Gluten Free goodness at Brooklyn House in Portland

My husband and I had previously dined at the Berlin Inn (See previous review here), that had a really good  GF options.  At our last visit, we were told that they would be closing and re-opening as the Brooklyn House restaurant, which is entirely gluten free. (YAY!)  It took my hubby and I way too long to get back in and try it out and I regret waiting that long!

Brooklyn House is in an often overlooked area.  It is right off SE 12th and Powell, when I speak to people about it, no one can picture it.  When I tell them that  it is right next door to the Edelweiss German deli, everyone knows exactly where it is.  Brooklyn House is exactly that, a house.  But don't let the exterior fool you.  Inside is a very homey, quaint restaurant with enthusiastic staff.

Brooklyn House is farm to table food.  They call their food style "European Comfort Food" I call it simply pretty amazing.  Having been GF for almost a year, I am learning more and leaning more towards organic and farm fresh food.  Most of the red meat my family eats is wild elk from my husband's annual hunting trip.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

We were greeted at Brooklyn House by the co-owner, Erica Litzner.  She is super friendly but laid back, not in your face.  She answered our many questions about the menu and you could really feel her passion for what she does.  She wants to provide fresh, GF, delicious food.  Often gluten free meals are also vegetarian, but I like meat.  One thing I loved about Erica was that she pretty much recommended everything with a side of steak.  Yes, you can get a side of steak with any meal!

My husband and I decided to split meals, so we could both try different things.  My husband wanted this chicken Alfredo.  Not my favorite, but that is ok.  You can get many meals in a medium or larger size.  At Erica's suggestion, we chose medium.  We also ordered the steak with whiskey pepper cream sauce, which came with purple potatoes and roasted vegetables.   I also asked for a side of another menu item, because I wanted to try it, but my husband isn't always as adventurous as I am.

First we tried the rosemary chicken Alfredo.  I have to say, I verbally made sounds of appreciation with my first bite.  It was the best Alfredo I have ever had.  The sauce wasn't as heavy as a lot of Alfredo sauces, but was packed with flavor.

I loved the color and presentation of the steak plate.  Not only did it come with purple potatoes, it came with purple roasted cauliflower. 

My husband likes his steak pretty much still mooing and I am more of a medium type of girl, so we settled on medium rare, with a hint more towards medium. We cut into the steak and it was perfect to meet both of our preferences.  It was very good, as was the cream sauce.

The side dish that my husband didn't want to try was mushrooms over roasted garlic parsnip puree.  I love root vegetables!  There was a hearty helping of different types of mushrooms in a sauce, which contrasted nicely over the sharp flavor of parsnips.  I couldn't finish the whole thing, so I took some home and it heated nicely for an after work snack the next day.

We were stuffed, but you know I can't pass up dessert.  Erica brought out a beautiful platter of options and we selected 3 different desserts to take home to sample later.  I wasn't able to get to the desserts for a day or two, and I was concerned because some GF items get a unfavorable texture when not eaten right away, but these all held up very well.

The first one I tried was a whipped cheesecake with chocolate and caramel sauce drizzled over it.  It was very good.  The texture reminded me of a combination of Boston cream and cheesecake.  The crust was was similar in texture to a graham crust and I could definitely taste dates.

Next I tried the black forest cake with chocolate sauce.  They warned me that this batch was very boozy but I really didn't think it was too bad.  It is a very dense cake with a light whipped topping and a slight tang from cherries. 

Finally, I tried the "Brooklyn Pie" with white chocolate sauce.  They gave me the sauce separately, so I am sure they would have drizzled it a bit more artistically than I did.  This was also very good.  A cake with a layer of cream inside, topped with chocolate and drizzled with white chocolate.  My 14 year old was an eager taste tester and this was his favorite. 

After a not so great experience at my usual favorite special occasion restaurant, it has been replaced by the Brooklyn House.  Price wise for the quality of food, I thought it was reasonable.

The menu at Brooklyn House changed seasonally, but this is a scan from the night in January 2014 that we dined there. The Alfredo was only $12 and the steak was $22.

One thing I appreciate is small, local business like Brooklyn House.  And Brooklyn House also supports other local business.  Here is a statement on the back of their menu:

"Our  mission is to offer the best available food to as many people possible at the lowest price possible while nourishing our society, economy & environment.

Our menus celebrate our regions and changing seasons with food that is artisan & comforting. Our service is meant to show everyone they are worthy of kindness & companionship. We sincerely honor our guestsʼ dietary choices and want everyone to feel supported in this space.

