Traveling Gluten Free is always a challenge whether you are an hour from home or ten hours. This past weekend Hubby and I ran away to Chapel Hill, NC for 24 hours of kid-free, “us time”. It was wonderful! With 3 young kids it can be so hard to find time to just be together. It actually took 4 people working in 3 different shifts just to cover the kids while we were gone.
We started with lunch at Margaret’s Cantina. They have a pretty big menu and the Gluten Free items are clearly marked. The highlight for us were the tortillas chips and the Mexican sampler. For my main dish I ordered a side salad since I knew I’d eat as many chips as I could. Hubby order the Sopa Seca Picosa or spicy lasagna. It was interesting, we’ve never had Mexican Lasagna before.
After lunch we checked into our hotel, The Carolina Inn. It is an adorable boutique inn right in the center of everything. After watching some of the World Cup we headed over to the local movie theater. I asked the manager tons of questions and determined the popcorn was safe as long as stayed away from the butter.
For dinner we just wanted something easy that we could take back to the hotel and just relax. We grabbed some Gluten Free pizza from Mellow Mushroom and were good to go. I ordered the House pizza that is loaded with goodies including bacon!
Breakfast was a slice of cold pizza (come on, admit it you do this too!). Then we walked around Franklin St. to see all the restaurants and stores. Our first stop was to GiGi’s Cupcakes for a mid-morning sugar rush. I ordered a Gluten Free carmel cupcake with buttercream frosting. Pretty tasty! We also grabbed some regular cupcakes to take home to the kiddos.
After more walking we ended up at The Mediterranean Deli for lunch. It is a local Greek restaurant with tons of Gluten Free options to include pita bread the is GIG certified. They do make regular flour pitas on site so there is a concern with cross contamination, but I did not have a problem. I ordered the falafel with hummus on a Gluten Free pita. This was the wining dish for the weekend! I inhaled the entire thing!
The Gluten Free pita is garbanzo flour based, which is my least favorite flour, but the pita did not have a bean flour taste or smell. You can even buy some of the packaged pita and take it home with you.
Hubby and I came back rejuvenated and ready to take on life again. We found a ton of other Gluten Free options in Chapel Hill but didn’t have enough time to visit them this trip.
Happy Gluten Free Traveling!
I love Chapel Hill and I also think I could grow to love The Mediterranean Deli!! Your lunch looks incredible! xo Gigi