One last gluten free hurrah in Texas!

On Sunday morning we checked out of the Adolphus Hotel and headed to the Kozy Kitchen for breakfast. I’d read about the place on Yelp.com and it was listed as a safe place on the Dallas Celiac support group website. The restaurant was in a tiny strip mall a few miles from downtown Dallas and if you were not looking for it, you'd never find it. We walked in to find a few tables seated and some interesting looking employees. Our server had a Mohawk haircut with an interesting color. He seemed annoyed that I questioned him about the gluten free French toast, as if every restaurant served such a dish. When the toast arrived my husband tasted it and said there was no way it was gluten free but when the table next to us got their’s (they’d also ordered the gluten free version) we knew ours must be safe for me to eat. It was without question the best gluten free French toast I’ve had and the only version I’ve had in a restaurant.

For my main course (yes, I had courses for breakfast) I had breakfast tacos which were made with corn tortillas. All the food we had was outstanding and gluten free. They do serve gluten there so you need to ask questions if you go - there is no gluten free menu but the gluten free items are pretty clearly marked. I have no idea what flours they use in the bread here but it’s a dark grain as the color is almost a chocolate brown. Whatever it was it was some of the best gluten free bread I’ve had. It was light and fluffy….and well, it was unlike most gluten free bread you can buy in the freezer section of the grocery store.


We knew that carrot cake was a signature dessert at the Kozy Kitchen so we got a piece to go. We ate it at the airport before boarding the plane and while it was fine, there was nothing special about it. There was nothing about it either that would indicate it was gluten free. It was just a basic piece of carrot cake which any glutenoid would have been happy to eat.

All in all our vist to the Lone Star state was fun and especially tasty and we’d go back in a heartbeat. Places not to miss if you’re ever there are the Little Aussie Bakery in San Antonio, Laura’s Bistro in Plano and the Kozy Kitchen in Dallas. You know those Texans do things big and they really do gluten free big there. We’re still waiting for a 100% gluten free restaurant in Atlanta and I think we’ll be waiting for a long while.

Another 100% Gluten Free Restaurant in Texas!

UPDATE: 2010 - This restaurant is no longer open.

We headed to Plano for lunch around 10 a.m. on Saturday since we wanted to have an early lunch and then rest a bit before the wedding that night. When we arrived at the shopping center where Laura's Bistro is located, my husband was sure I had wrong directions and we were lost. There was really no activity in the strip mall to speak of but I finally saw the Laura's sign and a sign that says 'open' in the window. We parked and went in just after 11 a.m. Needless to say we were the only ones there except the staff but the Chef wasn't even there yet...he was running late. They actually don't open for lunch until 11:30 but they have a store for shopping for gluten free food. I think my auxiliary pantry has more food than their store shelves did but in any case, we were seated by a cheery server and started reading the extensive menu.

Like the LAB in San Antonio, everything on the menu at Laura's is gluten free. Unlike the LAB, this menu is very extensive and so it's very overwhelming to decide what to order. Should I try the country fried steak with gravy, a pasta dish, catfish, pizza, crab cakes? It was almost too much to think about. Since we could not order for a bit, we started ruling out what we could have at home - crab cakes, pasta, salads, etc. That left pizza, onion rings and fried catfish - or at least those tempted me the most. So for an appetizer we had a pepperoni pizza. It was a personal 8" size so it was just enough to share and it was very good, with a crust that was somewhat similar to a Cheebe but better. Next up came an order of catfish with fries AND a basket of onion rings. The onion rings were really, really bad. When the server noticed we were not eating them she asked why and when we told her she admitted they bought them frozen and didn't make them there with their own batter....that would explain it. We asked her to take them away and she did but never mentioned taking them off the check. We were so happy with the rest of the food we didn't mind paying the $6 for something we found inedible. The catfish was some of the best I'd ever had but without the onion rings, my husband thought we should order something else to eat. So he ordered the crab cakes and we split them too. They were fabulous though I didn't care for the sauce served on the side so the husband got all of that.
When we were sufficiently full from the largest lunch of our lives, it was time for dessert. This place is also a gluten free bakery and they supply cakes to a fancy bakery Dallas for gluten free weddings and special events. They make great cakes but don't pretend to be expert decorators (see photo of cakes above). I knew I had to try their award winning chocolate cake but that would be my dessert for the wedding reception. For that day, we decided on the strawberry cake and since they had chocolate cake doughnuts, my husband had to have one of those as well. The sandwich shown below was not ours, but the people at the next table were nice enough to allow me to take a photo of it. It's a simple BLT with fries but oh how the simplest things can excite our set!

My husband said the doughnut was okay but we agreed piece of strawberry cake we shared was incredible! I don't even like strawberry cake but it was moist with a great flavor and the icing was also exceptional. It's hard to believe but I really didn't feel overly full when we left Laura's but I wasn't hungry again for many, many hours.

