Citizen Soul = GF Fried Chicken

Citizen Soul in downtown Alpharetta, GA has amazing gluten-free fried chicken.  In fact, most of the menu is naturally gluten-free, or can be prepared as such.  They don't make anything with gluten in the fryer.  This place is the BEST for gf fare of the new eateries downtown. 

They also have many gf desserts, though I'm uber partial to the chocolate cake!  Reservations recommended.  Free parking in the garage near the downtown library. 

Apologies that my photos turned out much too blurry to post.  Maybe it was the amazing cocktail I enjoyed there ;)

Citizen Soul makes the gluten-free grade!

After coming home from France and Spain recently, I sadly settled back into the reality that gluten-free specialty items such as bread, pastries, etc. are all MUCH better in other countries (including Canada!) than here at home.  I'm not sure why that is...but store bought and bakery stuff is just not anywhere near as good here as in several countries we've visited in the 12 years since my celiac dx.

Please don't misunderstand - the new hip eatery in downtown Alpharetta, Citizen Soul, doesn't currently offer gluten-free bread.  But...they offer something even more exciting - gluten-free fried chicken!  It's amazing...flavorful and tender!  The sides with it (currently grits and green beans) are also wonderful!  We shared the stonefruit salad which was so fresh and flavorful we thought we might be back in Barcelona ;)  The chocolate cake is huge and scrumptious...enough for 2 or three to share...for reals...lol! 

Service was lovely and not rushed even though the place is usually packed.  Parking is easy in the close by free parking deck.  Great cocktails as well....Citizen Soul is a wonderful addition to downtown eateries.  In fact, as of now, it's THE best place down there for my money!   

Best gluten-free crepes in Alpharetta

OK - the title of this post might be a bit misleading because I haven't had any gluten-free crepes in Alpharetta or North Fulton County.  There was a place over in Cobb that had the best gluten-free crepes I've had in the area, but it's now closed.

When a friend told me about Au Pan Crepe, and invited me to have lunch there, I was excited.  Since I was headed to FL to visit family, a few days after returning to town, we hit up this cute crepe cafe for a late lunch.  The really cool thing about the place is that ALL the savory crepes are made with a buckwheat flour mixture - and therefore the crepes themselves are gluten-free.  The sweet crepes are made with wheat flour so if you want a sweet treat, you have to order it be made with the gluten-free flour.

The first buckwheat crepes I ever had were a quite tough and the second version was extremely delicious.  I had each of those crepes in Montreal.  Therefore, I realize you can find a tasty crepe made from buckwheat flour and you can find one that reminds you of shoe leather.  Thankfully, the version served at Au Pan Crepe are really good and they reheat really well!  I had a basic ham and cheese crepe and it was served with a salad (or soup which was also gluten-free).  It was so large that I took half of it home to enjoy the following day.

Now that I know the crepes are this place are so good, I will definitely go back to try a sweet version - made with the savory batter, of course.  I think they will also be tasty and I'm looking forward to reporting back on those in the near future!

Bon Appétit!

*Proscutto crepe image courtesy of Au Pan Crepe 

UPDATE:  We tried the sweet crepes which must be ordered gluten-free (otherwise, the are made with wheat flour). The Crepes Suzette with fresh whipped cream was absolutely wonderful!  Will definitely be back for more sweet and savory crepes at this darling place!

Best chicken fingers in the ATL!

We've been going to Bantam + Biddy for several years now.  Mostly we go to the Avalon location,  but when visiting to the HIGH Museum, we like going to the Ansley Mall location for brunch.  The owner, Shaun Doty (who also owns Chick-a-Biddy and YEAH! Burger) has been serving up gluten-free specialty items for many years now - most of which are exceptional. 

Though I'd love to be more adventurous when dining out, I'm more likely to get the same dish at a place once I know I love it, than to risk trying something unknown.  Therefore, I almost always (or at least, 95% of the time) order the fried chicken fingers at Bantam + Biddy.  The dish comes with two gf sides, plus a gf corn muffin - what's not to love?!

To explain how amazing the chicken fingers are, let me share a funny story about a lunch outing with a very good friend of mine, who does not eat gluten-free. I ordered the chicken fingers as usual, and my friend ordered the same thing. She didn't mention she needed them gluten-free - assuming there were two versions of the item.  There are not.  During the course of our meal, my friend commented on how good the chicken fingers were, which made sense to me, since many people think all gf food is either horrible or not so great. As our conversation progressed, it became clear that my friend thought she had ordered "normal" (aka not gf) chicken fingers - different than what I had. It was pretty funny, but also kind of sad, to think that someone could be so surprised that there is such a
thing as delicious gluten-free chicken fingers.

