Alchemy at Aldeen - Rockford

Alchemy at Aldeen – We found on accident, well with the help of Find Me Gluten Free. We were planning on hitting up Prairie Street Brewing, one of our favorite places in Rockford, but noticed the parking lot was beyond packed and nearby vacant lots and street parking were full also. Seeing that Prairie Street is also an event venue, we assumed something was going on, but decided the meal would be slow, long and may not even get a table for some time, but we were hungry and on our way to Wisconsin for the weekend. 

We found Alchemy and headed that direction, it wasn’t far, and happened to be at one of the local golf courses as the country club. The inside of the restaurant was super charming and cute, I felt a bit under dressed, but I don’t think it really mattered. Most people were chilling on the patio or at the bar.

The Gluten Free options on the menu were impressive and plentiful. Most things it felt like could be made gluten free. Their format for the winter months is to operate like a super club and have a fancy cocktail menu to match it.

My husband went with the 52 day barrel aged Old Fashioned and I got a daiquiri. His Old Fashioned was pretty tasty, not strong or harsh and went down smoothly. My Daiquiri was a bit like a margarita and super satisfying. 

For dinner I got the pasta bosco it was super interesting as it had chunks of beef, mushrooms and was in a broth style sauce. I have to try making this at home as it was so good and didn’t give me heartburn since it wasn’t a tomato sauce! The servers were very conscious to call out gluten free when repeating the order and bringing out the food. Which was good, cause the pasta was so good I honestly questioned if it was gluten free. 

The server told us they’d be starting their summer menu soon with handhelds and lighter far for enjoying on the patio. Hopefully that continues to be gluten free plentiful.

I give them 5 dragonflies – The food and drink were both amazing, the staff was attentive, and the ambiance was great. I would go here for a date night any time!

 

Arby’s Eating Dirty

While doing a roadtrip halfway across the country  during covid to visit my Sister-In-Law on the East coast, we got to talking about places to drive thru for options, and trying to find something different, as we got away from our Urban options who would have things like Chik-Fila, Jimmy Johns, Jersey Mikes…. And I questioned “Would an Arby’s beef sandwich be gluten free if served not on a bun?” My husband asked “Would you eat it like that, or on your own bun?” 

So we set off to the grocery store, found some BFree Pita’s and went to Arby’s and ordered a Double Beef and Cheddar in a bowl. We found a cute spot to park near a river by a park and pulled out our car trays and proceeded to have lunch. I built my beef and cheddar into the pita pocket while we laughed and had one of the best ‘dirty food’ meals I’d had in a long time. At the time they still did a side salad as an option so that and my beef and cheddar hit the spot and we cracked up that it took us 10 years to think of this as an idea! At the time Arby's still had a side salad option, which made a nice touch to the meal. Now they no longer have the salad sadly, but I'll survive.

Since than we've stopped at Arbys on more than a few occasions, for something different to eat.  I always make sure to have a bread option with me, or we just take it home to eat. It's such a simple concept, that is quite tasty too.

Elmhurst Brewing Company

I think I’ve spoiled myself by always going places with good defined gluten free menus. That when I go somewhere that just throws stuff together I have to try really hard not to roll my eyes at the menu. I’ve looked at Elmhurst Brewing Companies menu a few times the last year or so that we’ve had our Friday “Brew Crew”, and the menu does rotate seasonally and so do the gluten free options. It seems that they are becoming less and less. Which was a bit shocking since most cases I feel I eat better at most breweries than I do most sit down establishments. This one was a bit different. 

They had 1 flatbread option and 2 salads marked on the menu. I questioned a couple other items including their pimento dip, (Which seems to be a brewery staple, as that’s where I always seem to get it.).

1^st things first, they had cider from Right Bee, and an Old-Fashioned option. Their Old-Fashioned was ok. You had to stir the ice to melt it some to bring off the harsh edge on the drink. The Cider was great! I want to go do a tasting at Right Bee one of these days cause I think I’ll like the options. 

 

Not gluten free, but thought their taster paddle was cool.

