I recently traveled to Texas with my husband. We spent one night in Dallas and got to eat there that night and for lunch before our return. Then we went to east Texas to visit his family. I haven’t had the opportunity to explore Dallas much because we visit with his family when we are in Texas, I hope to return one day to explore more. It was also really nice to see more of the country and how beautiful and green it is!
The hotel we stayed in for our night in Dallas was called Canvas Hotel. It came up when I searched “uptown hotels” but I’m told we were really down town, or just outside the excitement of down town. The hotel is an old industrial building, they used to make caskets in the 90’s. The building and décor has a hip yet industrial feel to it. There is an amazing rooftop pool and bar that overlooks Dallas. We spent a few hours during the day there. Don’t forget your sunscreen, folks! The hotel does serve food, I don’t recommend eating there if you are celiac. Their selection is limited, they don’t have a dedicated fryer or gluten free bread and the server wasn’t sure what I could eat or not eat. What he suggested I asked follow up questions only to learn that it was not celiac safe. There wasn’t anything walking distance that we could find at a quick glance, however you could take a short Lyft drive to some places downtown or in surrounding areas, 10-15 minutes on average.
For a late lunch I googled “gluten free Dallas” and up came On Rotation Brewery, a newer brewery and restaurant with gluten free fried chicken and dedicated fryers. Actually, not only were there dedicated fryers, but all fried food was gluten free! According to our server they use potato flour. I got the fried chicken and fried okra. It was absolutely amazing! It had been 12+ years since I had fried chicken. I asked the server why they decided to go gluten free on the menu. He told me that some family members of the owners are gluten free and they wanted to have options. When traveling they ate somewhere that used potato flour and thought “this is just as good” and decided to take that on in their own restaurant. To drink I had a Bishop cider peach tea, which was made locally. Our server said On Rotation wanted to brew their own cider but it required a separate license than the one used for beer. This may explain by it’s rare to find ciders in breweries, though I’m noticing that these days they carry at least one. They also had some seltzer mixed drinks to choose from. On Rotation is located right near the Dallas Love field Airport. After posting on my Instagram story, one of you that lives in Dallas went that week and sent me a message in thanks. It makes me so happy to get messages like this! It means SOMEONE is listening. 🙂
They call their kitchen “gluten friendly”. I see this a lot now and I know some of you are very skeptical about this, rightly so! I feel that restaurants often do this as a precaution and to avoid liability of risk since the kitchen is not a dedicated gluten free kitchen. Others just truly aren’t safe so it’s important to ask your questions. The fact that this restaurant had a dedicated fryer and that I’m able to tell them I am celiac and hear that they will note that during preparation makes me feel safe. Also, they had very little gluten in their kitchen that I could see. This is absolutely a personal choice that everyone must make for themselves. The first 5+ years of my celiac journey I was very strict, and I was honestly more stressed out during that time in my life. As time went on I changes. I take the necessary precautions, ask the right questions but accepted the “risk” when eating out, understanding that it’s not my kitchen so eating out anywhere is a risk. I’m in good health so it seems to be working for me. Are there accidents and mistakes? Absolutely. And in my opinion, that is life. I live and learn from them. But ultimately I’m happier and healthier in my mental health by being more flexible and open. This includes learning to not allow an “accident” to ruin my mood or my day.But that is me. We each must take this journey on our own, with support, love and understanding from our fellow community members. You will read further down about another experience of mine in Texas.
We ate in Dallas before our flight back to Los Angeles as well. We stopped at The Company Café and Bar. The street it was on was filled with other bars and restaurants and looking like it would be a blast at night. There was also a Trader Joe’s right across the street. I tried to talk my in-laws into going in to Trader Joe’s because they don’t have that in east Texas but we had to get moving to catch our flight. Anyway, back to The Company Café. This place is excellent for gluten free and celiac folks. Their fried food is all gluten free, so dedicated fryers. Our server said the only gluten was bread options, tortillas and buns for the non gluten free folks. This brunch spot even had gluten free biscuits, French toast, sour cream coffee cake, house made gluten free bread and chicken fried steak! You can see in the picture below 3 of our meals: the gluten free chicken strips with fries, gluten free biscuits and gravy and the gluten free chicken fried steak! Everyone was happy. I will admit, my husband who had the biscuits and gravy did say that he could tell it was a gluten free biscuit because it was dense. However, his father had the chicken fried steak and said it was delicious. See guys, gluten free IS good!
