One of my favorite Italian restaurants in New York City is Bistango on 29th and 3rd {read my review here}. Everything on the menu can be made gluten-free. They even serve fresh gluten-free Italian bread. At the original location, the gluten-free tortellini with pesto is my meal of choice. On a recent trip into the city with my co-workers, we made reservations at Bistango at The Kimberly Hotel, a second location, opened in 2014.
Before heading to lunch we stopped a few must-see midtown spots to show a first-time New York visitor around. The library was beautifully decorated for the holidays, as is most of the city. A new stop for me was in Grand Central Station. I’ve been there many times, but I never knew about the Whisper Gallery. Downstairs near the dining area there is a corridor where you can hear whispers across the room. If you stand diagonally across from someone else, your voices will travel across the arched ceiling, and you will be able to hear their voice as if they were standing right next to you.
It was a really chilly morning in the city, so we were all looking forward to warming up with a good lunch. The restaurant is located on the first floor of the Kimberly hotel. It is small, but has enough seating for small groups and a bar over looking the open kitchen. It was cozy and decorated for the holidays too. I’ve heard the roof top bar at the Kimberly is beautiful, but it wasn’t open at the time we were there {another reason to go back}.
I opted for the butternut squash ravioli because I rarely have the option of eating them {welcoming gluten-free ravioli suggestions}. This was a super rich dish! The ravioli were in a brown butter sauce, filled with pureed butternut squash and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. As if that weren’t rich enough, the dish was topped with parmesan and salty peanuts. It was a great lunch.
If you are in NYC and looking for gluten-free Italian food, I highly recommend stopping at either location. Gluten-free or not, the meals do not disappoint!
My husband and I recently booked a spontaneous trip to Montreal, Canada for a “mini-moon” weekend. Due to our work schedules, we are not going on our honeymoon until next year. Because we were headed to a major city, I didn’t think finding GF food would be a problem. I did not put too much time into researching prior to our trip. I made it through the weekend just fine and really enjoyed our time away. However, once we were there I quickly realized that there was not much written about gluten-free eating in Montreal. I also noticed that many of the restaurants do not clearly indicate on their websites if they offered gluten-free options.
I loved the hotel we stayed at in downtown Montreal, Le St. Martin Hotel Particulier. Our cozy room included an electric fireplace and huge comfy bed. We also stopped in the hotel restaurant/bar, Bistro L’Aromate for a few after-dinner drinks during our stay. The bartenders and the hotel staff were friendly and accommodating. I definitely recommend staying at this hotel if you are planning to explore Montreal. It was in a great location that allowed us to access public transportation, walk to Old Montreal and other destinations downtown.
After visiting the Notre-Dame Basilica {which is amazing} we stopped at Pave Lunch Experts for lunch. I had the Genova panini. When I ordered, I was asked if I had a severe allergy or was just choosing to order gluten-free, so they could prepare my meal with more care.
The first night in town we ate at Enoteca Monza which actually has a separate gluten-free menu. For an appetizer, we shared the parmesan fries and for dinner I had GF penne with pesto. The portions are huge! I didn’t feel great after eating the fries, which left me wondering if their fryer was actually kept gluten-free.
Since I didn’t eat much of my pasta from previous night, I opted for pasta again at Weinstein & Gavino’s . I ordered the GF fusilli with bolognese sauce and it was delicious. I love when restaurants offer gluten-free pasta other than penne! Also, I am pretty picky when it comes to red sauce, but I thought this one was very good. Mike always likes to check out at least one craft beer bar when we travel. Not far from Weinstein & Gavino’s is Brutopia and I can happily report they offer a GF beer too.
As we ventured out into the city on our final day, we decided to stop in to Starbucks for a quick coffee and a snack (and a break from the cold weather). If you didn’t already know, Starbucks now has gluten-free marshmallow dream bars and egg sandwiches, but I didn’t notice them in the store. I asked the cashier about them and she was able to bring me a Marshmallow Dream Bars that was in a freezer in the kitchen. The Marshmallow Dream Bars take about an hour to thaw, so you can save it for later. I also stopped in Papparoita which had a handful of gluten-free pastries. I bought two chocolate walnut cookies which were perfect with coffee.
At the airport we ate at Hurley’s Irish Pub. Although there was nothing gluten-free on their menu, both waiters I spoke with were aware of gluten allergies and the ingredients in their menu. I was able to get a burger with no bun and a side salad. No tummy aches on the plane either!
The following recommendations are spots I stopped in or found online, but didn’t actually eat at. I don’t usually blog about restaurants I haven’t been to, but due to the lack of GF tips on Montreal, I will try to include as much as possible in this post. Downtown Montreal was not the most gluten-free friendly (or at the very least, it has not been reviewed as closely as it should be). A lot of the restaurants below would have required subway or bus trips from our hotel. Maybe with a little more pre-planning we would have been able to venture our of the city for some foodie adventures.
This week Facebook reminded me that a year ago we took a quick trip to Denver, CO. Since I didn’t post a travel diary for this trip last year I figured what better time to post than on the one year anniversary. Our trip started off a bit rocky because Expedia (or Travelocity, I can’t remember) lost our hotel reservation. It was incredibly frustrating to get off the plane to a voicemail that we didn’t have a hotel to stay at. Within a couple of hours I got it all sorted out and we ended up getting a hotel upgrade. We stayed in the downtown area, so we didn’t need to rent a car and were able to walk everywhere.
#hotelproblems!
One restaurant we knew we wanted to try was Snooze. There is usually a wait so we made sure to get there pretty early for breakfast. While you’re waiting you can play cornhole outside. Although they don’t have a separate gluten-free menu they do offer plenty of gluten-free options. I got pancakes AND eggs. Mike got the biggest breakfast burrito I’ve ever seen.
One of Mike’s friends plays for the Toronto Blue Jays and they happened to be playing in Colorado while we were there. Before going to the game we stopped at ViewHouse which has a great rooftop bar and views of the city. My drink of choice the entire trip was a mojito!  Coorsfield has a gluten-free stand in section 142. I got a gluten-free beer and the best chicken quesadilla ever. Of all the sporting venues I have been to my food at Coorsfield tops the charts. It was a good thing my food kept me occupied because there was a crazy hail storm that delayed the game for 2 hours and trapped us in the stadium. While on our trip we also did a stadium tour which was really cool and we learned that Coorsfield is actually the home of Blue Moon.
On our last morning in Denver we went to Syrup for breakfast. The food was good, but the service was extremely slow. They also didn’t have quite as many gluten-free options as Snooze. I chose a gluten-free omelet and coffee. Make sure you ask questions about how the gluten-free toast is prepared.
redroseandhoney.com 