Are you in the know? BJ's Restaurant

About 3 or so years ago I contacted the corporate office of BJ's Restaurant & Brew House to find out what sort of gluten free options I might have. The waitstaff generally had no clue what I was talking about when I was there in person, so I made sure to check in regularly to see what had changed. With the beginning of a new year, one of my tasks is to update this massive binder I have of gluten free menus, etc. of places in California and beyond. Some places close, menus change, etc. Well now BJ's has a pamphlet about their gluten free options. It's not currently available on the web, even though it should be, but supposedly they do hand it out when requested.

In addition to their menu, here was the response from the corporate office, within the risk management department:

"Thank you for your request for allergen/gluten information in our menu items. Attached please find the Food and Allergen Sensitivities Menu and Gluten Free Selections. Select menu items may be modified to fit a gluten-free diet. BJ’s strives to provide a diverse and evolving menu and is always testing new menu items to better serve you. Due to variations in the recipes of test items, we do not have a complete nutritional/allergen breakdown for items in test at this time. We add the nutritional/allergen information for each menu item as soon as it becomes a permanent addition to the menu. BJ’s menu is diverse and contains a wide variety of foods, many of which contain one of the eight major allergens. While we have carefully reviewed our recipes to inform our guest of foods that contain a food allergen as part of a recipe, we cannot guarantee that cross-contact with other foods will not occur during production. Please inform your server if you, or any of the guests in your dining party, have any food allergies."

I've noticed this trend within the food industry, as food allergy requests increase, including the gluten free request, that more and more places are adding legal jargon to the bottom of the menu to protect themselves. While from a business standpoint I understand the need for that, my stance is let's train the staff better about food allergies and cross contamination, and then advertise that on the standard menu. No need to print new menus, keep costs low by adding a sticker to the regular menu saying "Gluten Free Options Available" so everyone can have a pleasant dining-out experience, without having to know the secret password to get access to the gluten free menu.