The 2013 GFAF Wellness Expo in Charlotte, NC was awesome! It was a blast to see old friends and make new ones. The number of new products was amazing! I ate so much fantastic Gluten Free food and brought a ton of samples and coupons home. The event was held at the Blake Hotel in Charlotte and had a long list of great speakers to include Chef Peter Reinhart, Carol Kicinski, Lisa Stimmer and Chef Peter Pollay. Udi’s, Glutino and Enjoy Life were the main event sponsors.
My hubby was able to make the show which made it even more special. We had a whole 24 hours without kids. It was a great mini-vacation! He is going to do a guest blog post later about his thoughts and his views on the Gluten Free Beer!
The highlight for me was the people. I was honored to have the opportunity to sit down with Chef Peter Pollay from Posana Cafe in Asheville, NC and do a one-on-one interview. He is amazing! He has the only 100% Gluten Free restaurant in NC. I will do a separate post on that later. I also got to meet one of my blog crushes – Carol Kicinski from Simply Gluten Free. She was so sweet and even gave me some pointers on how to take better food photos! While walking around I ran into Sahirah from Vigilantly Gluten Free. She was so sweet and even recognized me from my blog! I also met a number of newbie Celiacs! Love welcoming new people to the family of Gluten Free! Big hug to Hollis!
The food rocked! It is so freeing to walk into a room and know I can eat anything in there and it won’t make me sick! That alone is the only reason I need to attend Gluten Free expos! There were so many amazing vendors I can’t name them all but here are some of my favorites.
Fuel Pizza – I rave about them all the time but they truly have the BEST GLUTEN FREE PIZZA I’ve ever had! The hubby and I had some Friday night for dinner, cold pizza for breakfast before the show and more at the expo. I heart Fuel Pizza!
Palmetto Farms – Gluten Free Hush Puppies! I know! They have amazing cornmeal mixes for hush puppies, pancakes and grits. I will do a full product review later, but trust me – amazing!
Mod Paleo – They deliver tasty Paleo pre-cooked meals to people around Charlotte. If you are Paleo and in the area try them! Their chicken salad was to die for!
Luce’s Gluten Free Artisan Bread – Beautiful and tasty bread mixes. All you have do is add water and bake! The Italian was my favorite.
Glutino – I finally found the much talked about Glutino pop tarts! So excited!
Rudi’s – Super tasty grilled cheese sandwiches on their new recipe soft and fluffy bread.
Cupcakistry – Out of this world good cupcakes! I had the snicker doodle and strawberry. She makes a huge variety of cupcake flavors and they are light and fluffy!
Virtuous Living – Three different kinds of spice blends. They smelled great and I can’t wait to try them in my recipes!
Tonya’s Cookies – Pecan pie in a cookie is all I have to say!
It was a fantastic Gluten Free Expo! Nikki and her team from Echo Event Solutions did fabulous! Can’t wait for the Raleigh show!
Great recap! Definitely wish I’d been able to make it š Have fun at the Raleigh expo next week – so jealous!
Thanks Jenni! It would have been fun to catch up! Hopefully you can come to the Raleigh show in the Fall!
Hey Pam, Thanks for the kind words š It was great to meet you. It would have been nice to chat longer, but the guy from Mod Paleo told me to come back in 5 minutes and I could interview him on how he started his business. I looked for you later but didn’t see you. It would be nice to get together when you’re back in my area.
It was a pleasure to meet you in person! Hope the interview with Carter went well!