This delicious dish from Brasserie Kensington features Care Bakery’s gluten free buns.
Whether you’ve recently been diagnosed with Celiac disease, or pinned your stomachaches on gluten intolerance, it can be tough to transition over to a diet free of wheat and other gluten-filled grains. Fortunately, it’s not something you have to go through alone. On March 29th and 30th, 2014, more than 6,000 people packed their way into the Olympic Oval in search of gluten free (GF) information, shopping, and free samples at the second annual Gluten Free Expo. One in one hundred people are estimated to have Celiac disease. Without even counting those who may have a wheat allergy or a gluten intolerance, that estimation makes for approximately 11,500 Calgarians that need to abide by a gluten free diet. Some doctors estimate up to 10 per cent of the population may even have a gluten intolerance – which would make 115,000 of us.
Of course, it can be pretty easy to be gluten free if you stick to eating only meat and vegetables and never eat out. But sometimes, you just really want to buy a quick sandwich on the go, or bake a cake. Luckily, the large population of fellow gluten free folks in Calgary makes that pretty easy. Here are a couple places to visit to get you started on living a happy and satiated GF lifestyle in the city.
Gluten Free Shopping
There are plenty of kitchen staples you’ll have to replace once you go gluten free. Once you’re done tossing your old crumb-filled toasters and cleaning your pantry, you’ll want to start replacing some of your basics. Items like soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, boxed stocks, and, more obviously, all of your flours and baking supplies will have to go.
The first place you’ll want to stop is the Calgary Gluten Free Store. Open Thursday through Sunday at the Kingsland Farmers Market, this shop has everything you might need – bread crumbs, baking mixes, sauces, as well as lots of snacks and frozen meals. The owners are also incredibly knowledgeable – they started the store after their daughter was diagnosed with Celiac, and are experts on living a gluten free lifestyle. Stop by to thank them for being the first to bring many GF products to Calgary, or ask for advice on which gluten free granola bar is the tastiest – they give great advice.
Fortunately, while the Gluten Free Store does stock most of the hardest to find items in the city, there are plenty of other options. There are two other entirely gluten free groceries in the city – Sandra’s Gluten Free General Store and the Gluten Free Marketplace. Both take online orders, as well as having physical locations in NW Calgary.
Another great place to pick up GF goods is your local organic or health food store. The following all carry a large stock of fresh, dry, and frozen GF goods: Amaranth Foods, Blush Lane Organic Market, Community Natural Foods, Planet Organic, and some Sunterra locations.
You won’t always have to worry about going out of your way, however. Safeway, Superstore, Co-Op, and Save on Foods all have a limited gluten free selection. If you want to pick up cereal, flour, bread, bagels, pizza crusts, crackers, or frozen dinners, most locations will have what you’re looking for. You’ll only have to look elsewhere for more specific items.
Customers stock up on snacks at Calgary’s Gluten Free Expo.
Gluten Free Bakeries
If you’ve ever eaten a slice of basic, store-bought, gluten free bread you know that it can be a little crumbly and flavourless unless you toast it – and even after toasting it often doesn’t quite match up to the real thing. Fortunately, there are a ton of incredible gluten free bakeries in Calgary.
Kerry Bennett realized that she could no longer eat gluten while enrolled in SAIT’s culinary program. I hate to say it, but her loss is our gain. Kerry founded Care Bakery, supplying Calgary with dinner rolls, white bread, burger buns, hotdog buns, and pizza crusts, all so good they are barely distinguishable from the real thing. Her products are available at all Co-Op locations in the city, as well as a number of other local organic and gluten free groceries (click through for the full list). She also supplies many of the restaurants in the city – more on that later.
Big Star Bake House, tucked away on 6th Street and 17th Avenue SW, also carries a selection of GF breads – their baguettes are to die for – but where they really shine is with their pastries and sweets. Fresh coffee cakes, moon pies, cookies, quiches… I’m hungry just thinking about it. You also never have to worry about cross contamination – the owner, Rich Adams, is anaphylactic triggered by wheat. Their front counter is always full of an array of delicious treats, and I would recommend trying them all. Big Star also does cakes to order.
