Gluten-Free Dining in D.C.



United States Capitol

At the beginning of June, I had a business trip in Washington, D.C. Since my husband and I had never been to D.C. before, Mike came along with me and we flew in a few days early to see the sights. We both absolutely loved the area and were able to visit a lot of the sights in the short amount of time we had. However, there is definitely a lot left for us to see on another visit or two.

The White House - South Facade

We also enjoyed a lot of really, really delicious food in addition to visiting the sights and me working! I took tons of pictures of the sights, but unfortunately only took a few food pictures. It was incredibly easy for me to eat gluten-free every single place we went. A few of our favorites were:

• Jaleo - the first critically-acclaimed tapas restaurant of renowned chef, José Andrés. Jaleo has an extensive gluten-free menu, in addition to a very knowledgeable waitstaff and chef who assured us every single tapas plate brought to our table was gluten-free. We had delicious appetizers, drinks, and main courses. But, the most delicious dish I had was dessert! Olive oil sorbet with grapefruit ice and candied grapefruit rind. I'll definitely be in my kitchen trying to recreate this amazing dessert!
• Oyamel - this is another restaurant by chef José Andrés that features antojitos — Mexican small plates. The restaurant also has a dedicated gluten-free menu. Everything we ordered was also delicious (including tequila sorbet for dessert), but my favorite was the seared house cured pork belly taco with tomatoes, chiles, pineapple, onion, and cilantro.
• The Liberty Tavern - we had a great dinner here with two of my relatives that live in Arlington. I loved the comfortable atmosphere, historic building, and the delicious Amish chicken I had for dinner.
• Open City - we ate here quite a few times because of the convenient location by our hotel, great food, and vast gluten-free menu. They also serve gluten-free pizza, and Wednesday is their GF Pizza Party - half off GF pizzas! I had two gluten-free pizzas - Big Valley (pulled BBQ chicken, smoked gouda, and scallions) and Calvert Street (roasted corn, bacon, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, and jalepeño cream). The crust was fantastic and the pizza toppings were delicious. I also had an amazing gluten-free dessert - Flourless Chocolate Cake layered with sweet Marscapone cheese. I managed to take a few food pictures at Open City:

Calvert Street Gluten-Free Pizza at Open City



Flourless Chocolate Cake with Marscapone at Open City

• Red Velvet Cupcakery - a quality cupcakery with delicious cupcakes, good business morals, and vegan/gluten-free cupcake. I had the Black Velvet Cupcake - the vegan/gluten-free chocolate cupcake was delicious, light, and very moist!

Black Velvet Vegan/Gluten-Free Cupcake at Red Velvet Cupcakery

Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington Cemetery

All opinions expressed in this blog post are mine. We paid for all of our meals/desserts; this is not a sponsored post.

Oprah, Oprah, OPRAH!!

I'm back from an absolutely wonderful trip to LA with my mom! I won tickets to Oprah's Ultimate After-Oscar Party 2011 and am finally able to check "Go to the Oprah show" off my bucket list. Oprah's show at The Kodak Theatre in Hollywood was seriously awesome, awesome, AWESOME!! There was so much energy and excitement in the room. There were quite a few celebrity guests and Oscar winners on the show, but I especially loved Anne Hathaway's segment and Katy Perry's surprise performance - and, of course, OPRAH! 

Being from the snowy and cold midwest, we enjoyed soaking up the sun and the warm weather. 

We also had no problem finding gluten-free dining options in the LA area. Every single meal we ate was fantastic! I have to share one dinner we had with you; it is the best GF pizza we've had so far in our GF journey.

This is Pizza Fusion's Four Cheese & Sundried Tomato Gluten-Free Pizza. Thin and crispy gluten-free crust topped with tomato sauce, goat cheese, mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, sundried tomatoes, roasted garlic, and fresh basil. YUM and definitely as good as gluten! In addition to the amazing GF pizza, what I love about Pizza Fusion is that they use healthy organic ingredients and are committed to operating a sustainable business. The also have GF brownies and multiple GF beer choices. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for other Pizza Fusion locations in my travels.