Posts Tagged ‘Toronto’

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Shopping in Southwestern Ontario

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

It’s starting to feel as if a gluten-free grocery store opens in Southwestern Ontario every other week. I used to make a trip to the Specialty Food Shop each time I visited Toronto, but with the number of options expanding, I’m checking out a wider range of places offering gluten-free groceries:

Cabbagetown Organics: The sign in the window advertising fresh bread from Aidan’s Gluten Free is what lured me inside. As the name suggests, the store’s strength is organic produce, but the gluten-free section is substantial. [address] 499 Parliament Street, Toronto [tel] 416-913-7296

Goodbye Gluten: This combination grocery store, bakery, and caterer opened this summer. Everything you’ll find here is gluten-free, and there are also nut-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and vegan options. [address] 2066 Avenue Road, Toronto [tel] 416-781-9191

Nut’n Gluten: This is a large store, especially when you consider that almost everything on the shelves and inside the fridges and freezers is gluten-free (there are products for people allergic to nuts, too). My impression — based on a single visit — is that some prices are higher than what I’m used to paying, but there are also brands here that I haven’t seen carried at any other shop. [address] 3120 Rutherford Road, Vaughan, Ontario [tel] 905-553-7901

Remark Fresh Markets: Whenever I visit my aunt in London, Ontario, this is where she goes to stock up on celiac-safe foods for me. Lots of choice, with both Canadian and international brands featured here. [address] 1190 Oxford Street West, London, Ontario [tel] 519-474-2561

Specialty Food Shop: Not everything in this shop is gluten-free — there are products for people with food allergies, metabolic disorders, cystic fibrosis, and other conditions. It’s small, but it stocks great staples and snacks and has registered dietitians on staff. [address] At the Hospital for Sick Children (main floor), 555 University Avenue, Toronto [tel] 1-800-737-7976 or 416-813-5294

A few other stores with plenty of celiac-safe options: Whole Foods, which has its own Gluten-Free Bakehouse products as well as items made by other brands; Noah’s Natural Foods, a small, health-oriented local chain with several locations; and Ambrosia Natural Foods, just north of Toronto in Thornhill, which offers some of the best prices on gluten-free goods that I’ve found anywhere. Also, a couple of websites offer shop listings (and, frequently, a lot more): Gluten-Free Ontario and Celiac Canada.

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Reader Report: Dartmouth, England

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

I love it when Gluten-Free Guidebook readers share their travel and dining experiences. The Gluten-Free Guidebook group on Facebook has been a lively spot lately, with exchanges about where to dine in Ibiza, Oahu, and San Francisco, and even where to get a celiac-safe cinnamon sticky bun in Toronto (that would be Bunner’s, which I now know about thanks to Jay Brown). Even better, reader Mike Murphy wrote this report on his visit to Dartmouth last summer. A huge thank-you to Mike!

Mike Murphy’s Report on Dartmouth

“If a man wishes to eat well in England, he should have breakfast three times a day”

Somerset Maugham’s jaundiced advice (he was brought up in France) does not offer much hope to the gluten-tolerant, let alone the celiac. Breakfast is often a sticky time, whether it is the “continental” variety, with those wickedly tempting pastries, or the “full English” kind, gluten-enriched with black pudding and sausage, to say nothing of the toast and fried bread.

Well, if you have any reason to visit Dartmouth (like a son passing out of the Naval academy), look no further than the Churston Court Inn. We had not mentioned anything about my wife’s gluten intolerance when we made the booking; she finds it hard to have it talked about. So we were very happy when the hotel receptionist and management said “No problem – we shall have the executive chef attend to your needs”. Even more so because our appointment at the academy meant we needed a cooked breakfast half an hour before the kitchen officially opened. We were apprehensive after the waitress took our order – 2 full English, one of which adapted to the celiac regime. When it came, it was remarkably complete. Bacon, egg, mushroom, sausage, tomato. Mine had all of the above, plus black pudding, hash browns, and fried bread, of course. We paid the bill (in high season, a very reasonable GBP 70 for one night, including cooked breakfasts), and waited with some trepidation to see whether any problems would reveal that things had gone wrong in the kitchen. Not a sausage, so to speak!

Celiacs attending the passing out lunch at Britannia Royal Naval College should bring their own rations. None of the three main courses, nor either of the two puddings, were suitable. If my wife could have brought herself to eat anything, her lunch would have consisted of plain boiled rice and whipped cream.

