Best Gluten-free Burger in Atlanta

If you live in Atlanta and follow the gluten-free diet, you are likely aware that Shaun’s Restaurant in Inman Park has “Celiac Dinners” one weekend each month. The next one (on June 27^th) looks really fabulous and if we were not already booked that weekend, we might head into town to enjoy it. Gluten-free diners can always order gluten-free options at Shaun's, but the Celiac menu is a special treat!  

Almost a year ago, Chef Shaun told me he was working on a new concept restaurant that would be very gluten-free friendly. Later on I learned it would be a burger joint. I assumed a gluten-free friendly burger joint would have to offer a gluten-free bun and obviously, it would be nice if the fries were gluten-free as well. Last week, Shaun’s new place opened in the Westside Provision district on Howell Mill Rd. and the menu indeed offers both gluten-free buns and French fries.

We headed down to YEAH! BURGER for a bite on Sunday afternoon and it was well worth the trip. It's a very hip space with tall ceilings and environmentally friendly design touches. The menus are printed on recycled paper, much of the food is organic and the beef is grass fed beef from Oak Pastures in Georgia.

Since we arrived at 2:30 in the afternoon, we thought we’d find a fairly empty restaurant but that was far from the case. The place was jam packed and it was quite loud inside. There is a large patio that offers a more peaceful dining experience. 

We ordered two burgers (one with cheese), two gluten-free buns ($1.25 upcharge), one side of fries, one Coke and a milkshake. Our bill came to just over $26 with tax. You order and pay at the counter, where a large tip box is prominently placed. So, after spending almost $30, we found a seat and waited for our meal. The regular sodas are self serve, but Boylans all natural sodas are sold by the bottle for only $2. Bard’s gluten-free beer runs $5, which is $1 less than most places here sell it for. The bar area overlooks the open kitchen and was almost full of patrons just like the dining room was when we arrived. Our order came out surprisingly fast, considering the place had only been open for four days. The concept is good quality fast food, but not all places that make that claim live up to it, especially in the first week of business. 

The place was so busy that I wanted to look around at other buns to see what they looked like before I dove into mine. Sure enough, the other buns on various tables didn’t look anything like ours and the server that delivered them stated they were gluten-free before I could ask her about them. Good enough. The burger, bun and fries were all exceptional. The burger really tasted a lot like the burgers at Five Guys to both of us and so did the fries. But Five Guys doesn’t serve gluten-free buns (that I know of) and that fact makes YEAH! BURGER the place to go for gluten-free burgers and fries in Metro Atlanta.

The GIG approved gluten-free buns held together to the last bite and had no funny taste or texture. The buns go from freezer to oven in a closed container and are toasted in a dedicated toaster oven. It was a little more toasted on top than I prefer, but being able to have a gluten-free bun that actually tastes good at a restaurant outweighs that minor issue. It tastes like a “real” bun if you will, and no other bun I’ve had when dining in Atlanta fit that bill for me. The company that makes the hamburger buns is based in Atlanta and is currently offering her unique product only to restaurants.

The fries come with one sauce, but we didn’t order one. By the time we saw them on the menu, we'd already ordered. It is not noted on the menu they gave me to take home which sauces are gluten-free, so gluten-free guests should ask before assuming anything not noted as gluten-free actually is. YEAH! BURGER also serves grass fed beef hot dogs, but presently there is no gluten-free hot dog bun available. Like the staff at Shaun’s, the Yeah! Burger team is very concerned that their gluten-free offerings make it to the table gluten-free. There is a disclaimer at the bottom of the menu about the dedicated fryer being next to regular fryers and suggests that people with severe reactions to gluten might want to skip the fries. The fries I had were both delicious and gluten-free and I would gladly order them again.

Five Guys will continue to be our “go to” burger place because it’s four miles from our home. When we’re in the proximity of YEAH! BURGER and need a quick bite, we’ll definitely pop in for a quick and delicious meal! Hopefully, the gluten-free set in town, and those visiting the area (including those from the burbs) will take advantage of this new gluten-free dining experience offered by YEAH! BURGER.

Support the Braves & the Gluten-free Food Cart!

That's right! There is a gluten-free food cart at Turner Field in Atlanta. Now you can support the Bravos and enjoy a gluten-free beer and hot dog again! Also, there are gluten-free hot dogs at the Gwinnett Braves stadium as well. People continue to report that they can't find the gluten-free beer at the park. It's there - you just have to know where to look. You might even want to choose your seats based on the location of the food cart. You can read the details here.

