Travel

Eating Gluten-Free in Cleveland

April 24, 2023 by Erika Heald Leave a Comment

As a gluten-free traveler, Cleveland has become one of my favorite destinations. For the past decade, I’ve visited the city every year to attend the Content Marketing World conference, and have eaten at dozens of delicious, seasonal restaurants that have easily accommodated my food allergies. While many of the places I used to enjoy eating at (like Lola) never reopened after their Covid-related closures in 2020, there’s been a whole new crop of great restaurants that have taken their place.

Betts

I’m not saying my CMworld squad and I chose to stay at the Kimpton Schofield in Cleveland because of the delicious allergy-friendly food at Betts, but I would be lying if I said that it wasn’t a key benefit! Whether you are sitting at the outside patios or in the dining room, you are guaranteed to have your choice from a wide selection of snacks and entrees, including the delicious summer fried chicken with peach chutney you see above.

They have gluten-free bread for toast with your breakfast, and you can substitute a gluten-free bun or a lettuce wrap for their burger. Some of my other favorites include the Meditteranean salad, the tri-dip platter with GF toast or corn chips, and crispy Brussels sprouts. If you can’t make it there at mealtime, stop by at happy hour for a snack and some classic cocktails on the sidewalk patio.

BETTS
at the Schofield
2000 E 9th St, Cleveland
(216) 357-2680

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Eating Gluten-free in Sacramento

May 1, 2018 by Erika Heald Leave a Comment

Sacramento at night photo by JD Weiher on Unsplash

2022 Update: This post captures a moment in time, pre-pandemic, before we moved to Sacramento. I now have an always-updated list of the best places to eat gluten-free in Sacramento to help you make your visit to Sacramento a delicious one)

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A few weeks ago, Lewis and I decided to make a weekend trip to Sacramento. I hadn’t visited our state capital in years, and Lewis had somehow never been. As a kid, I spent a lot of time there, usually in the middle of the Summer heat waves. Since then, the city has built a reputation as the farm-to-fork capital of the U.S., even hosting an annual farm-to-fork festival each Fall. With all this in mind, I was excited to see what the options were for eating gluten-free in Sacramento.

We chose to stay at The Sawyer, a new Kimpton property that opened about six months ago. It’s located in the heart of downtown Sacramento, next to the Golden One arena and the Downtown Commons shopping area. The location made it easy for us to walk around and enjoy Sacramento without the hassle of parking.

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FODMAP Friday March 23, 2018 Sonoma County Staycation Edition

March 23, 2018 by Erika Heald Leave a Comment

Another cold, wet Spring week draws to a close. This week was a little different, however, because we had a little bit of Sonoma County staycationing thrown in!

We dodged the rain showers and made our way to three of our favorite Sonoma County wineries—Cline Cellars, Arrowood Vineyards, and St. Francis Winery. The surprise star of our tastings this week was Malbec. Both St. Francis and Arrowood had them this season and they were our favorite wines at both wineries. At Cline, we made a point to only try wines we haven’t had recently since we regularly buy their zinfandels. We came home with a fun assorted case of whites and reds, including their great Farmhouse Red blend that will be perfect for pairing with dinner over the next few months. If only we had more room to store wine…

After our rainy afternoon of wine tasting, we checked into the Sonoma Mission Inn. We’d made reservations for dinner at their award-winning restaurant Santé for later that evening, and had time to check out the bar before dinner. It was refreshing to have gluten-free crackers and bread available to make the snacks and appetizers on the menu OK for me to eat. But the real star of the night was the dessert: a chocolate soufflé with a hot Valhrona chocolate sauce poured over it at the table. So. Good. We’d had a lemon soufflé the last time we’d visited the restaurant, and had been hoping there would be a soufflé on the menu this time as well.

Loved the #glutenfree soufflé at @fairmontsonoma last night. #food #foodblogger

A post shared by Erika Heald (@misserikasf) on Mar 18, 2018 at 10:39am PDT

After an evening of excellent food and more wine, we retired to our room. Choosing a room with a fireplace was a smart move—it made our stay that much more cozy. It can be so much fun to have a mini-vacation like this in your own backyard. And when you have Sonoma County an hour’s drive away, there’s really no excuse not to.

This Week’s Low FODMAP Recipes

Salmon makes a nice change from the usual chicken-topped salad with this Salmon Filet Salad recipe from The Fat Foodie. Love that it uses my favorite low FODMAP rach dressing from Livefree.
Looking for a side for your next taco night? try this Low FODMAP Cilantro Lime Rice from Fun Without FODMAPs.
If there’s a break in the wet weather, you’ll wnat to bust out the grill to make these Low FODMAP Garlic Shrimp skewers from The FODMAP Formula.
Tuna casserole is the ultimate comfort food. This creamy low FODMAP tuna casserole recipe from Taters to Truffles kicks things up a notch with the healthy addition of kale.
This ‘Eggstra Mile’ Gluten Free Mini Egg Rocky Road recipe from Becky Excell is just the thing to bring to an Easter brunch.
Looking for a new low FODMAP side dish to add to your dinner rotation? Monash just shared a recipe for roasted polenta bites with cheese and herbs.

Replenish Your Low FODMAP Pantry

Restock your pantry with everything you need to make these recipes + more via my Erika’s Gluten-free Kitchen Amazon shop. You get the same everyday low prices you expect from Amazon while helping me bring more great recipes to the blog. I appreciate your support!

Cleveland Gluten-free Eats

September 4, 2017 by Erika Heald 2 Comments

#cmworld already off to an awesome start with a gluten free care package. Thanks @moninaw ! <3

A photo posted by Erika Heald (@misserikasf) on Sep 5, 2016 at 6:57pm PDT

Every September, I head to Cleveland, Ohio, for the annual Content Marketing World event. But last year was a little different. You see, it was my first conference travel since I received my gluten intolerance and wheat allergy diagnosis.

In San Francisco, I can almost forget that I have this dietary restriction—there are so many ways to get gluten-free and FODMAP-friendly food delivered to our place. But eating on the go for a week is something altogether different.

For me, doing a little research and connecting with the event organizers in advance enabled me to have a stress-free #CMworld experience.

Always Make Your Dietary Restrictions Known in Advance

The CM World staff is 100% committed to making the event a great experience for all attendees, starting with having customized meal options. In addition to being gluten intolerant, I also have a serious allergy to crab. I made both of these restrictions known to the staff when I registered.

Ahead of my arrival, I did a good amount of web sleuthing to identify the best restaurants to reserve for my dinner meetups.

Upon arrival at the Westin (whose restaurant Urban Farmer has a good number of gluten free options), I was greeted by a gluten-free care package put together by my pal Monina Wagner. It was such a relief to have some grab-n-go gluten-free snacks in hand to stash in my conference bag during my first big trip away from home. It gave me the confidence to try out a whole slew of restaurants, many of which I’ll be visiting again this year.

If you’re heading to Cleveland for Content Marketing World or another conference, here’s where I recommend you plan to grab your gluten-free eats.

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