Dinner the night before was at (Michelin starred) The New Angel [now Restaurant Angelique]. This restaurant had been recommended on the web as a celiac friendly place. In a way it was. Not in the way of having a menu of dishes specially cooked for celiacs. Not in the way of indicating which of the standard dishes on the menus were gluten-free. We could have the “menu dégustation” at GBP 50 each for the whole table. And the restaurant would prepare a special plate for my wife for each course, without any dangerous ingredients. We had a good bottle of Australian Riesling (perhaps a little overpowered by the sun), and a reasonable bottle of Nebbiolo. And 3 litres of mineral water, with 4 coffees. Total damage: GBP 344. My wife, who is fastidious for the same reasons as Somerset Maugham, thought the food was good, but not superlative.

So, if you don’t mind eating less than your non-celiac sisters or cousins or aunts, Dartmouth is a great place to go. But if you want to eat nearly the same, have breakfast at Churston Court!

Again, many thanks to Mike for sharing this. I’d love to hear from more of you about places you’ve visited, and about gluten-free finds in your own town. You can also share finds via the Facebook group, too.

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Roundup: Contest and More Tips From Readers

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

The Gluten-Free Guidebook is having its first-ever Reader Report Contest (check out this post to enter). I’ve received questions about it from some readers, and I wanted to answer them here, in case others are wondering the same thing. It’s perfectly fine to send a list of your favorite celiac-safe restaurants and shops, without actually “reviewing” each one. Some Reader Reports that are already on the site are actually lists like that, and they’re very helpful to people. The Reader Report can be about anywhere in the world, and it’s perfectly alright to write about a destination already featured on the site. There’s always new information to share. I look forward to reading your entries!

Contest aside, several readers have sent me tips about gluten-free restaurants and bakeries via e-mail, Twitter, and Facebook, and I want to pass these along. I’m always grateful when people take the time to share information, and I know that these tips will help many others.

Kathy, a reader in Montreal, visited New York a few weeks ago, and wrote to tell me about a restaurant she’d enjoyed: Emporio. She described it as having a “great GF menu, helpful staff and wonderful atmosphere.” I haven’t tried it yet but plan to. ([address] 231 Mott Street; [tel] 212-966-1234; [web] www.auroraristorante.com)

Chelsea, a reader in Toronto, wrote: “The Starving Artist cafe/waffle bar in Toronto (near Bloor/Lansdowne) has really awesome gluten-free (and vegan) waffles. You can substitute the GF waffles in any of their waffle meals/desserts.” That’s another place on my list of places to try. ([address] 584 Lansdowne Avenue; [tel] 647-342-5058; [web] www.starvingartistbar.com)

My friend Henny Groenendijk, also based in Toronto, told me about a new gluten-free bakery in Oakville, Ontario. It’s called Voila Gluten Free Bakeree ([address] 22 Lakeshore West, Unit 6; [tel] 289-837-0110; [web] www.voilaglutenfreebakeree.com).

Another friend, Margaret Littman, told me about Fifth Group Restaurants, a company in Atlanta, Georgia, that recently launched gluten-free menus at each of its five restaurants: El Taco, Ecco, La Tavola Trattoria, and South City Kitchen (which has two locations). From the company’s official statement: “We are dedicated to giving our guests as many dining options as possible – and that includes options for those with dietary restrictions. It’s another step in striving to satisfy our current patrons and potential new diners, and with a rise in celiac disease diagnoses, I think it’s a big step that we absolutely must take.”

It’s always exciting to see more places offer gluten-free options. What have you found lately?

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The Best of 2009 for the Gluten-Free

Monday, December 28th, 2009

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One of my favorite things about the last week of the year is that it’s a good time to take stock of what’s happened over the past 360+ days. In 2009, I found that some posts got a great deal of feedback from readers — and I learned that sometimes it’s impossible to predict which ones will spark the most interest. Below are the posts that garnered the greatest responses, and if you missed them the first time around, you can still read them (and comment) now.

Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to e-mail me, follow me on Twitter, join the Facebook group, or make a comment on the site. I deeply appreciate your support, and look forward to hearing more from you in 2010. Happy new year!

Vacation Planning for Celiacs: Cruises

The irony for me was that, after researching different cruise options, I ended up going to Las Vegas instead. But my research wasn’t wasted: because I looked at the gluten-free options onboard different cruise lines, I was able to share what I’d found about Carnival, Norwegian, Princess, MSC and other companies. Better yet, so many readers contacted me about their cruise experiences (mostly with positive reports about dining gluten-free) that it inspired another post.