Our house carries a 30-year legacy of European-style dining, & our staff has a deep connection with its rich history. Our relationships with our guests are uniquely strong. Our work is to be a positive impact on our community & our world. We constantly monitor energy consumption, vigorously research each product & service, actively support all forms of local art & fairly compensate our fellow workers for their labor. We must work; therefore we work with love & compassion. We share with you our food, our friends, our space & our lives."

You can check their website for a sampling of local businesses that they support.
http://brooklynhouserestaurant.com/ 

We went on a Thursday night, and the restaurant was pretty quiet, but they do recommend reservations, especially on weekends.  The seating area is fairly small, so space is limited.

In addition to providing delicious meals, Brooklyn caters, does private parties, and does fundraising and supports local charities.

As my friends know, I do not eat our very often because I am so sensitive to cross contamination.  It's just not worth a trip to the ER.  It is so, so nice to find restaurants where I can order anything off of the menu without worrying about getting ill. Follow Brooklyn House on facebook to keep up with events and menu changes.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Brooklyn-House-Restaurant

3131 SE 12th  Ave

Portland, OR

503-236-6761

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I wanted to expand my review with a couple of updates from subsequent visits to the Brooklyn house.  This Valentine's Day 2014, my husband was out of town, so my daughter and youngest son were my valentine's dates.

I do have to add that my amazing husband did have flowers delivered with a handwritten note from him.  Love that guy.

Anyway, on to our Valentine's dinner.  My lovely company was my daughter, Becca, age 20 and my youngest son, Nolan, age 14.  They had heard Ed and I talking about how much we enjoyed dinner at Brooklyn House, so they were excited to try it.  My daughter is a bit picky and wasn't sure about a dedicated GF restaurant, but Nolan is a teenager and can eat his own weight in food, so he isn't that picky.

We started with an order of bread.  We received a delicious basket of New Cascadia baguettes with creamy garlic butter.  It was quite a bit of bread for 3 of us.  I had 2 slices and the kids nomed through the rest of it.

Becca asked a couple of times if I was sure it was gluten free, because the bread was so good.  lol

Nolan was really funny and kept saying that his was the fanciest restaurant he had ever been to.  That actually may be true.  My husband and I usually do date nights without the kids.  He loved the fresh squeezed lemon juice.

Both of the kids ordered the cesar salad.  I let them take photos of their own meals.  This is Nolan's photo of his salad.  You really can never go wrong with a Cesar, so the kids were happy.

They both also ordered the rosemary chicken alfredo, because Ed had such good things to say about it.  They both said it was the best alfredo they had ever had.  This is Becca's photo.  She also ordered a side of steak.

Nolan enjoying his alfredo.

For myself, I started with a baked kale salad.  Honestly this was one of the best salads I have ever had.  I highly recommend it.

For my meal, I tried one of their Valentine's Day specials.  It was 2 lamb chops that were cooked rare with a tart cherry sauce.  They also came with garlic mashed white sweet potatoes and roasted vegetables.  It was a great meal and I especially loved the tart cherry sauce.

We were all very full, but of course ordered desserts to go.  I didn't get a chance to get a photo of Becca's.  She had a lemon bar that she really liked.  Nolan had the Brooklyn Pie, which is shown in my above review.

I took home a cranberry meringue pie.  It is just like a lemon meringue, but with tart cranberries instead of lemon.  It was good, but not as sweet as I like desserts.  Nolan had not problems polishing it off.  He gave it two thumbs up.  It's just a matter of preference. 

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On March 20th, 2014, Ed and I visited Brooklyn House again.  This time we went with a group from the Portland Gluten Free Supper Club.  A split off group from the Gluten Free Portland FB page.  The GF supper club meets once a month to try new GF restaurants.  This is the first event we have made it to, and it was great fun to meet other GF Portlanders. 

Ed and I started off with a dipping plate.  It came with Spanish Olive tapenade, white bean spread, chèvre/mascarpone whip and Mama Lil's sweet-hot peppers (grown and preserved in Washington) with crostini.  All of the flavors were very sharp and wonderful.  We both enjoyed them.

Although I loved the kale salad, I wanted to try new things, so I ordered the Golden and Red Beet salad.  It came with arugula and spinach, hazelnuts and goat cheese.  It was really tasty and I enjoyed the beets.  

