Petit Poutinerie is honored to be featured as the 1st restaurant on the glutenfreechefblog.com’s Gluten-Free Friendly Restaurant Series!
We’ve had the pleasure to have Calvin (aka The Gluten Free Chef) as a customer and friend of poutine for several years now. He’s just one of the many Rochester gluten-free eaters who sought out our truck for the gluten free food, and was generous enough to stay and chat with us about dining out with dietary restrictions-helping us understand more how we can fit into the equation. Now, all these years later, we just call him a friend.
“In my conversation with Calvin for the blog, I found myself going down a little memory lane of our gluten-free journey,” Ronnie said. “We have always had a gluten-free gravy; from day one.”
You may be surprised to know that neither Lizzie or Ronnie are gluten-free. What spurred the desire to have gluten-free gravy on the menu was less a personal need than a desire to appeal to more diners overall.
“We found that the food we make lends itself nicely to gluten-free options (which at the time we started the truck, were severely lacking in prepared food in Rochester). Potatoes are naturally gluten-free, and our fries are kept so by not adding any gluten to fryer oil. We found gravy to be easily adaptable by using a non-gluten flour to make our rue.”
“Everything is scratch made making sourcing and food safety easier to track and manage.”
Calvin Eaton, describing Petit Poutinerie
Once our company had started incorporating GF eating, we found it fairly easy to lean into it as a cooking standard. What started as one item on our menu has morphed into 75% of our restaurant’s menu being gluten free by design. Fun fact: all 10 of our regular menu poutines are GF!
“People were responding to it very well. We found people asking for more options that were GF, and so we started experimenting with the other items we were already wanting to put on the menu (and in the fry),” Ronnie said. “Once we were able to find a reliable supply for high-quality brown rice flour the possibilities really opened up.”
Click here to visit the glutenfreechefblog and here to learn more about how to support Calvin’s upcoming GF cookbook. And stop in anytime to try our gluten free options!