New York City Day by Day… for Celiacs

When I wrote the New York City Day by Day guidebook for Frommer’s, I was a newly diagnosed celiac. Fortunately, the book didn’t require full-length restaurant reviews; since it was intended as a cheat sheet to the city, and mostly filled with walking tours, I could get away with short mentions of favorite eateries. Of course, that list included many great spots for the gluten-free, such as Rosa Mexicano, Rice, Blue Smoke, and Pure Food & Wine. The book is now available as a download from the New York Public Library; for details, check out the original post.

Philadelphia’s Great Gluten-Free Initiative

Bravo to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness for training so many Philadelphia chefs via its Gluten-Free Resource Education Awareness Training (GREAT) program… to the wonderful chefs who took part… and to the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation for being savvy enough to recognize this as a terrific tourism initiative.

Smart Businesses Support Celiacs

This was inspired by Starbucks’ “now you see it, now you don’t” gluten-free Orange Valencia Cake. Remember it? But the post was about much more than Starbucks. It was about making smart choices to support businesses that are responsive to their customers’ needs. One of the things I wrote last July was, “At a time when we’re all watching our budgets, I’d like to make a case for spending even more carefully. If a major corporation isn’t serious about serving the gluten-intolerant, I see no reason to support them.” I stand by that position.

Gluten-Free Fast Food at the Toronto Eaton Centre

This post was an accident. While I was in Toronto last June, working on the Frommer’s Toronto 2010 guidebook, a business lunch was canceled at the last minute. Since I was stranded near the Eaton Centre, my hometown’s famous shopping complex, I decided to explore the fast-food options there. The response from readers was overwhelming. It turned out that just about everyone wanted to know more about celiac-safe fast food. This post had an unexpected result: a Toronto reader wrote to tell me that the Druxy’s Famous Deli in Commerce Court had gluten-free bread. When another reader saw that, she contacted Peter Druxerman, Druxy’s vice-president of marketing, to ask if the company could make gluten-free bread available at their outlet inside Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital. In the blink of an eye, Druxy’s responded, adding gluten-free bread to its offerings at PMH. Remember what I said earlier about supporting businesses that are responsive to their customers?

On the Road With…

I love finding out the secrets of great travelers. Both Alice Bast, founder of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, and Sloane Miller, who writes the delightful Allergic Girl blog and runs Worry-Free Dinners in New York, were kind enough to share many of theirs.

Mail-Ordering Gluten-Free Groceries

First and foremost, the Gluten-Free Guidebook is about travel and dining out. But even if you’re on the road a lot, as I am, you need to buy groceries sometimes. I’m lucky to have some great spots near me in New York, but there are also some companies that I order from online. And it still surprises me that Amazon consistently offers some of the best prices on gluten-free groceries.

A Celebratory Gluten-Free Lunch in New York

For those of you who know me mainly as a travel writer and celiac advocate, it came as a shock that I have a dark side. My debut crime novel, The Damage Done, will be published by Forge in October 2010. I have been publishing short stories for a while, but I’m still happily surprised about my two-book deal with Forge. What I didn’t expect was that some criminally minded fiction types would be interested in the Gluten-Free Guidebook, too. David Cranmer, editor of Beat to a Pulp (one of the best places to find contemporary crime fiction), asked me about both my novel and my gluten-free travels when he interviewed me. Jen Forbus, the book blogger behind the wonderful Jen’s Book Thoughts, was kind enough to ask me to take part in her Six-Word Memoir project, in which she asked crime writers — including Dennis Lehane, Linda Fairstein, Joseph Wambaugh, Sue Grafton, Lee Child, Megan Abbott, Ken Bruen, and Mary Higgins Clark — to sum themselves up in six words. Have you read mine yet?

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Reader Reports for Celiac Awareness Month

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

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October is Celiac Awareness Month, so there’s an uptick in coverage about the disorder and generally about gluten intolerance. A couple of the better pieces that have been published lately: “Gluten-Free: Is It for Me?” by Daphne Oz on Oprah.com and “Why Common Foods May Hurt Your Health” by Dr. Jon LaPook on The Huffington Post.

Everyone knows it’s Halloween at the end of this month, but parents of children with celiac disease and/or food allergies need to hear about the Halloween candy list that’s available from Sure Foods Living. Keep in mind that this list was compiled using American sources. Canadian parents, when you read that Smarties are free of gluten, know that this is not true of the popular Nestlé treat, but of an American candy that is unrelated but shares the name. Also this month, the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness hosts a Gluten-Free Cooking Spree in San Francisco. It will take place on October 30th; check the NFCA site for details and ticket information.