Though I'm a faithful B+B customer, I've always thought it was odd that there wasn't anything gf for dessert. Eventually I think they had macaroons (or something like that), but never anything I was interested in.  That was until my last visit last week.  To my surprise, there were cakes in the front case (Avalon location) marked gluten-free! We were on our way out and our server (who knew three in our party of 6 were gf) didn't offer us dessert. Our friends had already left before we confirmed the cakes were gluten-free so we took a piece of Butter Pecan Cake to go. It was both gluten and dairy free and the frosting was insanely delicious. The cake was fine, but it did seem dairy free - if that makes sense. The frosting didn't seem anything free - I could eat it by the spoonful!  I think the other cake they had that night was German Chocolate so I might try that another time.

Also, during the visit noted above, the chicken fingers and corn muffin were both better than I ever remember them being. My friend agreed that each item was more moist than in the past which made them even more delicious than you'd imagine.  Now the chicken fingers are among the best I've had ever - with or without gluten!

Looking forward to trying The Federal, Doty's latest venture, sometime soon! Now all we need in this area is a YEAH! Burger at the Halcyon complex....think about it, Shaun!

Tin Roof Kitchen closes for good

Those of you that love the food at Tin Roof Kitchen have probably been waiting impatiently for the restaurant to reopen after their "non-working hood incident".  Sadly, they are not ever opening back up.  After a friend asked if they'd reopened yet, I went on the TRK website and then linked to their FB page.  Below is the last note posted by the owner, Robyn.

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I know you all have been anxiously awaiting our re-opening date, however, at this point I have decided to close Tin Roof and offer it's assets for sale. This decision comes from my desire to spend more time with my family and to pursue other business opportunities. Thank you for a wonderful run and all of your support! If you are interested in purchasing the restaurant and obtaining the lease on the building, please send a message through the page here on FB. Thanks again!!!
---

Unfortunately, TRK never quite got their act together on the service side.  But this is an issue at many places in Alpharetta where the kids usually don't need (or choose) to work.  Anyway, I'm sad to see it go.  And I'm really glad my favorite pancakes are those found at Another Broken Egg Cafe which is not only open in Johns Creek, it's insanely busy and the service is fast and friendly ;)

Happy weekend to all!  

Spice Market Kitchen - gluten-free review

For over a year I've been planning to check out Spice Brick Oven Kitchen and recently I finally made it there.  It was one the way home so we pulled in to check on gluten-free options.  The dinner crowd had not arrived yet so there were only a few tables in the place and they had a printed gluten-free menu at the hostess desk.  We decided to give it a try since they weren't busy and we were very hungry.

In studying the limited gluten-free menu, I was little taken aback.  This restaurant is a tapas place (of sorts) and I've always found more options at tapas places than I could possibly order during one meal.  That was not the case at Spice Brick Oven Kitchen...in fact, we would have left and gone elsewhere had we not been SO hungry.

To start, we shared the hummus served with veggies (as the gluten-free option) and I ordered grilled scallops assuming that dish, listed for $11.50, would be plenty of food for my meal.  It wasn't.  The scallops were delicious and perfectly prepared.  They were fairly small and the amount of food on the plate was small - even for a tapas place.

My husband enjoyed his shockingly large individual gluten pizza and even took some of it home!  When the bill arrived, we found out it was 1/2 price pizza night so the pizza was only $7!  If you can eat regular pizza, it's definitely worth checking out.  If you can't, you might want to consider going elsewhere for diner.
      

Allergen free bakery in Alpharetta

Another find on FindMeGlutenFree.com is Mama Bakes Safes Cakes in Alpharetta, GA.  Honestly, there are very few gluten-free, vegan cupcakes I've found worth eating so when I tried the goodies from this bakery, I tried to keep an open mind.  Understand that I've had delicious vegan cupcakes before - just not that many of them.  Even though I'd still choose a cupcake made with butter and eggs over any other version, the cupcakes and frosting from Mama Bakes Safe Cakes were surprisingly good!  Like 'I can't believe the're gluten-free and vegan' good!  My husband won't usually even taste any vegan baked goods, but I convinced him to try a cupcake and even he was impressed.  HE asked me at least twice if I was sure there were no eggs in the cake or butter in the frosting.

The staff at the bakery takes great care to explain which allergens their various goodies are free of (gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, etc.).  There are many things available to order to even pick up from the freezer out front at the bakery.  One such item that got my attention was lemon cookies coated in powdered sugar.  I don't recall the name of them, but they were by far the favorite thing we tried and I will be going back just for those incredible cookies!

