GFRAP Welcomes Midtown Restaurant Nizza

Upstate Bakery Also Added

The latest New York City restaurant to join the Gluten-Free Restaurant Awareness Program is Nizza.

Located at 630 Ninth Avenue near 45th Street, Nizza (rhymes with pizza) is convenient to Times Square and the Broadway and Off-Broadway shows in the Theatre District, and even relatively close the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. (Not very long ago, you had to be intrepid to wander through this part of Hell's Kitchen, but now it's a welcoming part of town that's crowded with restaurants and host to an annual food fair.)

Nizza, which delivers, opened around October 2007. Since then its Italian-French fare (including a chick pea pizza-pancake-crepe called socca) has been written up in The New York Times, New York, and Time Out New York. It's also been sized up by the good folks at Menupages and Zagat, where it rated a very respectable food rating of 20.

Nizza's GFRAP participation is not coordinated with an area group.

Another addition is Three Dogs Gluten-Free Bakery of Briarcliff Manor. The owner of Three Dogs is GFRAP leader Karen Miller, who is also involved with the Westchester Celiac Sprue Support Group (WCSSG). Karen brought a plate of delicious bakery samples when she recently visited Manhattan to speak about GFRAP and the WCSSG with the New York City Celiac Disease Meetup Group (NYCCDMG). I especially enjoyed her chocolate chip cookies.

The GFRAP participation of Three Dogs Gluten-Free Bakery is coordinated with WCSSG.

TED'S MONTANA GRILL

Ted's Montana Grill offers special guidelines for patrons on the gluten-free diet (as well as other special diets). When I visited the midtown Manhattan location during the holiday system, the staff seemed totally clueless, but more recently I stopped by and spoke with chef Jesse, who seemed much better informed. He said that restaurant headquarters might actually be preparing bona fide special diet menus, which I imagine would be at least as user-friendly as the guidelines its been using.

Gluten-free locals and tourists could benefit greatly if the Manhattan location of Ted's Montana Grill proves itself reliable. Located in the Time-Life Building, it's convenient to museums, Rockefeller Center, City Center, Carnegie Hall, and Times Square and the upper theater district. It would be great if the restaurant heightened its credibility by coordinating its efforts with GFRAP and/or the Gluten Intolerance Group Corporate Restaurant Program.