I received the following two tweets and they raise some interesting points:
“@FA2GO Thx FA2GO. Researched Fire & Ice and can’t find #allergy friendly remarks? Noticed pics of various mixed #allergens. Can you help?”
“@FA2GO Thx again. What criteria meets #Food Allergy Friendly for your list? Happy travels!”
The tweets are related to last night’s post of Fire & Ice Restaurant in Boston, MA to www.FoodAllergiesToGo.com as a food allergy friendly restaurant.
Before I start, let me remind everyone that I am not a doctor, nor a medical professional. I’m the mother of a 23 year old man who has had (and still has) multiple serious food allergies for more than 22 years. Blah, blah, blah, you read the terms and conditions of this website/blog, right? Ok, so let’s begin.
Some of you may agree with my opinion that there is never a guarantee of a safe meal for someone with food allergies. Heck, as diligent as I have been, there have been times when my son ended up in the emergency room after eating food prepared at home. Some examples….Once, he developed a new allergy to something he had safely eaten for 13 years. And another time he ended up in the ER from some mystery cross-contamination that we were never able to prove, even with the help of our top notch allergist and multiple blood tests. Keep in mind, we consider our home a safe haven for our son and do not buy products with known food allergens.
So, the phrase “food allergy friendly restaurant”, cannot and does not guarantee anyone a safe meal at a restaurant. What I’m trying to do with this website and blog is to provide a forum where people with food allergies can share their restaurant experiences, so that others can take those stories and start their own research regarding that restaurant and their own situation. I personally feel that my son stands a better chance at a restaurant where someone with similar allergies ate there and walked away healthy and happy. Of course, there are many variables that change from one restaurant visit to the next. And each one of us has different allergies to deal with. All of which can drastically effect the outcome of eating in a restaurant. Even those of us without food allergies can have a bad dining experience after a close friend recommends an establishment.
So why do I refer to some restaurants as “food allergy friendly”? When I began this website/blog project, I felt I needed a catch phrase. Food allergy aware? Food allergy accommodating? Food allergy trained? Food allergy alert? Food allergy prepared? Food allergy friendly? Food allergy conscious? None of them are perfect because dining out carries some degree of risk. I chose “food allergy friendly” because these people are trying. They are trying to make our lives better. If they try and don’t get it right, it doesn’t seem so friendly. And I post those reviews as well.
I would appreciate everyone’s feedback on this blog post.
Next, let’s look at the website question. Again, I don’t think there’s a hard and fast way to interpret any restaurant’s website. One of my best dining experiences with my son was at the Cliff House in San Francisco, CA. We had no plans to go there, so I didn’t have a chance to do any research. We just ended up there and asked a lot of questions, starting with the hostess. The food was great, the service was great, and they are one of two places that ever safely served dessert to my son. We were all ecstatic to the point I wanted to share it with others who might benefit from knowing what a great job they did. Now to the other end of the spectrum was my experience at Damon’s Grill in Lauderdale by-the-Sea, FL. I saw great things about Damon’s on the web. So, I went to their fabulous website where I entered my son’s allergies and got very excited at all of the entrees he could allegedly eat there. Then I physically went to the Lauderdale by-the-Sea location, sat in the booth, and talked to the waitress. My bubble of enthusiasm burst. She didn’t know anything about food allergies, she told us the manager was too busy to speak with us, the chef stepped out for an undefined amount of time, and the sous chef didn’t want to speak with us.
So, do I look at restaurant websites? Yes. Do I form an initial impression via the site? Sort of. Does it really let me know if my son can eat there? Not really. And this is precisely why I want to hear other people’s personal stories about actual restaurant experiences and then I will judge for myself how it fits with my family’s situation. I want to know about the good and the bad. I want to know about each new experience even though multiple people have already commented on a given establishment. Owner’s change, management changes, chefs turnover, wait staff moves on, and it all effects the next food allergy customer’s experience.
As a community, I want us to share a central database so we can be current on every restaurant in the world. This puts pressure on all of the restaurants to try harder to serve us better. I don’t want to accept a restaurant’s word on how food allergy friendly they are. I want a constant report card about how the restaurant is actually serving those of us with food allergies. This could keep our kids safer, and let all of us be more mobile.
How else can we get the restaurants to actually serve us better? Legislation might help, but it’s not a guarantee. It’s the power of the masses that gets things done. There are 12 million of us, plus family members, so let’s let the restaurants know they are constantly being graded!
Feedback anyone?
Feeling the passion. Thanks for reading. Would love your comments.
Ann
Tags: food allergies, food allergy, restaurants
