In the past, I’ve had incredible gluten-free meals at the Margaritaville locations in Orlando and Panama City Beach, FL. When down in PCB last weekend for a wedding, I was thrilled to find out that the Margaritaville there finally had a gluten-free menu. We were meeting friends for dinner and the evening was more about catching up with them, than having a fabulous meal. Still, I thought it would be nice to have a burger with a bun and fries at the least gluten-free friendly area in the entire Southeast.
The joke about Panama City is that they are five years behind the rest of the world. This is fine if you don’t have to eat gluten-free and want to live in a very laid-back place that has no change of seasons. Personally, I can’t imagine not having seasons, after having moved away from the Florida panhandle over twenty years ago. And since I do eat gluten-free, this is the last place I’d choose to go on vacation. We were there to attend a wedding and I can survive a weekend not eating like gluten-free royalty for one trip a year.
I usually do my homework and thought I’d covered my bases before arriving in Margaritaville. We were so excited to see our friends that we made it to the table without asking for a gluten-free menu. My husband went back up front to get one and was told to ask the server for it. The server said they didn’t have a gluten-free menu. I let him know that according to three people we’d spoken with, they did indeed have one and to ask a manager to help him find it.
The confused server returned with something that looked like they might have just written and printed up in the back on the spot. I say this because there was a typo on it, and under “Nachos” it said – no queso, no sour cream. Here is a hint – if you find a place listing dairy as unsafe, they might not know what gluten-free means. In this case, we could not get to the bottom of the sour cream question because we didn’t want to ruin the evening by holding up ordering in the busiest restaurant on the beach.
I ordered a cheeseburger with no bun, which was not even on the gluten-free menu. The server was able to confirm it was gluten-free, without a bun. When our meals finally arrived, there was no cheese on my burger so it had to go back. I passed on the server’s offer to bring the cheese on the side – I think he must be new to the service industry. My meal was fine and most importantly, it was indeed gluten-free. The fries at that location are not safe but the dirty rice is.
So, I had the most boring meal of the three-day trip that night, which was fine as we were not there for a dining experience in the first place. It should be said that the others at our party all enjoyed their meals. I’d recommend the PCB Margaritaville location if you don’t have any dietary restrictions – no doubt!
After a fun visit with old friends, we parked in the overflow lot across from our hotel and noticed the Boar’s Head sign about twenty yards away. When we visited Panama City years ago, we loved eating at the Boar’s Head. It has been there for over 30 years and has always had exceptional food. In other words, it’s unlike most tourist trap places in the area. Because I’d not found a safe dessert throughout the trip, I suggested we stroll on over and find out if the Boar’s Head had any gluten-free desserts.
To our great surprise, the hostess knew off the top of her head that both the chocolate mousse and lemon creme brulee were gluten-free. We were seated in the fairly dead restaurant and decided on the mousse for me and bread pudding for my husband. Both desserts were excellent it was the perfect end to a nice trip that wasn’t overly exciting in terms of gluten-free dining options.
The moral of the story for me is that I should not assume that every location of a chain with a gluten-free menu has the same gluten-free menu. If no doctors know how to diagnose celiac disease in an area, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a gluten-free knowledgeable community – especially in the dining scene.
The next time we’re in the area, we’ll be having dinner at the Boar’s Head. We would have been much better off going there, where there is no gluten-free menu, than going to Margaritaville which had one not worth offering.
This is the first time we’ve experienced the same chain offering different gluten-free menus at different locations. Please let us know if you know of other places that do the same.
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