Friday, December 9, 2011

News & Notes: December 9, 2011

The Gluten Free Philly clan made the rounds in the last few weeks, devouring pancakes at Haddonfield's British Chip Shop, a gourmet cheesesteak at Paesano's at the Italian Market, and cinnamon crullers at Sweet Freedom Bakery - all of which were amazing.

A stop on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia will soon be a part of our rotation. As I wrote earlier this week, Ocean City's all-gluten-free Pure Tacos will be setting up shop in Center City in late February or early March. There will be seating for up to 30 customers.

Family-owned T.J. Smith's in Warrington (1585 Easton Rd., 215-343-1140) has a variety of safe options, including BBQ baby back ribs, potato skins, salads, clams casino and a chocolate torte dessert. The gluten-free items are prepared with dedicated equipment.

Toté, the new gluten-free bakery and market in South Philly (1024 S. 9th St., 215-551-5511) that I wrote about last month, opens today. According to an item at City Paper's Meal Ticket blog, the shop will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day but Monday.

An update on Dogfish Head's gluten-free Tweason'ale: the Delaware brewery is hoping to have approvals to ship the beer to wholesalers this month for a January release.

Hanukkah got a bit sweeter with the arrival of Chozen's Chocolate Gelt all-natural ice cream, with chocolate coin pieces. Other gluten-free flavors include Apples & Honey, Coconut Macaroon and Coffee Talk. The dessert is sold locally at the Ravitz ShopRites in southern New Jersey.

Congrats to Jackie H., who won the recent Tate's Bake Shop gluten-free giveaway. Tate's gluten-free chocolate chip cookies are also available at Jonathan's Best in Chestnut Hill (8229 Germantown Ave., 215-248-4344) and Mount Airy's Food For All (7127 Germantown Ave., 267-297-7122).

Coincidentally, reader Karen Z. mentioned on the Gluten Free Philly Facebook page that Trader Joe's now stocks gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. Although the TJ's cookies are a bit smaller than Tate's, I suspect Tate's makes them for the private-label grocer since the list and order of ingredients are nearly identical - and the taste is indistinguishable.

A quick word from a sponsor (sorta): If you're still in the midst of your online holiday shopping, show your support for Gluten Free Philly by accessing Amazon.com through this link or the retailer's ads at the blog. I get a small commission on purchases at no cost to you. Thanks to all of you who have done so in the past.

For those who have the time and money, there's a cool gluten-free tour of Italy's Tuscany region planned for May, leaving from New York. I'm requiring that any reader who goes has to write a review of the trip for this blog!

See ya next week.
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1 comment:

  1. Hey Gluten-Free Philly,
    We're curious to hear if you've tried out gluten-free beer, Daura by Estrella Damm. If so, let us know your thoughts and if this is a beer you'd recommend to others. It's different than other gf beers since it's actually brewed with barley malt.

    Thanks,
    Georgia
    United States Beverage (Daura's importer)
    ghomsany@usbev.net

    ReplyDelete