DiningGF

Welcome to our "Phoenix Area Info" section! Whether you are living the gluten free lifestyle in the greater Phoenix area or are visiting, this section will help you find what you're looking for. GF friendly restaurants, places to shop, and GF aware medical professionals are some of the information you'll find with a simple click. Let's start out with a topic we're all interested in - Eating Out!

Eating Out Should Be Easy & Fun!

Dining out in The Valley of the Sun should be a pleasure for everyone including Celiac adults, Celiac children, and those who are wheat-intolerant. We are fortunate that there are a number of "gf friendly" restaurants in the Phoenix area. Some of these restaurants may even supply gluten free versions of their menus, upon request. These restaurants ordinarily have a copy of their gf menu available at their front desk. Sometimes, however, a new server may not be aware of this. A quick question about it to the manager should clear up the confusion.

You may want to call the restaurant to make certain that the gf menu is still available. If it's your first time to the restaurant, you may want to consider visiting earlier in the evening so as to be able to ask your questions in a less rushed atmosphere.

As you know, our Valley of the Sun offers many choices for Mexican restaurants. Gf diners, however, sometimes make the mistake of assuming that items using corn chips of crisp corn tortillas are gf because they are made with corn. Be sure to inquire abut whether the corn chips are fried in a dedicated fryer so as to avoid the possibility of contamination from wheat if other items are fried in the same oil.

As a disclaimer we must remind that every time you eat out, you run the risk of cross-contamination from the grill, airborne particles, utensils, and more. Menus, ingredients, and cooks do change, and contamination is always an issue of concern. In addition, there is no guarantee restaurants will make the same item the same way each time, so you must verify the items with your server. And remember, the product manufacturers sometimes change their ingredients without advising the public. So, be sure to always ask all of the pertinent questions to ascertain the meal you will be eating will be safe for you.

You can use our restaurant lists as a starting point. There are, however, many wonderful restaurants in The Valley of the Sun, so do keep your options open for other restaurants that do not appear on our lists. Going at an early hour and asking the right questions may reveal exciting options you hadn't before considered. Whether using a gluten free menu or the regular menu, be sure to follow these helpful steps:

1. Review the (gluten-free) menu.

2. Decide on one or two items you would like to eat that appear to be gf or easily altered.

3. Verify their contents with the server, chef or manager.

The Westchester Celiac Sprue Support Group has also designed a program to help make dining out gluten free easy. The site includes many helpful hints as well as a listing of restaurants that are gf-friendly. You will surely enjoy checking out their Gluten-Free Restaurant Awareness Program <www.glutenfreerestaurants.org> .

Do take a moment, if you can, to thank the restaurant for any additional services they may have provided to help make your gluten-free meal more enjoyable. They will surely appreciate the acknowledgment and remember the importance of our gluten-free needs for next time.

Also, if you check a restaurant's website and there is no gluten-free menu, do use their "Contact" e-mail to write them and suggest that a gluten-free menu be added to their site. If enough of us do this, they will!