Pinkberry

Pinkberry yogurt joint is the new celebrity craze. We see stars toting their Pinkberry cups all over the tabloids. And now we see regular New Yorkers with them as well. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

The store on 32nd Street in Manhattan is a cute little japanismo affair with little chairs, tables and do-dads for sale. There are three flavor choices, regular, coffee and green tea. You order your size, flavor and number of toppings. Toppings include the usual sprinkles and chocolate chips as well as non-gluten free granola, cocoa and fruity pebbles and Cap’n Crunch. They also have an admirable selection of fresh fruit: berries, banana, kiwi, etc.

The list of ingredients, posted conspicuously along with the nutrition information lists natural flavoring as one of the ingredients. I inquired about this and this was the response I got:

Dear Vittoria,

Thank you for choosing pinkberry, correct our product is gluten free please visit our website www.pinkberry.com and go to FAQ and you’ll see that our product does not contain gluten.

Thanks!

I tried the green tea without any toppings, my wallet isn’t quite robust enough to support that. It’s no wonder that all the celebs are eating it, it’s low cal, low fat, low sugar and it tastes really good. Mine actually tasted like green tea and yogurt, rather than iced sugar. I definite hot day treat. Or a long day at work treat. Or an any day of the week treat for that matter.

Chipotle

I went to a Chipotle restaurant with one of my good friends and although I felt very confident about the status of the food I visited their website and submitted an inquiry as to the gluten free nature of the food.

Here is the response I received:

Dear Vittoria:

Thanks for writing to us; we're glad that you enjoy our Food with Integrity. Regarding Gluten, you can eat anything we serve except for our large burrito tortillas, our small soft taco tortillas, and possibly our hot red tomatillo salsa (there is a small amount of distilled vinegar in it which some celiac websites still say might be problematic, although most don't).

Everything else is fine for you to eat including our crispy corn tacos, our corn chips, and our burrito bowls (no tortilla).

If you are highly sensitive, you can always ask our staff to change their gloves and they would be happy to do that at your request. Additionally, since there is always the slight possibility of cross-contamination in our restaurants because our folks work with wheat tortillas all day long, we encourage you to carefully consider your dining choices.

You can find this and other Allergen and Nutrition information on our website at www.chipotle.com/faq.

Sincerely,

George Seno
Department of Gripes and Happiness
Chipotle

Kudos to Chipotle, and to George Seno, for the (mostly) gluten free menu and for this thoughtful reply. He obviously did some research and I really appreciate that. Chipotle gets my vote for being (mostly) gluten free as well as being environmentally responsible.

Chipotle believes in doing only one thing, and doing it well. You can choose a burrito, taco, burrito bowl or salad. The staff makes your meal right in front of you. You can choose your meat, your type of beans, rice and toppings, all as they prepare it for you. Watching someone prepare my food tends to give me a greater sense of security, but there's always a little nagging thought that tells me I don't know what happened in the back.

I had a salad with the chicken, black beans, cheese and corn salsa. I watched how they served it and all the staff were conscientious about not mixing spoons, or even touching the food with their hands. I am extremely sensitive and I had no problems.

The 42nd Street location was reasonably busy for a Saturday afternoon, but it both the dinning area and the staff were neat and clean and the staff were considerate.

*as a side note, notice how they have a little tree and a 'green' request not to print the email. More Kudos.