Gluten-free Food Shopping in Atlanta

There are many health food stores in the Atlanta area that stock gluten-free products. However, there are two that really stand out from all the others - Natural Foods Warehouse (in Duluth and Alpharetta) and Return to Eden in town. Both of those stores stock a tremendous amount of gluten-free products. In fact, non gluten-free shoppers might be a bit put off by all the gluten-free tags that line the shelves there. If you like to buy items by the case, you can get a discount by ordering from Return to Eden. We shop mostly at Natural Foods Warehouse for gluten-free items, even though it's over 12 miles from our house. Both Trader Joe's and Whole Foods have decent gluten-free product selections, though Whole Foods prices are on the high side. Publix and Kroger have some gluten-free products, including the gluten-free bread being test marketed by Nature's Own! If you haven't yet picked these great breads yet - you might want to give them a try.

Here is my thorough review of the shelf stable (that's right - not frozen!) gluten-free breads that are currently being test marketed in the Atlanta area. Ingles is really stepping up their gluten-free game as well. In fact, their buyers are outdoing their competitors (Publix and Kroger) in terms of the quality of gluten-free products they are bringing in. All and all, the gluten-free set in Atlanta is really quite fortunate to have so many options for great food these days!

Finding Gluten-free Joy

Today, my doorbell never seemed to stop ringing. Danna Korn's new book "Living Gluten-Free For Dummies 2" arrived. I'll be reviewing and giving away a copy after I've had time to read it. Then came the cereal and fab tote bags from Nature's Path for my event in Chattanooga this weekend. Finally, my order arrived from Katz Gluten Free. I like fluffy hamburger buns with sesame seeds and their Challah rolls do the trick perfectly! The owners of Katz Gluten Free are some of the nicest people I've met since I started getting contacted weekly about reviewing gluten-free items.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by all the PR firms and companies contacting me to promote their wares. When I say I need an assistant just to manage my e-mail, I'm being dead serious. However, presently that is not an option. So I go about getting back to everyone as timely as humanly possible for me, right now. There are limits to how many gluten-free items I can taste in a week people...lol! And my low carb diet isn't going so well, with so many fab new items coming out like King Arthur Flour mixes and Udi's bagels.

In the end, I have to stop and remind myself that it's a good thing - no, make that a great thing - that there is so much gluten-free goodness available these days! It was not like this ten years ago (from what I've heard) or even four years ago when I was diagnosed with celiac. What did people do 20 years ago without the internet? We are incredibly fortunate that things are so great for so many of us these days. There are many reasons to be joyous about gluten-free living. All and all, things could be much more stressful. People could be asking me to review a bunch of food that tastes like cardboard. It seems like forever since I've had a bad experience with a nasty tasting food. Yes, remembering dirt like cookies makes me glad for Gltuenfreeda cookies. More gluten-free joy....keep it coming!

Save the Date - AMC Gluten Free Vendor Fair

So many people have asked me when the next Atlanta gluten-free vendor fair is that I can't wait for the press release from the group to post about it. It's on September 25th, 2010. Visit the Atlanta Metro Celiac website for details. Thanks!

Give-away: Seventh Generation Cleaning Kit

You might think the above title is a strange one to see on a gluten-free website. Earth Day is this Thursday, but you can be "green" all year long by using non toxic cleaners in your home. Since I can't use most mainstream cleaning products, I was thrilled to find out about the non toxic Seventh Generation product line about three years ago. Most people are not eating their cleaning products, but some do avoid those with gluten in them. None of the Seventh Generation products are confirmed to be gluten-free, so people who avoid gluten in their cleaning products might not want to use the product line. Here is the statement about gluten on the company's website.

For most of my life, I've been allergic to many perfumes, dyes and of course toxins, which are still found in many of the most popular brands of cleaning products on the market today. Many years ago, the only laundry detergent we could use was Tide Free. In January 2006 I went on the gluten-free diet and after two weeks, I started reacting to Tide Free as well. Was it gluten that was making me sick? I didn't think so then and still don't. The reaction was due the smell and I did not get a rash or other things some people with DH get. However, at that time I was eating nothing but whole foods - nothing processed. I didn't know what was safe to eat so I stuck to fresh foods only. My system was so clean that something in Tide Free that had not bothered me before started bothering me badly. The ingredients had not changed in any way. Frantically, I searched online for something more natural to wash our clothes in and the Seventh Generation website popped up. Since that day, we have been using their Free & Clear laundry detergent. Later on we found the dryer sheets, the Free & Clear dish washing and dishwasher detergents for the kitchen.

