Happy Birthday to Me! - Mellow Mushroom & Mary's Gluten Free Goods

So, my birthday was two weeks ago.  How old did I turn?  29 again, of course.  Don't you know better than to ask a lady her age?  Just kidding.

Anyway, I am lucky to have a really close group of friends.  We have named ourself the Tuesday Nigh Movie Crew.  They have been very supportive of me through my Celiac Diagnosis and completely understand when I say I can/cannot eat certain things.  I also have to be nice to them because they know where I buried all the bodies!

So for my birthday one of them picked up GF pizza from Mellow Mushroom.  They got only GF pies so I wouldn't have to worry about cross contamination.  Does it get much more thoughtful than that?  Not for me.  The pizza was pretty good.  It was a middle crust - not thin like most GF pizzas, and not deep dish like real pizza.  They carried ham and pineapple, which is my favorite.  Actually, I mis-typed it in an e-mail once as "him and pineapple," so you can image the jokes that sprung from that mistake.

I also have an awesome co-worker named Claire.  She ordered GF cupcakes for me from Mary's Gluten Free Goods bakery.  If you haven't had any of Mary's GF baked goods, check out the link here.  Claire got carrot cake (my favorite) and vanilla cupcakes for me.  The whole office ate them even though they were GF and we all decided you can't really tell the difference. 

Several restaurants in town serve Mary's rolls, bread, desserts, etc.  Ones I know for sure carry her stuff include Cafe Eclectic, Fuel Cafe, Tsunami, Ciao Bella, and Cortona.  She also comes to the Downtown Farmer's Market.

All in all, it was a really nice birthday.  Stay tuned for future info on Outback Steakhouse, Huey's, Cipotle, and The Rendezvous.

Mellow Mushroom

Okay, after a brief post to rhapsodize over Trader Joe's, I'm back to restaurant land.  Earlier this year, the Memphis Business Journal announced that Mellow Mushroom is expanding into East Memphis.  This really excited me, because as a Midtowner, I don't make the long trek out to Germantown for dinner that often.  That means that I haven't had a chance to try eating some of their GF pizza.

Today the MBJ did another story on the expansion.  In case you haven't seen it, here are some of the details:
 
The second Memphis-area Mellow Mushroom should sprout up on Park Avenue by this summer. The local development team, operating as Mellow Ventures LLC, has filed a $750,000 building permit to convert the former AAA Auto Club Group building at 5138 Park into a restaurant.
 
Project demolition has started and construction could begin in late February. Harvey said they hope to be completed by June.  The 7,880-square-foot building at Eastgate Shopping Center will have an outdoor patio when completed.

Here's another opportunity for all of us Celiac and Gluten Intolerant people to get a decent dinner.  I've heard kind of mixed reviews from friends about the pizza and the service at the restaurant in Germantown.  Have you dined there?  Anyone care to comment about their experience?  Was the pizza good?  Did they seem to understand avoiding cross contamination?

For those of you interested in their menu, here's a link:  Mellow Mushroom Gluten Free Menu.  I really liked their comment on the bottom about the precautions they take.  My only criticism is one that I've heard often on message boards and blogs about GF menus in restaurants - there are no prices.  I understand that there's a good chance I will have to pay more for a gf pizza crust, gf pasta, or gf sandwich bread, but I guess the restaurant owners are worried that people will complain about the extra cost.  I don't know.  Any restaurant owners out there that care to weigh in?

On a personal note, I got glutened recently.  No, it wasn't at any of the fine establishments that I've talked about on the blog.  It was actually on my way back from Nashville (see the Trader Joe's post).  One of my many side effects when I ingest gluten is that I lose all my energy and become very depressed and apathetic.  Unfortunately it lasts for several weeks.  I am hoping to keep up with the blog while I recover, but there is a chance I may be too tired for a while.  But I will definitely return when all the evil poison is out of my system and I feel top notch again.  Until then, stay gluten free in the Bluff City...