The rest of our trip was spent in deep east Texas, about 2 hours away from Dallas. I was surprised to find some gluten free options in their grocery store, like gluten free pasta. My in laws said they looked for gluten free hamburger buns for me for the BBQ but could only find gluten free bread. I think that is impressive for a town of 3,000! I just wasn’t sure what to expect so I traveled with gluten free bread and bagels. Well actually, my friend in Dallas bought them for me. For those that live in a small town like this, what are some challenges you face?
We found on google one place that reported being celiac friendly. It seemed to be fairly new. Their menu had many gluten free options. I learned that the chef is the owner and celiac! I was less excited to hear that they did not have a dedicated fryer. When I asked about the fryer, I was told by the server that the owner eats the food from the fryer and when a celiac comes in, makes an effort to “scrape out” the gluten bits. This aggravated me a bit. She came out to speak with us and was very nice. She explained that she doesn’t get sick from cross contamination. While that is a personal choice, I cannot in good faith encourage any celiac to eat food through cross contamination because what you may not feel, your body may silently suffer. I chose to not eat the fried food. I ordered shrimp scampi and creamed spinach with a side of baked potato. It was very tasty but I did feel sick shortly after and that evening. I’m not sure that it was a celiac stomach sickness, It may have been from the southern richness of the meal including what looked like a stick of butter and a ton of bacon on the potato and the scampi. See for yourself in the picture below. Granted, after addressing the fryer I didn’t ask any more questions about the menu items. I figured that me saying I didn’t mess with cross contamination was enough. I say this not to caution anyway from eating there, but in an effort to be fully transparent. I felt fine the next day but it definitely scared me away from many risks when eating out in East Texas after that. There is nothing worse than getting sick while traveling. I made a lot of sandwiches at home after that. We did eat one night at Chili’s which is one of the bigger chains they had in Mount Pleasant. I would not normally eat at Chili’s but we were pretty limited in options. They have a gluten free menu with notes on what has shared fryers and shared cooking surfaces, that was comforting! I has the ribs with steamed broccoli. No issues, thank god!
The rest of my travel in east Texas was enjoyable. We spent some time at Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards in Pittsburg. We did not eat here but they did have some gluten free options on their menu including a flourless gluten free dessert option. It was a very cute Vineyard and it looked like they had some bread and breakfast housing options that looked like mini houses. We also got a swamp tour at Cado Lake which was beautiful and so different from anything I’ve seen in California or New Mexico, where I’m from. Apparently my husband’s family did their last family reunion there. We got to walk around the lodging and I took the picture below for the view. The lake connects all the way to New Orleans. We also walked around Jefferson, which is the town nearest the lake. Apparently they have a haunted hotel! I did not eat in Jefferson, this was after I got sick eating out so I ate a sandwich before we left. I did a quick google search and there was 1 BBQ place that popped up on Find Me Gluten Free.
My in-laws hosted a BBQ because they hadn’t seen us in a long time. I felt so touched at how considerate they were about my diet. To have that in a place where gluten is practically unheard of just makes my heart swell. Like I said earlier, My Mother-in-law searched around for gluten free buns. What a sweetheart! My Aunt-in-law made a delicious flourless cake! My father-in-law’s long time partner made a tasty potato salad and she made sure to use the mayo we bought that hadn’t been cross contaminated. If you are not gluten free and you are reading this. Please know that your thoughtfulness and consideration to your celiac friend, partner, relative means more than you could know. THANK YOU!
Are you from Dallas or have you traveled there? Let me know your favorite gluten free stops! Don’t forget to check our my “travel” story highlights for more on my Dallas trip.
