Pizza Luce Downtown Minneapolis

I really only had 2 complaints about Pizza Luce offering a gluten-free menu.
1. It is only available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
2. It is only available at their St. Paul location.

I understand their logic, they wanted to control it as much as possible to eliminate any chance of cross contact. They started with offering gluten-free on Tuesdays and added Wednesdays not long after. We thought this is great, they are really seeing there is a demand and hoped they would continue to expand.

Starting next Tuesday and Wednesday you can order pizza made from Cooqi's gluten-free crust at Pizza Luce's Downtown Minneapolis location!

Pizza Luce Downtown Minneapolis
119 North 4th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55401

Michello's Restaurant Review

Nate and I have been trying to be good about not going out to eat too often. After reading on The Savvy Celiac that Michello's in Blaine, MN has a gluten-free menu we thought we had to check it out. Michello's is about 2 miles from our house and has gluten-free pizza and pasta. Would we actually have a convenient location for gluten-free pizza?

We were really impressed with the number of choices on the gluten-free menu. Since gluten-free lasagna is so rare to find in restaurants we had to try it. Michello's gluten-free lasagna is the same recipe as their regular lasagna except for the rice noodles. All of their sauces are made from scratch.

The lasagna and other pastas are served with garlic bread. The garlic bread was good but not great, something you could easily make at home with store bought bread. They are working on their own recipe for garlic bread.

Nate is never one to pass up gluten-free pizza so we decided to share a pepperoni and sausage pizza. At Michello's they make their own pizza crust. The ingredients are listed on the menu which is nice for those with other allergens. I'm pretty impressed that they take the time to make their own crust. They also add toppings in a dedicated area to help eliminate cross contact.

They brought out a piece of chocolate cake and asked if they could get our opinion on it. This might be the first time that Nate and I shared a piece of cake at a restaurant. Usually if they offer a gluten-free cake it is a flourless chocolate cake which are too rich for his taste. We both really enjoyed the cake. Nate said it reminded him of one his Grandma would make which is a pretty nice compliment seeing as she's been baking gluten-free for almost 30 years now. They are working on their carrot cake recipe as well.

I am definitely worried about the damage to my wallet and waistline with this being so convenient for us.

Bunky's Cafe

The other day I heard that Bunky's Cafe in Madison, Wisconsin will make almost anything gluten-free. We don't make it to Madison very often although, my mother-in-law Ann takes the girls there often for doctor appointments and to run errands.

I had to check this out for them and Teresa informed me "Our whole menu is or can be made GF (with the exception of the ravioli)." When I told my sister-in-law Becca about it she was a little disappointed because she wanted ravioli. I don't think she'll be too disappointed considering they have gluten-free pizza, pasta, garlic bread and desserts. I don't think I'll need to twist their arms very much to get them to try it and let us know what they think.

Note they are not open on Mondays so try to plan around that. They also have many vegetarian and vegan options available.

The Old Spaghetti Factory

The other day was my sister Katie's birthday so we went out to celebrate at The Old Spaghetti Factory. Our meals were fine, nothing special and the service was a little slow - although I felt bad because he was trying very hard. All meals come with bread (not gluten-free), soup or salad, a beverage (excluding pop) and ice cream.

When they brought out our meals they told Nate his would be a bit longer because after they made his they realized they made him the regular gluten meal. I was annoyed with this but glad they noticed it and were fixing it. At least he had a salad so he wasn't starving and his meal came out about two minutes later. Their creamy pesto salad dressing is very good and the spumoni was a fun treat.

Pros: gluten-free menu, meal price includes soup or salad, beverage and dessert
Cons: slow service, okay food, they almost forgot to make his gluten-free

Gluten-Free Pizza, Lasagna, Ravioli & Wraps

Nate has a lot in common with his Uncle Dan and Uncle Tim. For example, all three of them are obsessed with Jeeps, boats and gluten-free pizzas. Both Dan and Tim have called Nate in the same night looking for gluten-free pizza in different areas of the Twin Cities. While the first two obsessions tend to be spendy it is the pizza that can be hardest to find. The locations never seem to be in the right place at the right time. We have some good pizza recipes to make at home but it is not the same as going out for pizza or picking one up before a football game.

Donatelli's in White Bear Lake offers gluten-free pizza, lasagna and ravioli. Now this will be a difficult choice since these items are all hard to find gluten-free in a restaurant.

Zebra Pizza in Ramsey now offers gluten-free pizza crust and wraps. They even have a choice between thick crust and thin crust! According to their website the thin crust pizza is corn free.
They do not have dine in but they can make it for you or you can get a "take n bake." Lori's Zebra Pizza also recommends to call ahead at least an hour before you need the pizza. They try to keep things on hand but cannot gurantee they will have everything in stock.

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.