Some Gluten-Free Guidebook readers also have advice to share. Carolina, who lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, recommends one gluten-free spot:

There is a place called CeliGourmet here in Buenos Aires that sells food to take out. It has all sorts of things, such as crepes, tarts, pizzas, sandwiches, empanadas (typical local food). There are also many kinds of cake, like cheesecake, chocolate cake, tiramisu, etc., and a variety of breads. There are two stores: one in General Paunero 1927 – Martinez (like half an hour out of town) tel, 4798-2990, and one in Thames 1633 – Palermo Soho, in town, tel 4831-5162.

To my ear, Buenos Aires sounds more and more like a gluten-free paradise. Reader Silvia Basualdo Róvere shared some local restaurants in this post and in this one. If you visit Buenos Aires, check out Oleo, a website that allows you to search for city restaurants that serve gluten-free meals (“comidas para celiacos”). There are currently 300 places on the list!

Another reader, Sybil, left an incredibly helpful comment on my post “Gluten-Free Fast Food at the Eaton Centre.” In it, she mentioned that the Druxy’s Famous Deli in Toronto’s Commerce Court kept gluten-free bread in its freezer. I’d never heard about Druxy’s offering gluten-free options, but Peter Druxerman, the company’s vice-president of marketing, confirmed it. Right now it’s just a test program — the only Druxy’s with gluten-free bread is the one in Commerce Court — but it’s one that Druxerman says the company would like to expand.

Next summer, if you’re visiting Ontario’s spectacular Stratford Festival, take a tip from another reader, Marilyn, who shared this:

We twice visited the festival last summer, and we were able to order ahead, by phone or online, for a gluten-free picnic lunch that we picked up from the Festival Theatre lunch bar. We found the food and beverage supervisor very helpful in discussing options, and the food was excellent!

If you go, the Festival Theatre Café is located at 55 Queen Street, Stratford, [tel] 1-800-567-1600 or 519-271-4040. According to the website, picnic lunches need to be ordered at least 48 hours in advance.

Many thanks to Carolina, Sybil, and Marilyn for their terrific tips. Please keep them coming!

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Dining With Conviction in Toronto

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

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Last week I wrote about how I ended up at a (wonderful) Turkish tourist trap. This week, I’m fessing up about falling for a gimmick. Not just any gimmick, mind you. There’s a short list of chefs whom I admire and will follow to whatever new venture they dream up. Toronto’s Marc Thuet is on that list. I’ve dined — gluten-free — at his various restaurants over the past few years. That’s how I ended up at Conviction.

What’s the gimmick? The name provides a clue: all of the kitchen crew and serving staff at Conviction have served time in jail. The concept is so cute that there’s a reality show being filmed about the restaurant. A sign out front warns that entering the restaurant implies a willingness to appear on-camera. (In fairness, I should add that filming was going on while I was there, but the TV crew wasn’t intrusive at all.) Still, dining at a place that boasts about the illicit pasts of its staff raises a few eyebrows — and questions. My practical friend Stephanie, who suggested checking out the restaurant, texted me before we met there: “Bring cash. We are NOT paying with credit cards!”

There are a few things you can count on at any Marc Thuet restaurant. One is a charming setting; two is impressive service; and three is fine food. All three are in evidence at Conviction. The dining room is an airy white atelier enlivened by red chairs, crimson flowers, and scarlet chandeliers. Service is thoughtful and helpful; while my server didn’t seem to be familiar with celiac disease, it took only a few minutes to coordinate with the kitchen about what I could have for dinner. The food was fantastic: I started with a simple green salad made special with the addition of a well-aged sheep’s milk cheese, and then had Ontario-raised lamb with ratatouille. The menu is short, but everything on it is farm-fresh, or made from scratch on the premises.

I’ve suggested the restaurant to a few people since, and have heard only good reports. I’m gaining confidence in Conviction. The next time I dine there, I may even pay with a credit card.

Conviction [address] 609 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada [tel] 416-603-2999 [web] www.convictionrestaurant.com

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Some fiction news: My short story “Insatiable” was published by the online journal Beat to a Pulp. BTAP’s editor, David Cranmer, interviewed me, and asked me about the Gluten-Free Guidebook, among other things. Also, my story “Beast” just took first prize in a crime fiction contest called the Watery Grave Invitational.

