The Baked Bear

I heard rumors of an amazing new ice cream sandwich shop in PB and was shocked to hear that the shop was offering homemade gluten free cookie sandwiches.  I'm not a tough sell: make me something sweet and you've found the key to my heart.  When I learned about The Baked Bear I knew I had to visit as soon as possible.

This past weekend I made it over to The Baked Bear and indulged in their gluten free ice cream 'wich.  The shop is big and welcoming, with indoor seating and a location practically on the beach.  They have lots of ice cream flavors which you can use to construct your ice cream sandwich.  The gluten free option is a chocolate chip cookie which you can then fill with your ice cream of choice.  For those of you bringing gluten eating friends they have a wide variety of gluten filled cookies from which you can choose; you can even mix and match two different types of cookies when building your perfect 'wich.

I went for the mint chocolate chip even though the rocky road did look quite appealing.  The cookie sandwich came out to $2.95 which, considering the often exorbitant prices of gluten free desserts, is definitely a bargain.  Of course it wouldn't matter if the cookie sandwich tasted horrible but, fortunately, that is not the case at The Baked Bear.  Instead, this cookie sandwich was unbelievably good.  The cookies tasted fresh baked and practically melted into the ice cream as I greedily ate chowed down on the 'wich.  I'll definitely be going back to the The Baked Bear, especially as summer begins in San Diego.

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The Baked Bear
4516 Mission Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92109 (Map)
(858) 886-7433

Pillsbury Introduces Gluten Free Products

Pillsbury has broken into the gluten free market with three new gluten free mixes: cookie, pizza, and pie dough.  It isn’t a huge surprise that the Pillsbury brand has moved into the gluten free market, seeing as it is owned by General Mills, a company which has released myriad gluten free products recently including Chex, Betty Crocker mixes, and Bisquick, among others.

Pillsbury’s products will be available nationwide this summer alongside other Pillsbury products in your local grocer.  The full ingredient list of the new products is available here.

I’m still waiting on Pillsbury to release the slice-and-bake cookies which dominated my childhood and of which I still have very found memories.  Hopefully some holiday season soon I’ll be able to go to the store and pick up a tube of gluten free Halloween cookies that I can slice and bake... those cookies were the best.

I'll update the post once I've got my hands on the products to test them out.

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Pillsbury

URBN Pizza

Last night I finally had my first (friend) date with Taylor, my favorite waitress at Snooze.  When we first met I was blushing like a 13 year old school girl and fawning over her... fortunately she didn't think I was some weird creepy guy and giggled along with my friends about my schoolboy crush on her.  When I went back to the restaurant a few weeks later she again was my waitress.  When she remembered me I knew we were fated to be friends, despite her calling me out for not ringing her up since my previous visit to Snooze (she hadn't given me her number!).

Anyway, after weeks of texting and planning we finally met up at URBN in North Park.  The restaurant was on my list of places to visit since moving here courtesy of my good friend Lauren, but I hadn't noticed that it offered gluten free pizza.  When I ran into Taylor at the Hillcrest Farmer's Market she suggested URBN because of these gluten free offerings that were previously unknown to me.  Two suggestions are always better than one so we set our date at URBN.  We also bonded over the amazing Olive Oil Organic Cafe stand at the Hillcrest Farmer's Market which, if you haven't been to and live in the San Diego area, you must visit as soon as possible.

I was a bit late but warmly welcome by Taylor replete with champagne glass in hand, and there is truly no better way to start a date than with some bubbly right?  I had a sip of the champagne just to wet my whistle and decided to try the Improved Pigeon Fiesta, one of the restaurant's signature cocktails made with tequila and a host of other ingredients.  It was delicious and a good way to start the night after a tiring day.

As we caught up and reviewed the menu I put the ball in her court as for ordering.  She kindly requested my opinion on the final decisions before we ordered two small gluten free pizzas: the Mashed Potato (to which we added bacon and basil) and the Chicken + Spinach.

The Mashed Potato pizza is what you would imagine: pizza crust topped with mashed potatoes.  Without the added flavor of the bacon and basil I'm not sure the mashed potato would have had enough flavor.  I'd definitely recommend adding your flavor of choice, otherwise I imagine this pizza would be a little bland.  The Chicken + Spinach pizza was great, with large chunks of chicken and lots of spinach as you can see in the photo above.  The prices were reasonably, especially given that we both had about 6 slices to take home.

