Out with the old - in with the new

Belated Happy New Year Everyone! We took a much needed break during Christmas, including a break from being connected. First, we went to FL where we found a pizza place that sells a bucket of five Bard's Tale beers for only $8! Seriously - how is this possible? Next up was a visit to Savannah for some r&r and fabulous gluten-free meals. I was doing a travel feature for Delight gluten-free Magazine and even though we skipped The Lady & Sons (which we did gluten style before Paula Deen was famous outside Savannah), there were more places to eat down there than we could fit in.

If you're wondering what I'm referring to with the title of this post, I'm speaking of gluten-free friendly places that went out of business in Atlanta in 2010 and what's on the horizon here in 2011. Roy's Restaurant closed it's doors in Buckhead, but there are several other locations outside GA. Roy's now offers a seasonal gourmet gluten-free menu highlighting Hawaiian Asian fusion fare. Their chocolate souffle is gluten-free and one of the best desserts I've ever had. Thankfully, you can find the recipe for it on Roy's website.

Another gluten-free casualty in 2010 is Shaun's Restaurant which was located in the Inman Park area. The food was fabulous and Shaun hosted celiac dinners one weekend a month and always accommodated gluten-free diners. The upside is that Shaun opened two locations of Yeah! Burger where you can have a fabulous gluten-free bun, French fries and onion rings. The burger meat is grass-fed and fabulous. You can even get a hot dog with a gluten-free bun there and Bard's Tale beer. Pure Knead's fabulous buns are featured at YB and according to the press release the company recently sent out, the hamburger buns are now available at Return to Eden.

The closing that affects me most personally is Bugaboo Creek in Duluth. It was oddly the only place I liked to go for steak. Since I don't eat a lot of steak, I didn't patronize this place much and I guess others didn't either.

As far as what's new for 2011 (or at least a little bit of it) -

• Pure Knead will soon open a retail space in Decatur where you can pick up orders a couple of days a week. They will have gluten-free cupcakes and other things available to purchase without pre-ordering. 

• Fresh 2 Order promises they are working on adding gluten-free soups to their gluten-free menu. I just hope they're available before the warm weather arrives.    

• Weight Watchers seems to know what gluten-free means now which is better than most of their competitors can say. Read about that next week on Celiac-Disease.com. 

Last but far from least, the best news of all for me is that I'm now an Advertising Associate for Delight gluten-free magazine. I'm going to do my best to keep up this blog going (and improve it in 2011) even though I now have a VERY full work plate. Finally! 2011 is already looking like a wonderful year for this gluten-free gal and again, I'd like to thank my readers and Twitter followers for all your support over the last year. While you're not likely to find me tweeting much going forward (due to newly revamped priorities), I appreciate my followers there nonetheless!