For my entree, I ordered the Wine Braised Chicken Stew.  This used to come with mushrooms with parsnip puree, with I have ordered separately and loved, but they changed this recipe a bit to make it more paleo, and just used roasted parsnips, but the stew was still very good and hearty.  I just love parsnips in general for their sharp flavor.  I took a lot of it home and it heated nicely the next day and made a great lunch.

My husband ordered the Edelweiss Grilled Sausage with braised red cabbage and grilled sauerkraut. It also came with a lovely mustard. This is a simple meal that is right up my husband's alley. The bonus is that the Edelweiss German Deli is literally right next door to The Brooklyn House, so you know it is fresh. 

As always, I ordered deserts to go.

I ordered a banana tiramisu.  It was really good.  I love tiramisu and this was the first time I was able to have one since going GF.  I let my eager son taste test it.  He said, "It's so good you can't even tell it is gluten free!' 

I was extremely excited they were serving a dessert that I had seen featured on their FB page.  It is a brownie, with a layer of homemade marshmallow cream on top and topped with dark chocolate.  I was pleased when I opened my to go box to find white chocolate, hazelnuts and a couple of cherries to go with.  I was pretty excited to try this and it lived up to my expectations.  I would say that I could eat a bowl of the marshmallow cream with a spoon, but that wouldn't be acceptable.....or would it??

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (My Diagnosis, My Doctor and Some TMI) A Celiac Story

The average time for the onset of symptoms to the diagnosis of celiac is 6-10 years.  I was "only" seriously ill for 8 1/2 months.  Suddenly, I developed several illnesses.  I was 40, but was worried about early onset Alzheimer's.  I couldn't remember conversations from the day before. I would get in the car and not be able to remember how to drive somewhere that I had driven for years.  It was really scary.  I had zero energy.  It was more like negative 100 energy. My doctor said it was probably chronic fatigue.  I suddenly became asthmatic.  I requested allergy testing and my doc told me to take claratin.  I then demanded allergy testing and found I was seriously allergic to cats (we had two), dust mites and a Russian olive tree.  I had been allergy tested only a few years earlier and wasn't allergic to anything.  I had a chronic cough, unrelated to a cold.  Of course, my doc never even gave me a chest xray.  For 8 months, I coughed all day and night long, often hard enough to throw up.  People looked at me like I had the plague.  This was extra special because from the strain of coughing and throwing up, I developed stress urinary incontinence.  So even with a pad, I would often have to change my clothes.  The doctor said that was just age related (I was 40) She said my cough was Silent GERD and gave me prilosec. (which is a horrible med, don't take it without researching it)  And then, of course there was the diarrhea.  Progressively got so bad that I couldn't leave the house and I had to take time off work.  I was up all night, running to the bathroom.  I stopped leaving the house after a a bowel accident in public. (You have NO idea!)  The doctor diagnosed me with IBS, said there was nothing she could do about it and that I would have to live with it the rest of my life.  So needless to say, I was incredibly depressed.  I went to her in tears multiple times, telling her that I couldn't handle being this sick all the time.

However, I am a total research geek.  I knew that all of these symptoms beginning at the same time was NOT a coincidence.  I knew they were related.  I fired my doctor and started doing what everyone tells you NOT to do.  I googled all of my symptoms.  I spent weeks online trying to figure it all out.  I read that my "Silent GERD" symptoms could actually be an H Pylori infection.  I went into my NEW doctor with a list of tests I wanted: Crohn's Disease, Celiac, H Pylori, certain types of cancers, ANA (autoimmune disorder test), CRP (shows inflammation in your body)  This seems silly, but the one thing that made me ask for a celiac panel was my poop.  I came across a chart that had BM colors and meanings.  All of my poop was yellow & this chart said it could be a symptom of celiac.  Anywho, the tests came back positive for autoimmune, celiac, H Pylori, and very high CRP numbers, which meant I had a systemic inflammation.  I was treated with antibiotics for the H Pylori.

My Celiac was confirmed a few days later by biopsy.  They found a polyp that almost always turns into cancer and that I was young to have.  They also found signs of diverticulitis.  Like I said, I guess in theory, I was lucky it didn't take 10 years to get diagnosed.  I am glad I am persistent and a researcher.  I am really angry at the doctor that ignored all of my symptoms.  I am also really grateful to have figured out what the problem was.  I went GF the day after my endoscopy/colonoscopy (which I now have to get every 5 years due to the polyp)  EVERY single one of my prior symptoms went away after going gluten free.  Every. Single. One.
 