If you're in need of gluten-, egg-, dairy- and even soy-free fresh baked goodies in the ATL, you might want to check out the wares from Mama Bakes Safe Cakes.  They accept walk in sales, but if you want to check out the cupcake flavors of the day, you can find them on the company's FB page.   

Cinnamon buns at Sally's Gluten Free Bakery!

Some of the best gluten-free cinnamon buns I've had in the past are not available in Atlanta and they can't be shipped here either.  So it was uber exciting when I walked into the Alpharetta location of Sally's Gluten Free Bakery and saw a sign stating they had FRESH cinnamon buns available on Saturdays for a limited time!  Even though I've had many, many gluten-free cinnamon buns that were not worth trying twice (some were not edible at all), I know that anything at Sally's is a good bet.  I bought one of the nice sized individually packaged rolls and added it to my order of their delicious pound cake.  As it turned out, I was going to a brunch in Greenville, SC the next day (Father's Day) and knew there wasn't any type of bread item I could have where we were going.

When going somewhere nice like a wedding or country club, I like to put whatever food I'm taking into a small gift bag.  No one knows you've brought food in until you pop it out and place whatever it is onto a plate.  You don't go without dessert this way, and you also have a tasty treat in case there is a gluten-free dessert that you don't care to have (like ice cream, creme brulee or just fruit).

Because it was Father's Day, the brunch fare was stepped up and included many more gluten-free dishes than the typical brunch there does.  What a nice surprise!  Even though I was quite full when everyone else went to pick out their desserts, I couldn't resist trying my special cinnamon bun from Sally's.  Just the smell alone would drive any cinnamon lover wild, but the taste and texture of the bun was so amazing it was hard to take in.  I shared the slightest little bit (only the outside part) with my husband and kept the ooey gooey part that was insanely delicious all to myself.  So it was somewhat surprising when my husband commented that the cinnamon bun was the closest thing to his Mother's (gluten) version than he'd had in a long time.  Actually, I could have cried at that moment as she is no longer with us.

It's weird how food can affect some of us emotionally.  I never thought I had an emotional connection to food.....then I was told I could never eat gluten again and found out I'd been wrong about that.  It's extra special when you find something that's gluten-free that tastes as good as (or better) than the gluten version you remember from childhood or your wedding or whatever.  Sally's cinnamon buns are definitely special, but they're not available all the time.  Be sure and check out his wonderful treat if you're living in the ATL while you can!

Food Truck Alley in Alpharetta

Berry cobbler at Tin Roof Kitchen

Food trucks have been popular for a while now, but honestly, I live in the burbs and rarely had a chance to check out the gluten-free options at the moving feast roaming the streets of Atlanta.  So I was super excited to find out that my new neighborhood has a food truck alley on Thursday nights!

At the event we attended, there were three food trucks that had various gluten-free options and a BBQ restaurant tent with many meat options as well.  Below are some gf friendly trucks (far from a comprehensive list) in the ATL.

WOW! (most arepas are gf)
Tex's Tacos (ask for corn tortillas, no gf quesadillas)
The Fry Guy (fab fries, avoid malt vinegar sauce)
King of Pops (bike cart - a few flavors contain gluten)
Happy Belly Curbside Kitchen (killer kale salad!)  
To learn more about Alpharetta's Food Truck Alley nights, please check out this website.  The trucks for each week are listed on Monday or Tuesday for that week's event on their FB page.

It was pleasantly cool during our visit to this fun event (due to a rainstorm earlier that evening) so none of us were jazzed about having a frozen pop from the King of Pops. (Plus, we can get their fabulous treats at Whole Foods).  Therefore, we walked a block over to Tin Roof Kitchen and shared desserts including chocolate cake, caramel sea salt panna cotta, apricot pound cake and berry cobbler. I can't think of a more perfect way to end our night at the Food Truck Alley event in Alpharetta!
     

Natural Foods Warehouse opens third location!

Natural Foods Warehouse is my favorite place to buy gluten-free foods like Udi's items, Kettle Cuisine soups, snacks and a ton of other fabulous things! Their prices are great and the people who work there are too. We shop at the Duluth store but there is another one in Alpharetta. Actually, as of next Monday,  there will be TWO locations in Alpharetta. The Duluth store is still the closest one to us, but this is great news for the gluten-free set that live up near the Silos at Crabapple!

The newest location of Natural Foods Warehouse is set to open at 10 AM on Monday, the 29th of November. However, you might want to call the store to make sure they are open before heading over.

Natural Foods Warehouse
12315 Crabapple Road
Alpharetta, GA 30004
Phone: 770-772-0113