Review of Race Street Cafe

I really wanted to love this place. As far as American bar food goes, they have a fairly extensive gluten free menu. Unfortunately, they don't take gluten free practices seriously and are just catering to the "trendy gluten free" crowd.

I called in and ordered a bunch of burgers for take-out, specifying that mine needed a gluten free bun. I live about 5 blocks away, so walked over and grabbed the food ($50.50 for four burgers) and headed back to my place to eat with some friends. When I got home and opened up the boxes, I realized that all of the burgers were on the same kind of bun, and none of them were gluten free. Yes I should have checked before I left the place, but I'd gotten a GF sandwich from there once before with no issues, so I'd assumed they'd get it right. This was frustrating, but mistakes happen, so I wasn't really upset. I called back and explained... the guy apologized and called it an oversight. I said I only lived a few blocks away so I'd walk back over to pick up a new one--I reminded him exactly what type of burger I'd gotten and he said he'd have one "hot and waiting."

When I returned to swap out the sandwiches (I'd brought the non GF one in case they wanted to see it / take it back), the guy literally handed me a box with a gluten free bun inside. They didn't even remake the burger for me--literally just gave me a bun to swap out. It was the tackiest thing I've ever experienced. No new meal, no money back--just a bun.

Lucky for me, I'm not hyper-sensitive to cross-contamination--I can eat a burger that's already touched gluten and not get sick. A lot of people with celiac aren't this lucky though, so this "quick fix" wouldn't have worked for them. I thought about asking them to remake the entire burger, but at this point, it was 9 PM and I still had to walk back to my place and eat. I let it go, and by the time I got home, the burger and fries were cold, and my dinner was pretty ruined.

Moral of the story: if you have celiac and are looking for a place that takes it seriously, this is absolutely not your place.

Celiac friendly?

No