7/12/07 One of my favorite gluten free restaurants recently closed. Why — you may ask — am I broadcasting this information to every celiac in the nation who has access to this blog? I think it is a great example of a problem that faces all of us. Obviously, everything in this article is Paul’s Point-of-View rather than verifiable facts. This is the first article on this blog that does not link to other articles. Anyway, here’s what happened:

The Flambe was an excellent restaurant for celiacs and for anyone else who enjoyed great food. Our celiac support group held social events here. However, there was no printed gluten free menu and the otherwise excellent website did not mention that the restaurants was celiac friendly. As far as I know, they relied solely on word-of-mouth publicity to attract a celiac clientele. Is that why they went out of business? I have no idea. but I certainly know that celiacs are hungry for information about gluten free opportunities.

The restaurant’s website still functions. I tried the phone, found it disconnected and I already heard about the closure at our celiac support group meeting. Otherwise, I too would be confused.

What’s the morale of this story? I’m getting used to the idea that restaurant chefs and managers do not always communicate with their web masters. I’ve seen too many examples of this since I started this blog. We’ve got to do it ourselves. I’m proud to offer you this blog as one way to share the information that we all need. Please leave a comment at the end of this or any other article or e-mail me at gfceliac@gmail.com

A second morale is that a web site allows better communication that any printed resource. I am not so niave as to think that everything on the internet is true or up-to-date. On the other hand, printed lists (particularly those in books) are almost never updated. I’m proud to be the "father" of this blog!