Lakeview Bakery is another one not to miss. On top of their Lakeview location, you can find their breads and treats at a number of local organic grocery stores. They’ve come the closest to creating perfect GF cinnamon buns of any bakery I’ve sampled.
Cookie Mama in Inglewood offers gluten free cookies, cupcakes, cakes, bread, and buns.
For cupcakes, visit Crave Cupcakes or Buttercream Bakeshop.
Jelly Modern Doughnuts offer gluten sensitive doughnuts on Wednesdays.
For sweet and savoury baked treats delivered right to your door, Gluten Free Foodgasm has your back – you can also find them popping up at local markets.
If you’re craving macarons, they’re almost always made gluten free (just be sure to ask the bakery about cross contamination). However, two of the best macaron shops in the city are Yann Haute Patisserie and Ohh La La Patisserie.
Custom cakes or cupcakes for a special event? Try Swirl - they are happy to modify their cakes and cupcakes to be gluten and lactose free.
As for everything else – from buns, to frozen dinners, to nanaimo bars and carrot cakes, Earth’s Oven is a delicious (and healthy) local gluten free bakery.
Home-made GF toffee.
Gluten Free Restaurants
When I was diagnosed with Celiac disease 8 years ago, eating out at restaurants was nearly impossible. Fortunately, now the only problem with dining out as a Celiac in this city is that there are often too many options to choose between.
Of course, there are a couple common sense tips you’ll want to follow as a GF diner. If you plan on eating out, make sure that you explain your allergy to the waiter or waitress, and make sure that there’s no cross-contamination at the restaurant you’re dining at if you’re either Celiac or severely allergic. Of course, there are still going to be a few restaurants that won’t have any GF options – I’ve definitely been to my share of restaurants in the suburbs where I have to explain that “gluten means more than just wheat”, and “no, you can’t just pick the croutons off the salad – I will get very sick.” But fortunately, as awareness grows this seems to be a rare issue.
The best resource for finding a gluten free restaurant in the city is Care Bakery’s restaurant map. The bakery supplies dozens of restaurants throughout the city with bread, buns, and pizza crusts. It’s a great resource for spotting the nearest gluten free restaurant – and you can rest assured that if Care Bakery supplies them, the staff are educated on how to deal with GF customers.
If a restaurant isn’t on the map, that doesn’t mean that they don’t stock gluten free food! Many other restaurants in the city are supplied bread from Big Star Bakehouse, or purchase bread or pizza crusts from more commercial suppliers like Kinnikinnick or Udi’s. There are also plenty of restaurants that are happy to modify dishes to be gluten free – by removing the bread or removing a sauce.
Now, Calgary has far too many GF restaurants to list here, but here are a couple of my personal favourite gluten free options for different cuisines in the city. All of these restaurants have staff that are experts on gluten free eats. Some are primarily gluten free, other have gluten free menus, and the rest are happy to modify dishes to be 100 per cent GF.
Bar Food: Milk Tiger Lounge (100 per cent gluten free), Voodoo Lounge.
BBQ: Bookers BBQ and Crab Shack.
Brunch: Dairy Lane, Diner Deluxe, or OEB.
Burgers: Clive Burger, District, or Market.
Chinese: Oriental Palace, Peking Garden, or Silver Inn.
European: Charcut or Yellow Door Bistro.
Fast Food: New York Fries.
Gluten Free: Heaven Artisan GF.
Indian: Most Indian restaurants in Calgary are gluten free, but a personal favourite is Moti Mahal.
Italian: Cibo, Fiore, or Soffrito.
Korean: Korean Village or Seoul.
Mexican: Anejo.
Pizza: Avatara (100 per cent gluten free), Double Zero, Gordo’s Pizza, Una, or Without Papers.
Steakhouse: Gaucho.
Sushi: Globefish.
Thai: Khao San Thai Kitchen.
Vegetarian: The Coup.
Vietnamese: Tamarind Vietnamese.
Hopefully this guide is a helpful starting place for those of you looking to go gluten free. If you have any questions, suggestions for restaurants I could try, or interest in baking gluten free cinnamon buns for me, you can reach me on Twitter.