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Dining at the Royal Ontario Museum’s C5

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

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I have mixed feelings about the Royal Ontario Museum‘s redesigned building. From Bloor Street West, Daniel Libeskind’s crystal is aggressively fabulous. It’s an übermodern work of jutting glass and steel, and you can’t miss it, even from a mile away. The interior of the crystal is another story. In spite of its towering ceilings, it lacks the grandeur of the façade and resembles a whitewashed warehouse. This is not to say that the collections aren’t breathtaking. I particularly love the Chinese galleries, which feature an intact Ming tomb as well as the Bishop White Gallery of Chinese Temple Art. The ROM also has wonderful galleries devoted to ancient Egypt and Greece, and its perennially popular dinosaur collection. But the building is disappointing on the inside.

The exception is C5, the Royal Ontario Museum’s beautiful restaurant, which is located on the crystal’s top level. Here the skylights and criss-crossing window segments provide a gorgeous view of the city. The dining room is modern chic: white leather banquettes and chairs for dining, black leather sofas and wing chairs for drinks, and an open kitchen that knows how to pair flavors for maximum impact. This is where I had my most memorable meal on my last visit to Toronto: fresh cod, grilled to perfection and served with a lentil-and-vegetable salad and a tangy mustard sauce. The menu is short, but everything on it is prepared from scratch, and the staff is familiar with celiac disease and food allergies.

Keep in mind, if you visit, that you don’t need to pay admission to the museum to dine here (though I strongly recommend that you visit the collections). Just tell the staff that you’re going to C5, and they’ll point you to an elevator that will whisk you upstairs.

C5 at the Royal Ontario Museum [address] 100 Queen’s Park (at Bloor Street West), Toronto [tel] 416-586-7928 [web] www.C5restaurant.ca

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Conference Dining for Celiacs

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

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I just spent four days at the ThrillerFest conference at the Grand Hyatt in New York. If you’re a fan of mysteries, crime novels, or thrillers — or if you aspire to write them — you may have heard of it. Best-selling writers such as Lee Child, Steve Martini, Lisa Gardner, David Baldacci and Meg Gardiner all spoke at the event (along with many others). It was a fascinating scene.

And yet, what I was really thinking about was lunch.

When I registered for the conference a couple of months ago, there was a place on the online form to add any special notes. I mentioned that I have celiac disease, and that I would need a gluten-free meal for the luncheon on Thursday (other meals weren’t included in the conference, so this was the only one I needed to arrange in advance). I didn’t really expect to hear anything back from the organizers, so 10 days before the conference, I e-mailed them. I told them what I needed, and asked them how I would go about arranging it. They responded promptly and assured me that they would look into it. And so I waited… and waited.

After a couple of reminder e-mails, I got a message from one of the organizers. This is what it said:

I never got an answer back on my question about this. What we have done in past years for the banquet is that you tell your waiter your special requirements when you are seated. If I learn something different, I’ll let you know.

At this, alarm bells went off for me. While a restaurant can come up with a gluten-free meal with no notice, it’s tougher at a catered event. My worst experience on this front was at a conference I attended in Chicago five years ago, just after I was diagnosed with celiac disease. I’d told the organizer what I could and couldn’t have, and she told me I’d be fine. Then, at dinner the first night, I discovered that our meal consisted mainly of pizza. When I cornered the organizer, she was indifferent. “You can eat the toppings on the pizza,” she told me. “You don’t have to eat the crust.”

That was an eye-opener for me. And however ill-informed that conference organizer was, she forced me to realize that even when you explain to someone else what celiac disease is and what you need to avoid, they may not take it as seriously as you do. It was an important lesson.

In the end, my luncheon problem was easily solved, because I got in touch with the catering staff at the Hyatt directly. As with every Hyatt property I’ve visited — from Toronto, Canada to Santiago, Chile — they assured me that it would be no problem to get a gluten-free meal ready for me. And they meant it: I was served a main course of chicken with steamed broccoli and carrots. (Several people I’ve interviewed, including Alice Bast and Vanessa Maltin, have mentioned how helpful and accommodating Hyatt is on the gluten-free front.) But it reminded me that sometimes you really do have to take matters into your own hands.

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Luxurious Gluten-Free Dining for Less

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

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One of my favorite things about my job is that I get to discover and review wonderful places. I was just up in Toronto for my annual Frommer’s guidebook, and I’m happy to report that I found plenty of things worth writing about (including the amazing Frank Gehry renovation of the Art Gallery of Ontario — the photo above is of his spiraling showpiece of a staircase). Given the state of the economy, I focused on finding places that are particularly good value for the money. One of the things that’s bothered me over the past few years is that the prices at some restaurants have veered off into the stratosphere; last year, it seemed like many of the new spots that opened were charging upwards of $40 for an entrée. You could argue whether that’s a good idea at any time, but in a recession it just seems wrong.

