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| - Actually a pleasant surprise.
I didn't expect a sports bar type place in the southeast to have a gluten-free menu, but they did. Not only did they have it, but it had options for appetizers and entrées.
So, the quick review...
Gluten-free: Yes, they offer it and yes, most of the people working there that I encountered understood what that meant. (I say "most" since I did get a Caesar salad with my meal that had croutons on it. It was probably a confused order in the kitchen, but salads are easy to spot. Had that been other dish where the sauce or something is less obvious, that could have caused a problem.)
Service: Friendly, fast, responsible.
Food: Pretty typical sports-bar food. Nothing great, but not bad either. If you're at a sports bar, you're there to drink beer and watch TV. The food is background and the portions are appropriately large to make sure everyone gets full.
Beer: I mentioned this separately because one thing for sure that you don't expect at a place like this is a gluten-free beer selection. You expect the "sorry, but we have hard liquor," or "we have cider." This place actually has a gluten-free beer section that's separate from ciders, but let's face it, cider is NOT beer. Now, the downside to this is that the Estrella Damm Daura they put here isn't really gluten-free for celiacs. It will work if you're gluten-free for stylistic or lifestyle reasons, but celiacs will definitely get a negative reaction from this brew. (Not necessarily Carolina Ale House's fault since Estrella still advertises its product as gluten-free, even though the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) will not let them put the gluten-free label on their beer.)
Still, Carolina Ale House tries to accommodate, and if anything, they should asterisk the Estrella so that the celiacs vs. the lifestyle GFs can make the best decisions.
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