Until just a few years
ago, we frequented chain restaurants with abandon. When Rick
was diagnosed as Celiac/severely gluten intolerant, all of that changed, curtailing
our traveling to a great extent.
“Why?” you might ask. The particular
chain restaurant you choose for chow is only as good as the owner at franchises
such as Ruby Tuesday; the manager and/or chef on duty at the time of your visit;
or the dedication of corporate to provide a gluten free option for its gluten free
customers. While “Chef’s Cards” (click for link to our Che'fs Card) are helpful, they do not make you bullet proof. As a customer, you have no way
of knowing the chef’s card ever reaches the person who is actually preparing
the food or, if it reaches them, whether they actually follow the instructions.
Is this just one more damn thing down from corporate for them to deal with, or
is it advice on how to prevent problems for a customer? I suspect this happens often
in the context of a busy food establishment trying to serve the greatest number
of customers in a minimum of time. The bottom line is you can eat food that
innocently came into contact with food containing gluten even in well meaning
restaurants. In those not so careful and do not care, the risk is even greater.
We avoid chain restaurants
like the plague, but occasionally get caught enroute and are “forced” to eat at
such places rather than unpack the entire car to get to our prepared food. This
past Thursday was exactly one of those days. We passed up a rest area right off
Interstate 65 where we could have had a picnic lunch opting to eat at the Ruby
Tuesday at Exit 130 a couple of miles down the way, thus avoiding having to
fight mosquitoes and other insects while eating.
When we asked the hostess for
their gluten free menu, she literally had the proverbial “deer-in-the-headlights”
look on her face. A waiter proudly came to her assistance and said “No problem”
as he reached for their $5 appetizer menu to place on top of the regular menu.
Enter person number
3—another server whose response to a polite request for a gluten free menu was,
and I quote, “The manager will have to print you one off.” What do you
mean—print one off? There should be one ready and in good shape for every
customer who asks for a gluten free menu. By the way, knowing we had asked for
a gluten free menu, she still pushed us to order a gluten laden appetizer and
later dessert. Do you think she understands “gluten free”? I would wager she
does not.
After waiting over 20
minutes for someone to print a gluten free menu, I demanded to speak to the
manager who seemed rather, for the lack of a more polite term, a bit miffed to be
bothered with us “gluten free” folks. We finally got the menu after the manager
had instructed me to “sit down”. That is the term teachers use when unruly
students are out of their seats in class. I know; I was a teacher. In this case
I was a paying customer.
When I took the manager to
task about not having a properly trained staff, he explained that his staff was
trained. Now wait just a minute, if this guys folks were so well trained, why
in the heck would the waitress press us to order a gluten filled appetizer when
we had asked repeatedly for a gluten free
menu. My response to this lie was a defiant “NO! Your have not trained your
staff.” The three I have spoken with thus far do not know what gluten is or which
foods contain gluten.” To that response, I received a disgusted sigh.
My husband and I gave the
manager—yes, the manager became our waiter—our orders, both from the gluten
free menu. We gave the manager our “Chef’s Card” and insisted he attach it to
the ticket. Rick ’s meal came back
perfect; mine had croutons on top. While it is true I am not intolerant to gluten
or have even a slight sensitivity, I ordered from the gluten free menu for two
reasons. First and most importantly, I simply feel better not ingesting so much
gluten, thus avoiding eating wheat, oats, barley and rye to the degree
possible. Second, I was giving the manager a pop quiz—remember, I am a teacher—on
gluten free dining in this particular establishment. He and his restaurant got
1 out of 2 meals on that one ticket correct, yielding a grade of “50” which is
a big old fat “F” on his report card.
The croutons were truly
not a problem for me; I simply put the croutons on the side of the platter and
did not eat them. If I were like my husband, however, who becomes extremely ill
when exposed to even the slightest bit of gluten, I would have been very sick
from the crumbs on the salad.
Instead of just venting at
the manager, who seemed not to care and was simply annoyed, I decided to dust
off my researcher’s cap and do a little internet sleuthing. I looked up the
websites of the last three chain restaurants where we had eaten: Ruby Tuesday,
Longhorn Steakhouse and Maggiano’s.
Here is what I learned.
Ruby Tuesday is a franchise, meaning that while corporate has responsibility to
provide training and guidance and to set policy, the quality of the day-to-day
operation is up to the local owner. However, I did find an interesting quote on
their website addressing the subject of training extensively. According to their
website . . .
Ruby Tuesday invests millions of dollars in
performance training annually, among the
most in our industry. We view this
investment in our people as a number-one priority for
operational success. Our
award-winning Quality Training department has been
internationally recognized
by the American Society for Training and Development, and
was presented with
the 2006 BEST Award for our devotion to top-box instructional
design and our
holistic approach to learning. Our in-house Quality Training
team
touches every single initiative implemented in our restaurants.
I found the last sentence the
most amusing. Either the “trainers” do not know the seriousness of Celiac/gluten
intolerance or food allergies are not considered an initiative worthy of
addressing (all their food allergy information is supposed to be in a single
notebook, which in this case had to be printed in its entirety every time
someone comes in to this particular establishment with any food allergies). I
also found the Ruby Tuesday chain no longer listed on Gluten Free Registry’s
website. However, the Ruby Tuesday
menu listed on http://glutenfreetravelsite.com/restaurants/,
but I could find no reviews of the particular location in Greenville , AL
Longhorn Steakhouse’s
website did not mention training or having a gluten free menu whatsoever even
though this chain is listed extensively on Gluten Free Registry’s website. Similarly,
some locations are good with conscientious managers and/or chefs who take the
subject seriously. Others, like the Ruby Tuesday manager in Greenville
Oddly, Maggiano’s did not
boast about their overall training or their gluten free menu. Maggiano’s is one
of a family, aka, chain of restaurants. Having eaten at their Perimeter Atlanta
location a few times, I am convinced that this particular location to be
dedicated to keeping their customers happy and safe. When asked about a gluten
free menu, the hostess simply smiles and explains she will have one of the chefs
on duty come to our table to talk with us. Every time the chef will cheerfully
ask what we are in the mood to eat. We tell him, and he takes it from there. Even
the servers remember us from one time to the next, including what we ordered
and the type of wine we like. Now that is what I call service! A little
expensive? Yes! Worth the money (and piece of mind)? Absolutely!
A couple of sites you
might find helpful when navigating gluten filled waters circling the chain
restaurant world include:
·
www.glutenfreeregistry.com/ This
one provides a worldwide map. You simply type in the location; little balloons
reflect gluten free restaurants in that particular area. Simply click on the balloons
for the names. You can also print a list or gluten free restaurants located in
the area you are interested in visiting. The site also allows you to leave reviews,
which I find helpful.
·
http://glutenfreetravelsite.com/restaurants/ This site provides menus as well as locations around
the world. You can leave reviews if you are a registered user of this website.
Being a southern native, I have always been very
cognizant of the civil strife many of our citizenry experienced earlier in our
history. Asking for a gluten free menu in a restaurant that does not care if
you eat a safe meal or not can be likened to Rosa Parks Montgomery
Alabama
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