I'll definitely go back to URBN and sample more of the pizzas.  The atmosphere is great, the restaurant is cavernous, the drinks were delicious, and the service was helpful.  All in all, a successful first date with Taylor... I'm hoping she says yes when I asked her for the second!

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URBN Pizza
3085 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92104 (Map)
(619) 255-7300

Toast Enoteca & Cucina

Recently I was invited to visit Toast Enoteca and Cucina to sample the restaurant's gluten free menu.  After a bit of back-and-forth planning with the PR representative we settled on a date which worked for the restaurant.  I had originally chosen a night when the Padres were playing and was warned that Padres games could create a major parking dilemma so I decided to steer for a Padres-free night.  Fortunately my friend Katie and I achieved that, so much so that we were the only two people in the restaurant for our entire meal!  Katie has lived in San Diego for the majority of her life (but I won't say born and raised since I know she has some east coast time in her record) and she filled me in on San Diego's relatively new downtown renaissance.  Having come most recently from New York I compared San Diego's downtown similar to New York's Financial District or Los Angeles' downtown; busy during the day, but pretty desolate at night.

Regardless of the restaurant's neighborhood the restaurant itself was friendly and welcoming.  I was a bit late so I joined Katie at our table and noticed she had an iPad.  I joked that she brought her own in case she got bored when it was the restaurant's method of displaying its wine menu.  I was very perplexed; I hadn't seen a menu presented on an iPad, particularly in a restaurant with the upscale feel of Toast Enoteca and Cucina.  After we placed our wine order (Cabernet Sauvignon for me) I asked the waitress about the rationale behind  the iPad and she explained that the restaurant introduces new bottles of wine so frequently it made more sense to have them displayed on an iPad rather than having to often reprint paper menus.  The restaurant also has a unique way of serving its wine; while you can order the normal full glass of wine, you can also purchase a card and place a certain amount of money on it to have smaller tastes of various wines.  Each wine has a different price per taste.  I've seen bars like this before (Ugo in Culver City, for example) but never indulged myself in the experience.  Katie and I sat it out this time, but perhaps next time I go to a similar restaurant or bar I'll go wild and taste a bunch of wines.

Moving on to the real reason you're here: the gluten free options.  The waitress was helpful in explaining the gluten free options and the menu in some cases speaks for itself, with markings alongside options that can be made gluten free (and/or vegetarian).  I ordered gluten free spaghetti with diavola sauce, Katie ordered a gluten free Verde Bianco e Rosso pizza and we decided to split an order of roasted cauliflower with cheese in a tomato sauce (which doesn't appear on the restaurant's online menu here).  All of the restaurant's gluten free options like the pizza crust and spaghetti are made in house; later on in our meal the manager came over and told us that the restaurant often changes up its gluten free pasta offering, including ravioli, fettuccine, and ravioli.

While we sipped our wine and caught up the cauliflower was delivered to our table.  It was dripping in a thin tomato broth and delicately covered with melted cheese.  In a word: delicious.  It wasn't too heavy nor too light as the beginning of our meal.

Our entrées were similarly excellent.  The diavola sauce had a great kick to it and the pasta had a texture that closely paralleled the taste of real pasta, not a simple task.  The pizza was similarly great and definitely a great item to share.  All in all, Toast was a definite success: the service was great, the food was delicious, and the wine flows freely from the various wine taps.  While it may not be in the most bumpin' area of town I would definitely recommend it to anybody looking for gluten free Italian options.

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Toast Enoteca and Cucina
927 J Street
San Diego, CA 92101 (Map)
(619) 269-4207

The Mission Restaurant

This morning I visited The Mission, a brunch hot spot in Mission Beach which normally comes with an hour plus wait.  Fortunately Alessandro and I were a party of two so we only had a 30 minute wait.  During our wait we walked over to Better Buzz Coffee to pick him up some coffee.  He's still astounded by the fact that I've never had coffee... is that strange that I haven't had coffee?  I was going to experiment with it today but he didn't want to be liable for the possible after effects.

Anyway, the place was buzzing with activity.  Alessandro mentioned that it is normally full of hungover USD students but that wasn't this morning's crowd; instead it was full of pregnant women.  Lots of pregnant women.  There was so much estrogen in the air I felt like I was in a sorority house.  It was a bit odd, since I had been expecting a younger scene but hey, pregnant women have to eat too, right?