When Publix brought the much of the Seventh Generation line in I was over the moon. Finally, if we ran out of laundry detergent we didn't have to run over to the health food store to buy more. In the beginning, the Seventh Generation items were in the Greenwise section (health food section at Publix) and I loved that. No need to walk down the "normal" detergent aisle that would inevitably make my eyes water and start to swell. Then one day the Seventh Generation products were not in the Greenwise section. My first thought was that they'd not sold well enough at the store so they were dropped. The manager proudly marched me to the "normal" detergent aisle to show me where they were stocked. Since my husband does most of the shopping at Publix, he gets the detergent so I can still avoid the "smelly" aisle, as I refer to it.

When the My Blog Spark program offered a spark for the Seventh Generation cleaning kit, I jumped at the chance to get some new products we'd not tried before. Additionally, we scored a fabulous book called "The Conscious Kitchen" which is part of the spark. I've got to admit that I'm not crazy about brown paper towels. I switched to unbleached coffee filters and that was hard enough to get used to. However, the Seventh Generation paper towels do work quite well. They just don't look that great on my paper towel stand. The "disinfecting cleaning kit" offers two spray cleaners (Multi-Surface and Bathroom), two rolls of paper towels, wet wipes and the book mentioned above. All are neatly packed into a cleaning caddy. Not surprisingly, I love all the cleaning products - especially the wet wipes, which have no scent! The book is quite eye opening and anyone who cares about the environment, safe food production and keeping toxins out of their home would enjoy it.

Now for the fun part! One lucky reader is going to get their own Seventh Generation kit! Leave a comment for a chance to win and see what using non toxic chemicals can do for your home. Deadline for comments is April 26th. *Shipping address must be in one of the 48 contiguous U.S. states.

UPDATE: Ginger is the lucky winner of this great cleaning kit and book!

*Special thanks to Seventh Generation for my great kit and enlightening book! Also, thanks for sponsoring this give-away through the My Blog Spark program!

Gluten-free Overload

It seems like every day something exciting, annoying or even upsetting affects people living gluten-free in this country. Food companies or restaurants tout gluten-free products and menu options that may or may not be gluten-free. It's up to the gluten-free consumer to figure out who to believe and who to question. One one hand, it's great that we are all of a sudden the target market to get as many products out to as possible. On the other, it's aggravating that many people and even blue chip food companies think the gluten-free diet is a fad that is on the way out.

I'd love every chef and food company to take a moment and carefully consider if they really want to get into the gluten-free game to feed people who can't eat gluten - or if your goal is to get trendy gf-ers (those are people who won't know if you serve them gluten) to buy your stuff or eat at your restaurants. If you fall into the latter category, please leave those of us who can't eat gluten and are not being trendy alone! If one more owner of a pizza place calls me to come try their gluten-free pizza - that doesn't know gluten can be in anything except the crust - I'm absolutely going to scream!

For those of you who really want to get gluten-free service right, consider getting a copy of Shelley Case's book. Then maybe we'll trust you know what you're doing when ask us to head over to try your new gluten-free dessert. Thanks!

Giving Thanks

Recently on the Triumph Dining blog, I listed the Top 10 gluten-free things I'm most thankful for this year. Some things of a more personal nature that I'm extremely grateful for are better suited to a post here.

I'm so very thankful to my readers on the sites I now write for becuase without them, I could not have quit my day job earlier this year. Special thanks go to Ross Cohen of Triumph Dining. Ever since I bought my first Restaurant Guide from his website, I've admired what he and the team at Triumph Dining are trying to do for the gluten-free community. Now to be able to be part of the team is an honor I appreciate so very much!


Additionally, I'm so very thankful for the opportunity to write for Kyle Eslick of www.Celiac-Disease.com. What I particularly respect about Kyle is the fact that he knows how the intracacies of online writing work and therefore he chooses to have people in different areas write for his site. He's not interested in hiring five people from one area to write about the same topic. That's not to say that if I move to Denver (I wish!) he'd give me the boot. If someone moves to Atlanta that is already on his site, for instance, he's not going to get rid of them either. It's just that Kyle is not interested in hiring two people from the same area going into the situation because he knows that is not the best decision for anyone - him or the writers.

