September 30, 2008

Pizza Luce

Pizza Luce will begin offering a Gluten-Free menu starting Tuesdays in mid-October at their St. Paul location. They will offer a GF pizza crust from Cooqi Bakery. Almost all of their pizzas will be available GF except for a couple of toppings including mock duck and fake meat products like phony-pepperoni. They have worked on procedures and training to eliminate issues with cross contamination. As they gain more experience they will look to expand the menu as well as to more of their locations. They are planning on adding a GF stuffed shells pasta dish as well as GF beer!

Other menu items that are currently GF include BBQ and Buffalo Wings and the Artichoke Dip. When they start "GF Tuesdays" at the St. Paul location they will have GF rolls from French Meadow Bakery.

If you go to their website http://www.pizzaluce.com/ you can sign up for their e-newsletter. They will place an announcement when they roll out the GF menu.

Why Blog Gluten-Free?

Nate and I are obsessed with finding restaurants that offer a gluten-free menu or will accommodate a gluten-free diet. We enjoy trying new places but don't want to worry if we'll regret it the next day. Many people who have celiac disease are scared to go out to eat or feel very limited in their options. I was tired of seeing Nate order a salad, plain steak or chicken or a burger without the bun. While I stared at the menu overwhelmed by the options he choose by process of elimination. Just a few years ago we never went out for Italian, now there are many places he can have pizza or pasta. We find out about most of these restaurants from the Northland Celiacs website.

We're always trying to share this information with family and friends so they are aware of these new options. Nate suggested I blog as a way to share and track our latest discoveries. I think he sees at as an excuse to try more pizza but that's ok too.

As many of you know gluten-free (GF) food specialty foods can be very expense so you don't want to spend a lot of money on something you won't like. We thought this would also be a good place to post GF product reviews. Feel free to post suggestions to help with my attempt to keep Nate from getting bored.