NYC - Gluten Free Options Near Tourist Sites

We were in NYC several times this summer. KT was born in NYC but this is the first time back that she will remember. So we did all of the touristy things again.

This is a guide of gluten free options we found near tourist sites that we visited, starting from the most southern point of the island.Statue of Liberty
The cafe at Liberty island is a certified "green restaurant."
We were able to eat the french fries, grapes, and organic lemonade.
We did not have the same luck at Ellis Island, I am not sure if it was just miss communication with the staff or if the fries are indeed cooked in shared fryers there, we did not take the chance.
Be sure to read the info about reserving tickets.

Coney Island
We had lots of fun but the only safe things for a GF vegetarian was the fresh mango sold on the boardwalk. Take your own food!


South Street Seaport
This is a mall on the Pier, also called Pier 17. Here you will find shops, restaurants, street shows and exhibits. There is also an outdoor market on the weekends in the summer months. Visit the website for a directory of offerings: SouthStreetSeaport.com.

• Haagen Dazs Ice Cream - Gluten Info - Allergy List (jpg file)
• Uno Chicago Grill - Extensive Gluten Free Menu
  

Battery Park City & World Financial Center
We lived in Battery Park City pre-GF diet. We were happy to find so many great options have developed there.

• Pizza Bolla - Awesome Gluten free pizza, pasta, lasagna, garlic bread, & Red bridge. Prices seemed a little high when we looked at the menu but the portion sizes made up for it. It is located in the same building as the Embassy Suites. 102 North End Ave. Check out the CelicChicks blog on PizzaBolla with lots of great photos.
• Whole Foods - 200 Greenwich Street with all that Whole Foods offers GF- frozen, deli, packaged goods...
• Sprout Craft - An amazing find for a vegetarian celiac, this is a raw foods place with a glutenfree buffet from 11 - 2. Located at Maiden lane and Broadway inside the "health Exchange" deli.
  

West Village
Our FAVORITE place of the whole summer was Petite Cafe's Gluten Free French Toast on Saturday mornings. 70 Greenwich Ave between 11th Street and 7th Ave. (212) 229-0804 See Celiac Chick's review with great pictures.

SOHO
Check out the free childrens events at Scholastic Store the children's art workshops at Children's Museum of Arts.

• Hampton Chutney - One of our favorites! South Indian dosa with a variety of fillings, all gluten free!
• Baby Cakes - A vegan and gluten free bakery.

Chelsea Market

• Friedman's Lunch - This place is so good it makes you feel normal. (It is totally worth the trek into the meat-packing district!) Mouth-watering soups, salads, lentil dishes, sandwiches, bread, fries. Located in the back of the Chelsea Market at 15th Street and 9th Ave. (The Apple Store is right next door.)

Empire State Building
There is not much that is really close to here, but if you take the M2,3,or5 Bus down 5th Ave to 23rd Street there are some options.

• Asia De Cuba @ 237 Madison Avenue @ 37th has a gluten free menu
• Cup Cake Stop- A van that offers Gluten Free Cupcakes on Tuesdays when they park at 5th Ave and 23rd Street.
• Mozarelli's Pizza offers gluten free cookies, pizza and cakes everyday. 38 E 23rd St Between Park and Madison.
  

Grand Central Station
Don't miss the MTA Transit Museum and store located inside the terminal.
Also many free children's events at the NY Library

• Hale & Hearty Soups - Located in the dining concourse. They have at least 10 gluten free soups each day, just ask the server to look at the card attached to each pot lid to see if the soup is marked gluten free. Most dressings are also gluten free, the server can give you the list. You can also have a salad mixed to order.
  
• Blooms Deli @ 40th and Lexington Avenue has GF french fries, diner foods, sandwiches, slaw, pickles, pancakes...

Times Square

• Ruby Foos - Located next to the M&M Store. This was just right for our vegetarian gluten free crew, however we spoke to a couple other gf families dining there and they felt there was very little for their kids to eat here. Take a look at their GF menu online. Reservations are recommended. On Sunday afternoon they do have origami activities for kids.
  

Rockefeller Center
American Girl, Build A Bear Workshop, The Disney Store and FAO Schwartz are all on the 5th Ave side of Rockefeller Center. There is not any good options for food in this immediate area so plan accordingly.

