Colorado Gluten Free Recap: New Mexico Detour

Posted onAuthorCeltic Celiac

I suppose sharing the purpose of this trip might explain why Mike and I drove a good 1,000 miles in under a week. Mike is applying to schools for Nutrition, but at the same time we are looking to get out of our Home state of New York. He applied to a few schools, and as an excuse to see more of the country (and meet our goal of visiting all 50 states before we turn 36) we headed out to Colorado and New Mexico for a week. 

Two of the schools he applied to were in New Mexico, so we headed down there for a few days. Needless to say I was happy we purchased so much ‘road trip food‘ at a Whole Foods in Colorado. New Mexico has a whole bunch of culture, but a whole lot of nothing in between it in regards to gluten free food or attractions. Really, you drive for miles in flat dessert inhabited mostly by ground level plants and not much else other than humans and sand tornadoes  I can admit it is beautiful, but it just wasn’t for us. We weren’t in the state for too long, but we were able to find one gluten free restaurant that seemed promising: 
1935 Eubank NE
Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87112

 There were a few places listed as ‘gluten free’ on the gluten free apps. I use to find restaurants when I travel, but many either had negative reviews or no mention of gluten free on their actual website (sometime I personally try to avoid as it is often a warning signal). Paisano’s seemed like the best bet for gluten free dining  near Albuquerque, but it’s being the only restaurant around that seemed so doesn’t mean it was just sub par. In fact, it was a good experience.

The restaurant itself is a quaint and inviting little joint, although they are closed from 2:30-5pm, which meant Mike and I had to wait around for food. We were glad we did though. We ordered a New Planet Beer, Caprese, Shrimp Primavera, and Linguinne Alla Livorno without the chicken. The food was seasons to perfection and well balanced in flavor, and the fresh ingredients were locally grown and obtained from small local farms or businesses according to the manager who visited our table. This is a plus I always enjoy seeing in restaurants, it shows me they care about their local community as well as food quality. In addition, presentation was good (it was around Olympics time- can you see the rings in the picture to the right!?), and all gluten free items were marked with a tooth pick. They even had gluten free bread and many desserts!

Overall, there are many gluten free options and they are well worth the reasonable price. Therefore I give this place a good 4.5 shamrocks, only because while the food was good it wasn’t stellar or anything particularly memorable compared to other gluten free Italian experiences. Still a good place with the visit!

 Gluten Free Options: 1 

Atmosphere: 1
Price: 1
Hospitality: 1 

Food Quality: .5


4.5 Shamrocks

New Mexico was indeed an experience, but in the end Mike didn’t like any of the schools. If you are there try Piasano’s, and please let the gluten free community know if there are any other wonderful gluten free restaurants in the state since they were hard to find for us! And of course, there is always the fresh route to take when gluten free, and there were many farm stands in New Mexico:

  
Celtic Celiac @ http://celtic-celiac.blogspot.com/