After picking up some coffee (and summer fruit passion tea for me) we had .  The restaurant has a pretty big gluten free menu and the waitress was helpful with choosing my breakfast dish.  Ultimately I went with the Plata Verde con Huevos as it most closely approximated my normal brunch order of huevos rancheros.  They were delicious, definitely different than huevos rancheros with the flavor of the sweet corn tamales and roasted tomatillo sauce.  I enjoyed the food but was a little thrown off by the ambiance.

All in all, I'd visit again, particularly because of its awesome location steps away from the beach.  The restaurant also has locations in North Park and the East Village which may bring in a different clientele.

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The Mission Restaurant
3795 Mission Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92109 (Map)
(858) 488-9060

Olive Oil Organic Cafe

Drop what you're doing and run, do not walk, to Olive Oil Organic Cafe on SDSU's campus right now.  Well, I should amend that to read "drive within the speed limit" since we are in San Diego... but I think you understand my point.

Nearly six months after I moved into Hillcrest I finally went to the neighborhood's weekly farmer's market.  The market is every Sunday from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. and I've had very little excuse for not going before.  After going to the La Jolla Farmer's Market with my parental units during their visit I decided I had to make it a biweekly visit... or at least go more often than I have been.  Having grown up in the frigid tundra of upstate New York I'm not used to having such great produce and weather year round but I'm finally committed to making it a habit.

While meandering through the Hillcrest Farmer's Market I happened upon Olive Oil Organic Cafe.  The display prominently advertised gluten free cookies, cupcakes, etc.  I figured there would be one or two gluten free options so you can imagine my shock when every single option was gluten free.

And they were giving out plentiful samples so I had a great time checking out lots of different treats.  The treats were all delicious and they had a huge variety on display at the farmer's market.  I know the Cafe is located on SDSU's campus but I'm not quite sure where; check the cafe's website for more details.

This is definitely my new go to place when I'm in need of a gluten free dessert in San Diego.  The woman working at the booth also told me that all of their sandwiches can also be made gluten free.  I'll check out the cafe's location on SDSU's campus and report back.

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Olive Oil Organic Cafe

Petco Park does Gluten Free

Last year I went to a great baseball game at New York's Citifield Stadium and really enjoyed it.  I didn't grow up being a sports fan but there is something about a summer evening at the ball park.  Of course it never hurts when the park has great gluten free options, even if the home team didn't win.  Check out my post on eating gluten free at Citifield here.

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from Travelzoo informing me of cheap tickets to upcoming baseball games between the San Diego Padres and the Milwaukee Brewers.  Since my roommate Joe is from Milwaukee, I knew we had to make a night of it.  It didn't take much to persuade him to go, and ultimately we amassed a group that included his girlfriend Allie, his brother (who is not quite as diehard of a Brewers fan as Joe is), his brother's wife, and my friend Valerie.  We had a drink at the Blind Burro before heading into the park.  It was a little strange to be back in a city where the park is right in the center of the city; in New York that certainly isn't the case and I was very infrequently near Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.  It hasn't been since I left Boston in 2008 that it has been so easy to get to a baseball stadium... perhaps I'll become a baseball aficionado while living here in SD.  San Diego even has a leg up on Boston, as the tickets were inexpensive and we had great seats right behind third base about ten rows in from the field.  With a Redbridge beer in hand I took my seat and sat down for an enjoyable night of baseball.

Anyway, Around halftime we got hungry so we decided to head to the dining options in the park.  Joe had an app on his iPhone which pointed him in the direction of the gluten free cart so we all headed over there as a group.  Valerie and I split off when the stand was proving difficult to find and asked for some help from a Park employee who pointed us in the right direction.  The gluten free stand is by the Mercado, which you walk through to get to the stand.

The above picture is a bit misleading, as the gluten free options weren't available in that refrigerator but instead at the grill that you can barely see in the right of the picture.  I'd hate to see anybody confused and take something from inside that refrigerator thinking it was gluten free as they were offering up sandwiches, paninis, and wraps which I can almost certainly say were not gluten free.  Petco Park should definitely make it clear that the items in the fridge are not safe for gluten free eaters.  

The grill offered up typical baseball food: hot dogs and hamburgers, obviously served on gluten free buns.  While Joe had mentioned gluten free pretzels being available, none were in sight.

It was great to have gluten free options at Petco Park, particularly the Redbridge beer.  I spotted a Woodchuck Hard Cider in a refrigerator too and I believe those are all gluten free... best to check before imbibing, of course.  Hopefully Petco Park will clear up its signage so no gluten free eater makes the mistake of pulling something from the fridge.

And yes, I know there is no such thing as halftime in baseball.  That line above was a joke.

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Petco Park