• American Girl Cafe - 609 5th Ave @ 49th Street. Be sure to call ahead and get reservations and tell them you require gluten free. We have been to all of the American Girl Cafe's and this one was not great with the GF options, there were no GF baked goods, no cup cakes, no pizzas available. But they will work to accommodate the regular menu minus the bread.
  
• Hale & Hearty Soups - Located in the underground shopping area.
  
• Farmer's Market - In the summer there was a neat little farmer's market here, we bought dried and fresh fruit to snack on.
• Lilli 57 - Located across the street from Carnegie Hall. They had a couple nice gf vegetarian dishes including a raw summer roll. GF menu is online.
  

Central Park

• Ice Cream Carts- There were several things on the ice cream cart that were gluten free.
• Wollman Ice Rink - Only a couple options here: garden salad with Kraft dressing, fruit cup, lays potato chips and fresh squeezed OJ.
• Lilli & Lo0 - a few blocks away at 61st and Lex, a similar GF menu to Lilli 57.
  

Museum of Natural History
The food court offers a couple options. They had french fries that were fine, salad bar and organic GF salad dressing. There may have been other options at the other restaurants.

Upper West Side
Children's Museum of Manhattan is located at at 83rd & Broadway. Save your ticket/sticker and you can come and go all day.

• Hale & Hearty Soups - 81st & Broadway
  
• Nice Matin is an organic "Green Restaurant" in the area. We did not eat there but were told they have several options.79th and Amsterdam
• Hampton Chutney - One of our favorites! South Indian Dosa with a variety of fillings, all gluten free!
• Peacefood Cafe - Located just down the block from Hampton Chutney. They have raw foods, smoothies and several gf desserts.
  

Museum Row (Art Museums)
Be sure to ask for the family activity guides at the information desks of the museums.

• Peter's Cafe - Located at 83rd Street and First Ave. You can take a nice walk or a bus on 86th street from the 86th and Lex subway station near the museums.
  

New York Botanical Garden
Only options we found at the cafe was potato chips or fruit. However, KT picked a bag full of produce in the Children's Garden and we made a great salad at home that night! Mesculin, cherry tomatoes and lemon basil... Pack a lunch before you make the trip, then Bloom's Deli when you get back to Grand Central.

Bronx Zoo
All we found to be safe here was, Dirty Chips, Terra Chips, fresh watermelon, fresh mixed fruit, Snapple. Recommend taking your own food.


Resources for NYC:

• CeliacTable.org - A great resource to look up the closest GF place to dine. Directory is reviewed and also divided geographically.
• Celiac Chick's Blog - this is our favorite blog to follow about GF living in NYC. Lots of great reviews and tips.
• GlutenFreed iphone app, this is how we found Hampton Chutney- we are forever grateful!
• Gluten Free NYC - a new app that has great potential, lists verified gf options at many non-gf restaurants in NYC.

Paris with a 5 Year Old

We were able to eat vegetarian and gluten free without any incidents. This trip came just 6 months after diagnosis of our 5 year old daughter.

We travel a lot. The first thing I do is look up the vegetarian restaurants in the country, if anyone is going to understand food issues it is going to be the vegetarians. Also, most vegetarian restaurants have English speaking staff.

Here are some lists of Vegetarian Restaurants and health food stores.
Be sure to do some research to make sure the establishments are still open and have not moved.

http://www.happycow.net/europe/france/paris/
http://nwfolk.com/vegparis.html

A good place to confirm the existence is in the "Pages Yellow" http://www.pagesjaunes.fr/trouverlesprofessionnels/index.do
This is an awesome version of mapquest where you get walking instructions and photos of the building when approached from all directions!

LANGUAGE
I do speak a little French and I spoke A LOT of French while we were there. I am now very good at explaining what we can not eat in French. If you do not speak French then here are some resources for you:

French Dining Cards:
http://www.celiactravel.com/gluten-free-cards/14-french.html
I just scratched out the words that referred to "meat"
Here are the same cards in English: http://www.celiactravel.com/gluten-free-cards/11-english.html

Vegetarian French Phrases:
http://www.ivu.org/phrases/westeuro.html

PLANNING
I plan all of our activities based on nearby veg restaurants or health food stores. That way we are not wondering around looking for food on an empty stomach.
The first thing I do when we get there is to find the nearest health food store and buy a stash of GF foods.

We carried, GF snack bars, GF bread and crackers with us everywhere. If you eat cheese then it is easy to eat on the run if you have your bread.

We always had GF bread with us- we even fed the pigeons GF bread.


