Gluten Free in Washington DC
Gluten free in Washington DC
In recent travels to our nation’s capital I was pleasantly surprised by how gluten free friendly the area was. On the first day from some research through Google, I found a gluten free friendly restaurant, Open City, right across the street from our hotel. It wasn’t just “gluten free friendly”, but they actually had g-free options. The staff was even knowledgeable. When I asked how their kitchen made their gluten-free items I was thrilled to hear that they use clean surfaces and that the owners wife is gluten intolerant and everything has to be up to her standards. This made me happy to hear as many restaurants could have gluten free offerings, but lack a clean gluten free environment in the kitchen. This place seemed to do it’s best to provide that.
Not often do you find a restaurant that serves gluten free pastries, but for breakfast I got to enjoy an egg white omelet, coffee, and a delicious almond cranberry muffin (picture above) that I could eat and enjoy!!
I was pretty excited about this discovery right across the street from our Hotel, check out this video:
Later that week we found ourselves back at Open City for dinner so I could try their gluten free pizza. It wasn’t my favorite g-free pizza, It was a little too heavy on the cheese and the crust lacked in taste compared to some gluten free crusts, but it was nice to have an option. I can always go for pizza when I see it on a gluten free menu, it's such a treat!
Another treat on the trip was stopping by Georgetown Cupcakes, known for it’s show on TLC called "DC Cupcakes". They had one gluten free cupcake as an option and I just HAD to try it. It was amazing. I do get nervous trying gluten free baked goods that are made in a cross contaminated baking space, but these were worth the chance of getting sick, which by the way, I didn’t get sick.
Georgetown Cupcakes is so popular that there is always a line to get your cupcakes. Luckily, we got there about 15 minutes before they opened and our line was much shorter (picture above) than what we could have been stuck in. Isn't a good cupcake worth a line? ;)
Pretty much every restaurant I visited in DC the staff and chefs were great about making adjustments to my orders as needed to make my meals something I could eat making this trip a lot easier than it can be when traveling gluten free. It's definitely worth Googling like crazy and using social media as a tool to find gluten free options in the area that you're traveling in. Also, don't be afraid to speak up to your servers and educate them on your needs, it beats getting sick after a meal!