Gluten Free State College recommendation needed
- Thread starter JWB389
- Start date
I saw your thread title and thought this was a new town mandate.
Well, that would make life easier. I fixed it for you.
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Faccia Luna and Snap Pizza have GF pizza
Cozi Thai and My Thai have lots of options.
Jersey Mikes has a GF roll
India Pavilion has many options
Plaza Mexican or Mad Mex also have many options
Cozi Thai and My Thai have lots of options.
Jersey Mikes has a GF roll
India Pavilion has many options
Plaza Mexican or Mad Mex also have many options
“Find me GF” app is great for celiacs!! It has ratings I believe from google so that helps too. Have used it in many cities having a celiac in the family.
Is there gluten in creamery ice cream? Maybe a little in chocolate chip cookie dough, but not peachy Paterno.
Why would ice cream have gluten by default? Gluten is from flour. Ice cream is basically milk/cream, sugar, and flavoring. Egg yolks added sometimes. No gluten.
Read years ago that gluten is iften used a thickening agent in ice cream. Link below say there are a lot of gluten free ice creams but beware of flavorings. Also, can be contaminated by cross use of equipment and some celiacs are extremely sensitive .
Over One Hundred Top Gluten-Free Ice Cream Brands and Flavors
For those with celiac disease or gluten sensitivities, finding a delicious and trustworthy gluten-free ice cream can often feel like a daunting task. While many ice creams are naturally gluten-free, issues arise with flavors that include mix-ins like cookies or cookie dough, which can introduce...
www.celiac.com
As with any processed food, I would think the main concern with ice cream is what thickeners and stabilizers are used. It’s the same reason why some chocolate candy is not gluten free. Which means that the base ice cream could be gluten free, but the chocolate chips that are added into the ice cream could have gluten in them. Of the cookie bits in cookies and cream. I would imagine that those in the know would be able to interpret the ingredient list.
Read years ago that gluten is iften used a thickening agent in ice cream. Link below say there are a lot of gluten free ice creams but beware of flavorings. Also, can be contaminated by cross use of equipment and some celiacs are extremely sensitive .
Over One Hundred Top Gluten-Free Ice Cream Brands and Flavors
For those with celiac disease or gluten sensitivities, finding a delicious and trustworthy gluten-free ice cream can often feel like a daunting task. While many ice creams are naturally gluten-free, issues arise with flavors that include mix-ins like cookies or cookie dough, which can introduce...
Also, I would expect that the creamery lists which of their ice creams are gluten-free
^^ This. My daughter used it in Austin and Anchorage to find safe places she could eat. Highly recommended.
Both of my kids are Celiacs. I don't get a chance to visit State College much anymore due to their activities, but we did stop at the Creamery one time on the way to a hockey tournament. I did some research in advance (I think I emailed someone at the Creamery). They basically opened up a new batch of a flavor of ice cream my son wanted and made sure to use new scoops. It added only about an extra minute or two to the order time.
We are super picky about where they eat out and don't trust many places. I do see on Findme GF that there is a BRGR. We had a positive experience at a different BRGR in the past. Good luck!
We are super picky about where they eat out and don't trust many places. I do see on Findme GF that there is a BRGR. We had a positive experience at a different BRGR in the past. Good luck!
Living with Celiacs in State College. Been to the creamery many times without issue. Just stay away from the flavors that obviously would have gluten like Cookies and Creams.
BRGR has GF menu and GF buns for their burgers. Also have dedicated fryer for their fries if I remember correctly.
Dowtown choices are fairly limited with BRGR, Cozi Thai, Snap Pizza(although I am suspect about Snap and cross contamination), 5 Guys is pretty good just tell them and you get a burger without a bun, the hidden gem would be the Federal Tap House, they have items marked on their menu and we haven't had any issues from eating there.
The GF app for State College is somewhat limited and not a lot of people update it much. For example, GiGis is on there but they do a horrible job with GF.
Some others not in downtown, Brothers Pizza in Stormstown has dedicated space they have GF Wings, GF Chicken Nuggets and Fries, GF Pizza. State Burger in Bellefonte is great, they have really good GF buns and dedicated frier for the fries and never disappoints. Outback Steakhouse on the North Side of town is usually pretty good but its a chain. There is Chik Fil A on the North Side as well. Jersey Mike's is no longer in downtown State College.
Hope this helps.
BRGR has GF menu and GF buns for their burgers. Also have dedicated fryer for their fries if I remember correctly.
Dowtown choices are fairly limited with BRGR, Cozi Thai, Snap Pizza(although I am suspect about Snap and cross contamination), 5 Guys is pretty good just tell them and you get a burger without a bun, the hidden gem would be the Federal Tap House, they have items marked on their menu and we haven't had any issues from eating there.
The GF app for State College is somewhat limited and not a lot of people update it much. For example, GiGis is on there but they do a horrible job with GF.
