Enter: Tosi's.
Tosi's is an upscale restaurant in Stevensville, Michigan that has started catering to the allergy set. K and E knew they wanted to take me there the minute they saw it advertised in their local paper.
I called ahead to double-check that they understood gluten free cooking, as their online menu had me a little wary. It listed that there was "no flour" in certain dishes, which raised a red flag for me. Gluten is, unfortunately, in far more than flour! It's in salad dressings, seasoning salts, marinades, broth, you name it. Restaurants can be hazardous places for us gf-ers.
The woman at the front desk let me speak to Eric, the head chef, who assured me that they took serious precautions, even to the point of wearing latex gloves when handling gf food. I took down my red flags and headed over to the restaurant.
Their gf menu isn't extensive, but in a community this size the fact that they've started offering gf options is a huge boon. After looking the menu over, I decided on the roasted chicken with potatoes and green beans, with a cup of minestrone to start.
The minestrone was... well, it was gluten free. I'll give it that. It was also like paste. Like babies had gummed it. It had a very thick texture that made me worry immediately that I was ingesting some gluten. But luckily, there were no tummy blips later. It was gluten free, albeit not very edible.
However, the chicken more than made up for the soup. It was tender, juicy, and perfectly cooked. It fell right off the bone. It melted in my mouth. It will make me go back there next time I'm in town. I dug in before I got a picture, but it was really pretty before I attacked it!
The meal's only major disappointment was the dessert tray. The gf menu stated that we should ask our server about dessert, but that some would be available. When we asked, our waitress brought us over a huge tray of beautiful desserts and then stopped dead in her tracks.
"Oh..." she said. "I don't know if you can have any of these. You may be able to have this one...?" she asked, gesturing toward a berry crumble.
"I can't eat it unless you're 100% sure it's gluten free," I said. "Is there someone in the kitchen you can ask?"
"Oh..." she began again. "Our desserts are made fresh in our bakery next door... and they are closed now... I'm sorry. We really should make a note of that."
"Yes," I said. "You should."
We left happy, but we had been eyeing that amazing dessert tray since we walked in the door. K and E turned down the glutinous desserts to be sweet to me, and instead we stopped by the local grocery store and bought a brownie mix and some ice cream (regular for E and me, dairy-free for K). Not the ending we had pictured to our night at Tosi's, but a good ending to our night overall.
My review on Tosi's? I give it an overall B-. A+ for the chicken, C- for the soup, and just a sad face for the dessert. :(
To all you restaurants out there with gluten free menus: start offering dessert by just keeping a carton or two of safe ice cream in the freezer and chocolate sauce or hot fudge in the fridge. It's not much, but it's a start, and it will keep your gf guests happy while the regular guests dig into the cheesecake.
Do it for me. :)
Well to each his own...their Minestrone is my family's ABSOLUTE FAVORITE.
ReplyDeleteOMG, When I was a kid, people would go there just for the soup. Our family would go to the kitchen door and buy the soup by the quart to take home. When I am in town, I go there just to get my fix. By the way, the soup is thick because some of the beans used to make the soup are mashed or pureed. Natural thickening, Nothing added. But the salt pork, which is also used, is probably not gluten free.
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