like ice cream desserts.

When in Atlanta, or anywhere they have a Rosa Mexicano location, you should treat yourself to a gourmet Mexican meal, whether you’re gluten free or not. They are a customer service oriented restaurant which you’d assume all restaurants are but....at least here, that is not the case. Many places are all style without much substance to back it up. Rosa Mexicano is the real deal!

Rosa Mexicano at Atlantic Station

245 18th Street NW
Atlanta, GA, 30363

Tel. (404) 347-4090
Fax (404) 347-4009

Beleza - an 'almost' Gluten Free restaurant in Atlanta!

Glad to be Gluten Free — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:55:00 GMT

Beleza opened quite a while ago in downtown Atlanta. Their concept was unique to say the least. They didn't have an oven or use processed sugar and had only one item that contained gluten. You would think I would have been their first customer but my husband is not really into Tapas and that's what this place offers. They offer the best quality ingredients of any such place around to be sure, but still they offer just Tapas - or small plates. Either term fits and hence my problem with the husband. I even read a Trip Advisor review that said 'the only problem with this place is that men won't like it'. Great.

Finally last weekend, over a year after they opened, I made it to Beleza. They are on their second Chef but they are still not using sugar or an oven and the only gluten dish is a side of farro which is an ancient form of wheat. We made it a girls night out (if one can call a 6 pm dinner on a Saturday night that) and headed down from the burbs for a gourmet gluten free meal. Two in our party were even glutenoids so props to them for agreeing to join our gluten free adventure!

On arrival I realized that employees outnumbered the customers but I get the feeling that Beleza doesn't even pretend to get cranking until after 9 pm. The menu has more drinks listed than food selections. I ordered a cocktail I thought I'd enjoy and loved it. It tasted like tequila to me but was supposed to be infused rum...whatever. For only $8 it's the best deal on a cocktail I've had downtown in a while. Not everyone in our party liked their drink choices but they were able to swap drinks with each other and live with them.

Since the glutenoids in our party didn't care about having farro, we were all able to share everything we ordered with each other. We had the lobster salad, shrimp and scallop Ceviche and the dip appetizer to start. Two of the three dips were good enough make me feel like not sharing but I was nice and of course shared with the other ladies. The term onion dip seems boring but this one was far from it. The cheese dip was killer as well. The one thing I tried only one bite of and thought it didn't live up to everything else was the black eyed pea dip. Two of us agreed on this but the other two loved it. One criticism of this appetizer was that we had to ask for extra Cassava chips and celery sticks to scoop the dips with. Clearly a place like this knows we are going to share with each other and the table next to us got a lot more 'dippers' than we did for the same dish.

For my entree I had the Lobster Salad (shown below the dip plate) as did another in our party. Others tried a fish of the day (above top) and the cooked shrimp (in the bowl). Both loved their selections, though the fish special actually needed salt. To be honest, I'm not sure I've ever had such fresh tasting ingredients at any restaurant in Atlanta. One would think the lobster traps were pulled out of the water a few feet from the place. The fruit that is part of this dish seemed as if someone pulled it off a tree or off a stalk that day.

When you are gluten free, you're used to leaving without dessert when dining out. Personally, I can take only so much creme brulee or chocolate mousse and I don't care for ice cream. I could have left without dessert at Beleza and been totally satisfied. But a dinner club member told me about the chocolate tart there - she is gluten free, dairy free, soy free and even more things free. She can almost never have dessert when dining out. When she described this decadent treat to me I knew I could not pass it up. The chocolate tart is a small slice of chocolate something with pink rock salt on top. It really doesn't look remarkable at all, though the flower adorning the plate made for a nice presentation. But the taste was not to be believed. I don't think I can accurately describe it because I've never had anything remotely like it. The pink rock salt took it over the top for me - a 'salt-aholic' who shockingly did not add any salt to my dishes at Beleza.

The carmelized banana and coconut milk chocolate sorbet was nothing special according to the ladies that ordered it but I actually took some of my dessert home and savored it for four days. The only way I can explain how I was able to do this is that when something is that amazing, you don't truly need that much of it to be satisfied. And that is what the owner of Beleza is trying to accomplish with this resaurant. In an interview I read shortly after the restaurant opened he said something to the effect of 'people think they need to feel uncomfortably full when they leave a restaurant and that is very bad for their health'. He has a point and that is why many nutitionists suggest we eat six small meals a day instead of three larger ones. I did leave Beleza feeling full but not in an uncomfortable way.