Talking to people who don't know much about celiac is interesting.  People are generally pretty curious.  Mostly respectful, but a lot of people don't understand the difference between intolerance and celiac, due to lack of information.  They say they have lactose intolerance and found ways to cheat, and I will figure out what I can cheat on.  Celiac doesn't work that way.  If I eat one grain of a gluten containing food that is 1/4 the size of my pinky nail, it causes the autoimmune response.  An autoimmune response means that my body declares war on itself.  My cells think that some of my other cells are the enemy, and set out to destroy and kill them.  People often also (with love) suggest I take a digestive enzyme (Like gluten-ease) so that I can "cheat" and eat gluten.  That is like lactaid for lactose intolerance.   I do not have gluten intolerance.  I do understand gluten intolerance isn't fun and it is it's own thing, it's just not celiac.   Again.....ANY GLUTEN....autoimmune disorder....full scale war within my body.  Yes, and it can cause cancer too. If I mention that to people, I often get the, "Everything causes cancer."  Thanks a-hole.  Why don't you start smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day and if you get cancer, I will shrug & say, "Everything causes cancer."

I think my family and close friends are figuring it out, since last time I was seriously glutened, I was in the ER for 6 hours and all of my symptoms returned, leaving me down and our for weeks.

Sweet & spicy butternut squash

I based my recipe off of this one, but did things a little differently.

http://theshiksa.com/2013/10/08/maple-cinnamon-roasted-butternut-squash/

Basically, after the labor intensive peeling and dicing a butternut squash, I put the squash in a bowl. I lightly tossed with olive oil. I DOUBLED the seasonings called for and mixed them in the bowl, then put them on the cookie sheet.

It's really not too bad to peel your own butternut squash.  I will post photos next time.  I know there is pre-cut & peeled butternut squash for sale at the store.  Go for it if you are intimidated about doing it yourself.  I am very cheap (uh...I mean frugal)  Here is a good quick YouTube video of how to peel one on your own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbecyb7TgDE

 Ingredients

• 8 cups cubed butternut squash (peeled and seeded), about 3 lbs of peeled cubes
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 pinches cayenne

You will also need

• 2 baking sheets, foil (optional)

Prep Time: 5 Minutes

Cook Time: 35 Minutes

Total Time: 40 Minutes

Servings: 6

Olive Grove Restaurant Victoria, BC Canada

Another great find thanks to www.celiacscene.com.  This restaurant has a very knowledgeable staff.  It has the atmosphere of a fancy restaurant, but it really wasn't very expensive.  Go on a Monday or Tuesday for their special "Pasta Night" where you can chose from a large variety of pasta for under $10.  Yes, they have GF rice noodles and can prepare most meals GF.

When we were seated, I informed my waiter I had Celiac.  He brought out bread for my family and I was pleasantly surprised that they brought out a small dish of hummus with GF crackers for me.  What a nice touch!  The waiter was very knowledgeable and a woman also came over to tell me which pizza toppings were GF.  Yes....they had GF pizza!

The first night we went, I ordered the Olive Grove Pasta (see menu below)  It was delicious & it was so nice to have a restaurant that I felt it was safe to eat & that my family could get the gluten foods they love.  My husband and youngest son got pasta also (pasta night!) and my 17 year old got a pizza.  Everyone gave their food a thumbs up.

We went back the next night and I ordered the house specialty.  Georges Lamb Kleftiko Style.  I have actually never tried lamb before, but the waiter made it sound delicious.  I also ordered a Greek salad. It was a very nice meal.  The meat just fell off the bone.

Overall it was an awesome experience.  The only drawback is when I ordered an appletini made with potato vodka.  The waiter assured me they had Russian vodka and surely it was potato.  I warned him most vodkas are made with grain.  He brought me a delicious looking martini, but came back a minute later (luckily before I tried it) and swiftly removed it from the table.   He had checked the label, which I greatly appreciate, and saw that it was made with grain.  He & another waiter checked all of the vodka bottles and all were grain.  He went out of his way to offer me selections of other grain free liquors & they even have a GF beer, but I passed.  Hopefully from this experience, they will now stock potato vodka.

Overall, the staff was very welcoming, the atmosphere was wonderful & the food was delicious.  I would highly recommend this restaurant.  Photos are: The menu, my appetizer, my pasta and my lamb dinner. 

http://olivegrove.ca/