Some others not in downtown, Brothers Pizza in Stormstown has dedicated space they have GF Wings, GF Chicken Nuggets and Fries, GF Pizza. State Burger in Bellefonte is great, they have really good GF buns and dedicated frier for the fries and never disappoints. Outback Steakhouse on the North Side of town is usually pretty good but its a chain. There is Chik Fil A on the North Side as well. Jersey Mike's is no longer in downtown State College.
Hope this helps.
No, I am a long time PSU season ticket holder.
This is the kind of thing I'm looking for. Personal experiences. We've found that most places have options. I want to go somewhere that I can trust.
I appreciate all of the info. Thanks everybody.
My wife (her and daughter have celiac) uses the app. She doesn't completely trust places with 2 or 3 reviews, which is what we see for State College. Also, most of the reviews are old.
As I understand all GF's aren't created equal. A lot of items marked GF aren't really GF. Any truth to that?
There is a lot of cross-contamination. Pizza places for example. If you're serving somebody with celiac a pizza made in a shop with wheat flour in the air, you're serving them cross-contaminated pizza. At that point it becomes a personal preference based on experience.
My wife will not chance it due to past experience. We've had some really horrible experiences. Some restaurants/staff take it seriously, some do not. Look, there are staff that do horrible things to people's food regardless. I'm pretty sure a lot of them don't care if they contaminate a customer's food with wheat. That's why personal recommnedation are so important.
From our experience, if you buy something off the shelf that is labeled GF, it is. If you get something prepared in a restaurant, you're taking a chance. A waiter at Maggiano's once served my wife an entire plate of regular wheat pasta. They insisted it was GF because it was on a unique plate. Something like that, I am the taste tester. I can tell immediately if it's GF or not.
A lot of Mexican places are good with it, but we've been served non-GF nachos several times.
Today, with the difficulty restaurants are having hiring people, it's often too much left to chance, particularly on a football Saturday in State College.
Thanks again to all for the suggestions.
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Fortunately for my friend, they weren’t that sensitive where slight cross contamination was a serious issue for them. I would suspect it helps a lot if a place is strict with separate stations and utensils for their gluten free items & ingredients. For example, I wouldn’t think it would be that difficult for the creamery to keep their gluten free flavors in separate serving freezers and use dedicated gluten free scoops.
It just occurred to me that the newish Roots Kitchen in Beaver Canyon might be an option. They’re one of those grain bowl places. It looks like their menu is clearly marked with which items/toppings have gluten, but cross contamination might be an issue. Never been there so I have no idea as to the quality of the food.
https://www.rootsnaturalkitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Roots_To_Go_Menu_StateCollege.pdf
It just occurred to me that the newish Roots Kitchen in Beaver Canyon might be an option. They’re one of those grain bowl places. It looks like their menu is clearly marked with which items/toppings have gluten, but cross contamination might be an issue. Never been there so I have no idea as to the quality of the food.
https://www.rootsnaturalkitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Roots_To_Go_Menu_StateCollege.pdf
Have not see that one, thanks.
With the ice cream, my wife will just politely ask them to use a clean scoop. Never a problem.
With your friend, everybody is different. We know people with celiac that don't worry too much about it. The cross contamination doesn't immediately make either of them sick. It's the long term impact that is more worrisome. My wife never knew she had it until her late 40's. My daughter was diagnosed at around 10 and she already had signs of intestinal damage.
This comment is for those that may be looking at this with a skeptical eye, certainly not JWB389. Celiac Disease is not just an allergy, but an auto-immune disease that could lead to long-term serious consequences if not taken care of properly. Before my kids were both diagnosed with CD, we went to restaurants all the time and I chuckled at all of the gluten-free marketing as I thought of it. Since diagnosis, my kids are healthy and great eaters. We have so few places we trust that eating out is a huge deal for them. Something like a GF pizza at a local pizza place would never be purchased by us. My boys both play travel hockey, so we get excited when we go to a city where we know there is a single restaurant we can trust. In the end, no meal is ever worth feeling like crap for days and certainly not the future consequences. Thanks to all for the comments, I love learning where we can find different ways for my boys to experience what so many of us take for granted.
Pre-Covid, we used to make regular New York City day trips just to eat at GF restaurants all day. My wife is really good at planning around food. Me, not so much.My daughter went to Girl Scout camp for 3 nights several years ago. My wife had to prepare every meal for the weekend and make arrangements to get her fed while she was there. It puts a lot of stress on life. Vacations, even weekend overnight trips are a struggle. Disney is the best we've found for vacationing with celiac, for what it's worth.
I understand. We don't really travel for vacations except where there is a kitchen for us. We also probably spend 20-30 nights a year in hotels at hockey tournaments. We have what amounts to a portable kitchen that goes with us on each trip. The mini air fryer is the most important thing for us. Thankfully at 7 and 9 years old, my kids are used to this as their lifestyle that it doesn't even phase them.
Thickeners and also many other reasons. Many items that used to contain flour are now made without it. Corn or other starches are substituted. One with real gluten allergies must be really careful. Many medicines have flour based fillers or even powder to keep them from sticking together. Sad thing is they don't list it as an ingredient.
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