I got the pimento cheese dip, they determined they could do cucumbers and celery instead of crackers and the beet and goat cheese salad. Had the wings been an option, I would have gone with them, my husband did, and said they were amazing! Our friend who got the Schintzel said it was better than the German restaurant we went to! 

The goat cheese salad had these cute little ‘goat balls’ as my husband called them rolled in pepper and placed sparsely on the salad. Their green goddess dressing was good. Overall the salad was OK, nothing I’d rave about, but it didn’t upset my stomach. The pimento dip tasted processed and fake. We joked that they ran across the street and got a container from the grocery store and plopped it on the plate. Not amazing, at all!

Overall, I’d give them 2 Dragonflies, while they nicely marked 3 items on the menu gluten free, it felt like they did so out of obligation, that they really wanted to make or serve anything gluten free. The ambiance was nice and if you eat gluten the food sounds like it’s good… Just not, the gluten free aspect.

 

Balanced Rock Winery

Just outside the exit to Devil's Lake state park, is a cute winery on a bit of a hill, Balanced Rock Winery. One thing that cracks me up, is that they have a driving range on their property. So if you like golf, you're set! Plus they are dog friendly with a large patio with live music to really take some time to chill for the day while getting some good food and drink.

There were a few options for wine. Do a tasting at the bar, or a flight or a glass could be take to a table, as well as you can order food to go with your wine. We opted to each get a flight and share (there were exactly 6 sweeter wine and a flight was 3 wines, so we were set!). We each ordered a different nacho plate, I don't know if we were that hungry or the food was that good. Once our food arrived, we totally forgot about the wine and went into heffer mode, just chowing down on our food. The salsa was nice and thick and not too spicy, plus I was excited they had black olives on the nachos. You don't see that too often most places. So I stole the olives off my husbands plate. Really the food was great, the wine was tasty, and the ambiance was lively and not too serious, but still a nice setting. 

I give them 5 dragonflies. For a winery to have such a good food display was rare and very inviting. The inside it super cute and makes a great stand alone option to hang out, but in nice weather, the back and side patio, totally pump it up a notch on cuteness. Plus the scenery was so nice and in the fall would be even prettier. 

Elgin Food Hall Birdettes

I had seen on Find Me Gluten Free a listing for Birdette's in Elgin, it mentioned they had gluten free fried chicken! I got super excited, as that is the main thing I really crave. So I asked around to a few other people if they'd heard of it or knew anything, they said no, but was worth checking out. A little more digging I found out they're in a food hall. While thinking that was a bit odd for Elgin, still was intrigued to find a reason to be out that way to check it out. We've visited food halls other places we've traveled and they were super cute and worth visiting again. 

While at a loss for a late lunch we wandered over to the Dream Hall food hall to give it a go. It was rather confusing to figure out where all the food options were and what they were since it looked to have multiple floors, and only 3 spots to order food on the 1st floor. Eventually we figured out the left you got coffee, the middle was all the food options and the right was the bar. We walked around and checked out the space, and opted to order our food.

I had to go with the fried chicken. I did the drumettes, and a mozzarella & tomato salad with my chicken. My husband did a curry bowl. We were slightly confused at the menu but realized all the food options were listed in one spot. My wings were good, the creamy buffalo was not very spicy at all which was good, it didn't distract from the chicken which was pretty awesome. They asked if I wanted blue cheese on the side, and I said sure. Sadly the blue cheese was Ken's dressing, which is GF safe, but I find their dressings lack flavor of any level. I enjoyed my caprese salad, though the tomatoes were very tough like they were hot house raised. My husband was underwhelmed with his curry dish having little to no spice and not being very curry like. He wished he'd gone with the nutella pancakes instead. He also got a iced coffee drink from the coffee stand, that was really good.

I'll give them 4 dragonflies because they have multiple GF options and very clear labeling. When I mentioned gluten free they seemed very knowledgeable on it. But the lack of being able to figure out what was going on with the space and where to go was a bit odd. Plus most of the options could have had more flavor. I hope the succeed, since they don't seem in a high foot traffic area like most food halls. 

