Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Fat Mike's Pizza has Gluten Free Crusts

About two months ago I discovered that a pizza place in Elk Grove- Fat Mike's was offering gluten free pizza. On the directory it's listed in Elk Grove, but let me tell you, it's out there, so out there, I really would say it's in Wilton. But hey, I like an adventure so some friends and I tried this place out for my birthday. They offer both a small ($2 extra) or medium ($3 extra) gluten free pizza option using the Bavaria Mills pizza crust. Right on all the tables you will see an advertisement for the crust listing the ingredients:
The staff wasn't too familiar with gluten free, and either was the manager, but they were willing to check labels to make sure their pepperoni and ranch dressing were safe for me. Interestingly, I learned about a week ago that Bavaria Mills usually works very closely with the locations that want to offer their products, educating them about cross contamination and so forth, before the dining establishment actually has the gluten free products on hand. This however did not happen with Fat Mike's, but both the company, and local CSA support are attempting to educate this establishment about cross contamination and making every experience, including the gluten free ones, a positive one.

With all of that said, I am happy to say I did not have a reaction. The crust was baked on the same pan as the regular pizzas, and probably cut with the same pizza cutter, but I was lucky. The pizza was absolutely fabulous and truly the perfect size for 1 person or 2 with a side of salad. Considering a frozen gluten free pizza can cost close to $7 for some options, I thought Fat Mike's price was reasonable. And my friends who split a glutinous pizza, told me that their pizza was also quite good.
Overall my experience was very pleasant, and I will be going back again. For now I would be careful about the gluten free option, especially if you're highly sensitive, but I would go in during a non-rush period and kindly ask that they cut the pizza with a clean pizza cutter, etc. to limit the cross contamination issues.

Fat Mikes Pizza on Urbanspoon

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