BREAKFAST
Our hotel did provide breakfast. We brought our own GF croissants and used their butter, cheese and jelly and then drank their coffee and chocolate.

BREAD
Ask where the nearest "BIO" store is- This is the equivalent of a special-diet-store-slash-pharmacy. In these stores you can get brands like VALPIFORM, BIAGLUT & SCHAER.

Gluten Free Baguette

We found the VALPIFORM brand to be far superior to anything we have even had in the states. They had AMAZING baguettes, croissants, pain au chocotale and madeline cakes.

We actually brought back a small suitcase of baguettes and croissants and we dream about the Madelines- did not get back with any of them, as we ate them all while we were there.

Many stores place their special orders on Wednesdays, and they arrive on Sunday.

The Schaer breads were pretty good- much better than most shelf packaged GF breads here:
Schaer has a new line of Organic GF breads and pastas.

We did not really care for the Biaglut products, they were more similar to EnerG bread products.

PLACES WE SHOPPED AND ATE

RENDEZ-VOUS DE LA NATURE (store)
http://www.dietetiquemouffetard.com/
96, rue Mouffetard
75005 Paris
Tél: 01 43 36 59 34
This is where we did the majority of our shopping- they carry a great stock of GF foods and speak English.
There is a healthfood restaurant on the corner, near this shop. We had a good meal there.

LES 4 et UNE SAVEURS
72 rue Card Lemoine 75005
Close to Place de la Contrescarpe. Métro/subway station: Jussieu or Monge.
Tel: 01 43 26 88 80
Organic, Macrobiotic, Vegetarian & fish. No smoking.
Open Tues - Sun, noon - 3pm & 7.15 - 10.30pm (11pm in summer)
** We ate here 4 times, as it was VERY close to our hotel. The food was PREFECT! They were very knowledgeable about GF food and made meals especially for us.

AU GRAIN DE FOLIE
24, rue La Vieuville - Paris 75018 - M>Abesses
Amazing little place with about 3 tables. The food was AMAZIng the owner was very knowledgeable about GF food.
They do have limited hours- I think they open at 5:30 PM

THE STUDIO
41 Rue du Temple 75004
We were able to eat brunch here- however it is an overpriced spot. This is a place where ex-pats used to gather on weekends when I lived in Paris. I was able to get a GF veg meal. I think I had an omelet and a salad. This restaurant is set in a courtyard of a dance studio.

ELAN NATURE (store)
107 bis, av du Général Leclerc
75014 Paris Tél: 01 45 42 35 00
139, av de Verdun
92130 Issy les Moulineaux Tél: 01 41 08 06 17

NATURALIA
These store are everywhere! The last 2 digits of the zip code tell you what "AREA" something is located in.
http://www.naturalia.fr/

MAOZ FALAFEL
Rue Xavier Rivas (at metro: Saint-Michel towards Notre Dame, 2nd St to the right)
The french fries were GF when we were there- they may have changed things since...

We also at at a Lebanese and a couple Indian restaurants. I can't remember the names at the moment, but both types of foods are easily adapted by a willing chef.

Vegetarian and Gluten Free?

Just 6 months after KT's diagnosis we had a trip scheduled to Paris. I was VERY nervous and felt like we were traveling to the gluten capital of the world. One day it came to me that I was looking at it all wrong. I needed to approach it the same way I approached traveling as a vegetarian. Being vegetarian it always takes lots of planning before we travel anywhere. In the past I have taken suitcases of organic vegetarian foods with me to Mexico, Japan and Ireland. Whenever I had a trip planned, I would look up the local vegetarian restaurants and stores and made out a travel plan. I decided that traveling gluten-free should not be that much different from traveling vegetarian.

Some tips:

• I start with the vegetarian restaurants, thinking they would be most likely to be sensitive to our dietary needs and I am sure everything is vegetarian.
  

• I plan our sightseeing around the location of health food stores and vegetarian restaurants.

• The first visit in any city is to the nearest health food store to see what is available.

• I request "Gluten Free" meals on our flights. Opting for gluten free over vegetarian because the vegetarian meals usually contain lots of gluten- usually pasta, bread and cereals. I knew the GF meals would likely contain fish or chicken. So we take our chances that there will be enough extras on the tray to keep us entertained. Breakfasts are usually vegetarian and GF. Don't count on these meals because they are not always served.
  

• I pack lots of GF snacks in our checked baggage and carry on food for our travels.