That’s one of the reasons why I was so happy to discover Madeline’s. Toronto has plenty of famous chefs, but one of the most celebrated is Susur Lee. He closed his flagship Toronto restaurant, Susur, when he moved to New York to open a new restaurant in the Thompson Hotel. However, he promised that he’d replace it with another spot, and Madeline’s is the result. Named for the chef’s mother, it’s a breathtakingly beautiful spot, with a glamorous dining room decorated in a mix of Moroccan, French and Byzantine styles. But the shocker was the menu: almost every entrée is under $20. Coming from one of the most renowned chefs in the city, that’s something unusual. Especially since there doesn’t seem to be any trade-off with the quality of the food (incredible) or the service (outstanding). Why aren’t more chefs doing this? (I should note that the fabulous Jamie Kennedy, another Toronto star chef, has been offering excellent tapas plates at very reasonable prices for some time now; I reviewed the Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar last year.)

There were a few things I couldn’t have on Madeline’s menu, but the staff was savvy about celiac disease and the gluten-free diet, and had no problem pointing out what would be safe for me. I ended up starting with a portobello mushroom salad that was dressed up with sweet onions, capers, and a poppy vinaigrette. For the main course, I had bison carpaccio with potatoes, chives, garlic, and Parmigiano-Reggiano. I passed up dessert (not many gluten-free options there), but went home satisfied — and excited about spreading the word. It’s still an indulgence, but one that felt well worth it.

Madeline’s [address] 601 King Street West (at Portland Street), Toronto [tel] 416-603-2205 [web] www.susur.com/madelines

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Roundup: Gluten-Free Advice From Readers

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

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I was thrilled by the response to last week’s post, “Gluten-Free Fast Food at the Eaton Centre.” Thanks to everyone who took the time to e-mail me or to comment. Many readers passed along their own suggestions of where to find gluten-free meals, and I wanted to share those ideas with you.

One reader, Chelsea, e-mailed me about some Toronto spots that she likes:

Have you checked out Fressen in Toronto? It is a very trendy vegan restaurant that also has a lot of wheat-free options (not fast-food but perhaps you would want to try it, if you haven’t already!). I also like Rice Bar in Kensington Market (also not fast food, but fairly cheap/fast). Also, there is a new wheat-free (and I think gluten-free) bakery on Yonge Street near Lawrence, called Organic Oven. So far I’ve only had a rice-made cupcake from there, but it was very good!

I’ve tried both Fressen and Rice and think they’re great, but I’d never heard of Organic Oven. It turns out that it’s a bakery that’s been operating for the past seven years in Brampton, and which has just opened a completely gluten-free bakery and café on Yonge Street, just north of Lawrence. Organic Oven uses certified organic ingredients, and also produces treats that are vegan, dairy-free, eggless, flourless, low-glycemic and/or diabetic-friendly. I’m looking forward to visiting it the next time I’m in Toronto.

Another reader, Marilyn, shared a couple of spots:

We’ve eaten gluten-free often @ the Salad King just north of the Eaton Centre on the east side of Yonge. It’s very informal & busy but good, cheap, cheerful & we’ve found the servers to be GF-aware… also we’ve stopped for pizza with the GF crust at the Pizza Pizza at 346 Yonge St — though it takes at least 20 minutes for the special order crust.

I’m fond of Pizza Pizza’s gluten-free offerings (which I’ve written about; I should remind everyone that many of their toppings are gluten-free, but not all of them are). I haven’t tried Salad King, so I’ve added it to my list of places to visit next time.

Another reader, Tom, told me about Portions, a company based in Guelph, Ontario, that is apparently the place to get gluten-free baked goods. Portions’ website lists its GF bread-baking schedule, which includes Cinnamon Raisin Loaf and Caraway Pumpernickel Loaf. I don’t know when I’ll next be in Guelph, but now I have a reason to visit soon.

Thanks again to Chelsea, Marilyn, and Tom, and to everyone who has taken the time to contact me or to comment. Please keep the great ideas and suggestions coming! Just before I left Toronto, I had lunch at Epic, a gorgeous restaurant at the Fairmont Royal York (pictured above) — another spot with some great gluten-free options.

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