Tumbled Rock Brewing

Not far outside Starved Rock in Baraboo WI is a tasty brewery - Tumbled Rock Brewing. We found them on a previous trip to go hiking and really enjoyed the food we got. I had gotten the steak tip appetizer (Sans the crostini) and the elote salad. I was expecting a 'normal'serving size for the elote and was shocked at the large portion. I couldn't finish it even with help from my husband, who had gotten a pizza because they have a giant pizza oven, and seems to be their specialty item.

As we were heading back up this way after doing a few hikes, I suggested we stop there for a late lunch get a beverage and some appetizers. We opted to get a few appetizers to share. One thing to note on their menu is anything that is marked GF that is fried, IS in a Shared fryer. Which annoys me when places do this, but I knew to ignore these items. Our server was very engaged an able to punch in 'allergy' & 'gluten free' notes on the items we ordered and she went back and talk to the kitchen to make sure they saw the note. Since the steak tips should have crostini, the server offered to bring us a plate of tortilla chips to go with our food instead. My husband loved the tortilla chips and we took the extras with us to munch on later.

Our meal was fabulous and the rain held off so we had a nice meal on their patio. I give them 4 dragonflies because they have a bunch of options that are GF, and they are tasty. Do keep note that they have a shared fryer for GF items that are fried. So keep that in mind when ordering off the menu. I wish they wouldn't mark those items, as it can be confusing when ordering, to know what really are safe options. Otherwise they seem knowledgeable and diligent with the food on all orders. 

Church Street Brewing

My husband found Church St. Brewery several years back. Riding the Metra he would see their large sign that faces the back yard (which they were not using at the time) but made us aware of them, and then one of his favorite food trucks started going there. 

Originally they had a tiny taproom where you sat at wine barrels for tables, very speak easy like. As they've grown, they've expanded a couple times, making the tap room larger, and getting formal seating options. As well as expanding the back yard and making it a nice beer garden. During Covid they put up a tent and added some umbrellas to tables so you had some shade coverage. This year they've installed pergolas in the back. They also set up for live music in the back as well as inside.

They've also grown their options of what they serve. They experimented with a gluten reduced beer. They also joined in on the hard seltzer game. The one thing that severely irks me about their hard seltzers. They are Gluten Reduced, NOT GLUTEN FREE! I hate that seltzers are not a clear cut gluten free option. When going anywhere new if an establishment has a hard seltzer brand I don't know, I always ask if it's gluten free, which draws a lot of eye roll reactions. I always bring up Church St, that their seltzers are not gluten free. 

Several other breweries around us have started making their own vodka and whiskey, which has made Church St. start serving cocktails and even wine from Lynfred down the road. Which meant options that were safer for me. We also loved that they would have a rotation of food trucks, or we brought our own food. One day we were shocked to show up and see they had a food menu. When we were told going forward we couldn't bring our own food, I questioned them on Gluten free options and they said "Yes we do!" and brought us a menu. 

We've since had a couple of their dips, a salad, (Cause they ran out of Cauliflower crusts) and their pizza on Cauliflower crust. The last time we ere there they said they have a customer show up weekly to get their GF pizza saying it was worth the trip. I agree! It is squishy and tasty, I have to always ask and confirm they brought the right pizza out.It's not your typical crusty had gluten free pizza. With their expansion in the liquor they have options like margarita flights for Cinco De Mayo, and Mint Juleps for the Kentucky Derby. So it's a nice rotation of options for me on drinks, and a place with a great place to casually hang out, and being a brewery it doesn't feel like I have to eat, we can just enjoy some drinks and chill. 

I give them 4 dragonflies, cause I'd love to see a GF beer option, not gluten reduced... Even if it was from another brewery like Alt or Lakefront. But they have wine, and spirits to choose from, and that pizza, (The meat-za, and the pear one they had last summer). Everyone is super nice and not pretentious when explaining the need for gluten free, they have other regulars who also explained to them, so it's a very comfortable environment.