For the wedding reception, the staff had been made aware of my dietary needs and indicated to the Bride's Mother that it was not a problem to accommodate me. When everyone else's salads arrived, I was a little surprised to see they brought me a fruit salad instead. There were no croutons on the salad so the only thing I could think of was that the candied nuts in it contained flour. The fruit was fine and it was clearly gluten free so I just ate it and didn't ask about the salad or nuts.

When the dinner plates arrived, everyone at our table was served exactly the same thing. The server insisted my meal and everyone else's was gluten free. Considering the plate has a potato casserole of some kind on it, we were not too sure he was right but at that point I could have eaten the tablecloth since I'd had to skip all the appetizers served before the reception doors were open. So I ate almost every bite on my plate. The steak wasn't quite done enough for me so I ate the outside and gave my husband the middle. The salmon was perfect and both sauces were very good as well. The veggies were tasty and the potato casserole was amazing! It was my favorite part of the meal. My meal was indeed gluten free and delicious!

Obviously neither wedding cake served was gluten free and I was a little surprised that I was not offered anything else for dessert. No worries though - we simply asked for small plates and pulled out our huge piece of chocolate cake from Laura's. I'd put the take out container in a small gift bag and stuck it under the table on arrival. We split the cake and it was absolutely the best gluten free chocolate cake I've had to date. I like my own chocolate icing better but the cake itself was out of this world delicious! No wonder it won a taste test against gluten cakes! Way to go Laura!

So, if you're ever invited to a wedding or event at The Adolphus in Dallas, be assured you can get a great gluten free meal. You just need to request it when you rsvp for the event. The Chef said he'd prepare gluten free Afternoon Tea service with advance notice but we didn't have time for that. If any locals try it, please let me know how it is. And if you're within driving distance of Plano or are ever in Dallas you have GOT to go to Laura's Bistro for a gluten free meal. You will not be sorry you did!

Gluten free in Austin Texas

On Friday morning we sadly had to say goodbye to Anne and Joe at Chicken Paradise and head to Dallas for the wedding - the real reason for this trip. We had to arrive in Dallas in time to press clothes and change for the rehearsal dinner. Of course I had called the restaurant to figure out what I could eat and it turned out I could eat nothing being served on the buffet...such is the life of someone with Celiac. No problem, they were happy to make me some beef soft tacos (fryer issue) rice and beans. All were checked to confirm they were gluten free. My meal ended up being not only gluten free but pretty darn tasty as well!

As it turns out, when you are driving to Dallas from San Antonio, you drive right through Austin. There is a place there called Wildwood Arts Cafe that has a gluten free bakery onsite and they serve many gluten free dishes as well. They serve lunch so of course we had to go - no question. We'd been warned that traffic in Austin is horrid but being from Atlanta we always think people that say that have no idea what real traffic is. Unfortunately for us (and Austinites), the warning about Austin traffic was accurate. It took forever to get to Wildwood even though it was not that far off the interstate. We arrived during the lunch rush and it was crazy busy so I had plenty of time to figure out what to order while waiting in the long line. We snagged a table (they don't have many there) and waited for our meals to arrive. I had pork tamales with rice and beans and my meal was outstanding. My husband ordered some kind of sandwich and said the rice bread it was made from was ok.

When it was time to pick a dessert from the massive gluten free offerings, I started reading ingredients and realized most things there seemed not only to be gluten free but dairy free as well. Some of my favorite treats are made with canola oil and not butter so I was not completely scared away. I chose a cookie to have later (it wasn't good) and my husband chose the brownie, which was made with margarine instead of canola oil. I'm sure at some time I've had a worse tasting brownie but I'm not sure what or when that was. I could not believe my husband ate the whole thing after admitting he didn't like it...but he couldn't bring himself to throw it out.

For the following morning I needed something to eat in the room unheated so I chose a pumpkin muffin. My husband chose a blueberry breakfast bread which was huge. Considering the traffic delays and the quality of the baked goods, I would not bother returning to Wildwood if I was ever in Austin again. There are more places in the area than Wildwood that can provide safe gluten free meals. You'll find them on the Celiac Alamo site.

The pumpkin muffin turned out to be the best thing we bought at Wildwood and I should have gotten a few more. The blueberry breakfast bread was inedible except for the blueberries that my husband literally picked out of it...he had some protien bars to supplement his breakfast as there wasn't time for him to get service in the hotel cafe at this point.

Like another well known 'almost' gluten free bakery in NYC - I don't get what all the fuss is about regarding Wildwood Cafe. I can make better gluten free baked goods at home and I'm no baking expert. I just use the very best mixes on the market and that doesn't take much skill - except to find said mixes. I guess people accept these less than stellar tasting items just because they don't want to make every single cookie or piece of cake at home, and for that I don't blame them. But for me, if something isn't good enough for a discriminating glutenoid to eat, I usually don't like it. Life is too short to eat bad food - gluten free or otherwise.