This season I'm thankful to have been able help others learn that you can live life deliciously gluten-free and have a ton of fun in the process! Happy Holidays to all my readers and favorite vendors who read my work - see you in 2010!

Follow my online work

Some of my readers have asked why I don't post on this site very much anymore. I assumed that the 'Follow My Work' links on the left side of my blog page - and a post about where I'm writing these days - would help people find me. But this was not the case for several of you. So, please accept my apologies for assuming anything - it's never a good idea no matter what the situation.

Here is where you can find my articles these days -

Celiac-Disease.com
Triumph Dining

To those of you who asked if I'm writing at Examiner.com anymore, the answer is no. My husband gave me a directive to make some money at my hobby of helping the gluten-free set or get a new job. Ever since I started my gluten-free life, I enjoyed helping others learn how to enjoy it as much as I did. Unfortunately, my volunteer work didn't pay any bills. My old career held no interest for me anymore so I finally gave it up to pursue work in the gluten-free community. This requires me piece mealing an income together from various opportunities, but since what I do now does not feel like work in any way, I really can't complain. I'm happy to make the trade offs needed, in order to do something so rewarding. Thanks for being a part of my new journey - without my followers none of this would be possible!

Gluten-free Week in Atlanta!

The creator of some pretty good gluten-free baked goods and some incredible gluten-free mixes, Lee Tobin of Whole Foods, is teaching a gluten-free cooking class this Friday in Atlanta. There are still some spots left, so please sign up soon if you're interested in attending.

Here are the details from the website-

October 16th / 6:30 - 8:30pm / Whole Foods Alpharetta / $35

After years of perfecting gluten-free recipes, Lee Tobin developed the idea
for Whole Foods Market Gluten-Free Bake House, producing delicious gluten-free
products including breads, cookies, scones, biscuits, pizza crusts, pies and
brownies. Join Lee for an entertaining and informative look at the gluten-free
diet and learn some delicious recipes to savor at home this holiday
season.

Menu: Turkey Pot Pie; Roasted Squash Stuffed with Quinoa; Mini Yucca
Cakes; Caesar Salad with Croutons; and Sweet Potato Pie

Instructor: Lee Tobin of Whole Foods Market


This class is a pre-paid event. Please sign up here to attend -www.wholefoodsmarket.com/saludalpharetta

Don't forget this Saturday is the gluten-free event of the year in the Southeast. Here are just a few of the great vendors that will be exhibiting at the AMC Gluten-Free Vendor Fair:

Food:
Namaste / Kettle Cuisine / Domata Living Flour / Kitchen Table Bakers / Caesar's Pasta Products / Gluten-Free Naturals / Gluten-Free Bakehouse / The Free Cookie / Sweet Oven and Company / Pamela's Products

Books:

Gluten-Free Passport / Triumph Dining (yours truly at this table)

Where am I these days?

Some of you are aware of my work on the website Examiner.com. That site offered me a great platform to enter the world of internet writing. If you pay attention to detail you probably know that I am not a trained writer by any stretch of the imagination.



I started this blog in 2007 when I could not find one that helped people learn how to eat out and travel and live "normal" lives gluten-free style. Today there are a zillion such blogs and I'm thrilled to be a part of the group that knows how to live full and tasty gluten-free lives. I love spreading helpful info news to the masses - or the gluten-free masses anyway...lol!



Because of my readers on Examiner.com, I was able to transform my hobby and love of helping others live delicious gluten-free lives into a new career. So, if you followed me there I owe you a huge THANK YOU!



If you want to follow my work these days you can find my author page on Celiac-Disease.com here. Or you can follow The Essential Gluten-Free Blog on the Triumph Dining website here. You can also subscribe to feeds on the sites listed above. In print you can find me in the current issue of Delight GF magazine.



If you have news you think my readers can use please e-mail me at makemineglutenfree @ yahoo (dot) com. I apologize that I can not reply to every note personally these days but I do read them all.



Thanks for being a part of this interesting gluten-free journey with me. It means more than I can put into words...remember I'm not a writer by trade - just a gluten-free advocate who thinks that together we can really make a difference in this gluten filled world of ours!