My article "Chain Restaurants Serving Gluten Free Meals" is the most-frequently-visited page on this site. This is as it should be. After all, we have a great deal of control over what we eat at home. But find finding a celiac-friendly restaurant meal is a major challenge.

What's the difference between a chain restaurant and an independently-owned restaurant? Very little really as far as you are concerned. Chain restaurants are associated with large groups of restaurants that operate in several different states. Since it is not feasible for me to write about every restaurant in every state, the difference is crucial to me.

Why might I prefer a chain restaurant?

• They're everywhere. There is a gluten free chain restaurant meal available to you almost anywhere in the coun try..
• The chain restaurants have websites that give exact directions to the nearest source of a gluten free meal.
• The websites (at least the ones I recommend) spell out the gluten free options available at each restaurant. The restaurant chains have excellent legal departments that make sure that individual restaurants do not make false promises.
• When you visit a chain restaurant, you know what to expect. The restaurant in the town you are visiting is very much like the one in your home town. This helps with that anxious feeling that occurs when a person with celiac disease of gluten intolerance enters an unknown restaurant.

This last point can be a reason for avoiding chain restaurants. What traveler wants to eat in a restaurant  that is an exact clone of  a restaurant in his or her home town? When you are in that mood, by all means search for an independently-owned restaurant.

Published 9/28/08