The decor at Beleza might remind you of LA, as will the slight attitude of the staff. But I find the latter is true at some places here that offer mediocre food at best. At least Beleza has earned their attitude. Now I just have to figure out how to get my husband down there with me. Once you try Beleza you'll have to go back if you really appreciate the 'best of the best' ingredients prepared in most unexpected ways. When I asked the server how they made the chocolate tart without an oven she said it was magic - and that's exactly what it tasted like to me!

BELEZA

905 Juniper Street / Atlanta, GA 30309

678-904-4582

Park 75 at the Four Seasons Hotel hosts GLUTEN FREE week!

Glad to be Gluten Free — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:51:00 GMT

Back in April, Park 75 at the Four Seasons Hotel hosted a 'Gluten Free Dinner Week'. Their Executive Chef Robert Gertenecker, got involved with the gluten free community last October, when he participated in the Gluten Free Cooking Spree hosted by the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. After that event, he added gluten free lobster chili and cornbread to his lunch menu. With two days notice, you can also enjoy Afternoon Tea there, complete with gluten free scones, sandwiches and desserts! Naturally when the Park 75 manager told me about Chef's gluten free week, I was overly excited. They came up with a gluten free dinner menu with choices for the starter, entree and dessert. For only $45, it was quite the bargain for this caliber restaurant.

I got an early preview of the menu and though it looked great, I really miss ordering crab cakes out. And so I did what I urge everyone to do, all the time. I asked for what I wanted - gluten free crab cakes. As always, Chef Robert did not disappoint and gladly added Blue Crab Cakes to his gluten free dinner menu.

Our original plan was to have a romantic evening out but it turned out a gluten free friend was having a birthday that week. So we ended up with a small group of friends to enjoy this great evening together. We were seated at a prime location in the restaurant at a round table, and within a minute a bread basket appeared on the table. I recognized the gluten free cornbread muffins but there was something else in there. Oops...they must have put gluten rolls in the basket, rendering everything in it unsafe for us. No actually, they had made gluten free rolls just for us. They were fairly good, but could not compete with the cornbread...it's some of the best cornbread I've ever had, regardless of ingredients.

To keep things simple and worry free, the entire table ordered from the gluten free menu. My husband started with the gluten free mushroom ravioli with truffle cream sauce and I had Chef's signature white bean lobster chili. The crab cakes were actually offered in the appetizer section on the special menu, but Chef made an exception for us and gave us two cakes as an entree choice. They were some of the best I've ever had and certainly the best gluten free version I've tasted. This is probably because it was comprised mostly of crab...some of the best tasting I'd had in a long while.

All crab cakes should be this decadent....I could have eaten them continuously until morning. But we still had our dessert course coming.

For dessert, my husband ordered the creme brulee and I had the berry parfait with a gluten free cookie. I wasn't crazy about the cookie part but the rest of my dessert was fabulous. The creme brulee was excellent and presented beautifully, with a caramelized sugar spray on top!

Just as we thought our night would soon end, the server and manager appeared with a special birthday dessert for my friend...what?! Though I had asked for something special for her (at her husband's secret request), when they brought her dessert out with ours, I assumed they hadn't come up with anything special. Since the dessert offered is not available at present, I can't tell or show you what exactly it was. But trust me when I say it was out of this world delicious and they should be offering it all the time - at least to the gluten free set! It was so unbelievable that as I stuffed a few bites down (very full from dinner), I kept thinking this could not possibly be gluten free - but it was. Pastry Chef Christopher Jennings really outdid himself this time. I can't wait to see what he'll come up with next!

Special thanks to Chef Robert, Managers Augustin and Mike, and the entire staff at Park 75, for making that night so wonderful for all of us. And an extra special thank you goes to Pastry Chef Christopher, especially from the birthday girl! None of us will ever forget the special treatment we received at the Atlanta Four Seasons Hotel! And seriously Chef Robert, you really should consider packaging the lobster chili and selling it retail....

Park 75 / Four Seasons Hotel

75 Fourteenth Street

Atlanta, GA 30309

404-881-9898