Last night I decided to dine at Cowboy for the first time ever. I ordered a drink and then informed our waitress that I was gluten-intolerant and that I might need to know some ingredients. She then promptly informed me that there was no way that they could guarantee that anything was gluten-free because of the possibility of cross-contamination in the kitchen, which I completely understand and, as I said before, expect at every restaurant that I go to. I told her that I understand this and then she went back to talk to the chef to see if there was anything that he knew of that would be a good choice for me. She quickly came back and said that it might be more helpful if I could just tell her what I wanted off the menu so that they could look up the ingredients in that and not go through the ingredients of everything, which I never really expected them to do, and of course this a very reasonable request and what I do at most restaurants so I told her. The waitress went back and talked to a chef and then came back to us again. Her response was something that I have never received before at a restaurant and something that I never expected. She told me that since they couldn't guarantee that anything was gluten-free they couldn't tell me the ingredients in anything because of the liability. My mother and I once again told her that we understand this, that I know that at every restaurant I go to I run the risk of cross-contamination because everything is cooked on the same grill and such and such. I really just wanted to know what was in the barbeque sauce and rub and possibly the seasoning on the vegetables. But she refused to even check the ingredients for me. I'm pretty sure this wasn't the waitress's fault, but the kitchen's, because her response was, ""They're really busy back there...."" And I understand that. I've been to plenty of restaurants where the cook or chef himself hasn't been able to come out and talk to me, especially on a Saturday night, and that's fine. I just wanted to know what was in the barbeque sauce and rub but the waitress again told me that they couldn't because of the ""liability."" That's when my mother said, ""So you just don't want to deal with us?"" The waitress's response was silence and then, ""Well, it's not me, but..."" And we told her that we knew it wasn't her individual fault or anything, but that we had never been to a restaurant where we had been treated like this. Every other restaurant that I've gone to has been able to tell me at least the ingredients in a sauce and has LET ME EAT THERE for crying out loud! She didn't protest when we got up to leave, nor did she offer to let us speak to a manager or anything.I never thought that I would be turned down from eating at a restaurant because they feared that my disease would cause THEM problems. Celiac disease and gluten intolerance isn't like a peanut allergy, where I would fall very ill all of a sudden if I even got a little bit of it. What would happen is that I might or might not get stomach pains when trying to digest the food, since that's what gluten-intolerance really is, not being able to digest food containing gluten, and the hardship that trying to digest the gluten puts on my intestines might cause me problems in the future. What I'm trying to say is that I really feel that it is MY choice to risk eating in a restaurant where food containing gluten is prepared, not the choice of the restaurant's to turn me down from eating there once they find out that I have a disease or intolerance because they do not want to deal with me.
Cons: refuse to serve you if you are gluten intolerant.
more