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Food Review: The Verizon Center
This review was originally going to contain a “review” of the gluten-free goodness from the eyes of my gluten-eating friend. Wouldn’t that have been a nice twist? Well, that didn’t happen.
This is a post I have not wanted to write. In fact, one might say I have avoided writing it. Last week, I went to a Capitals game at the Verizon Center (Remember??) and I was super excited about chowing down on some gluten-free grub while watching the team secure (another) victory. Seriously though, they’re undefeated. But, sadly, “Mission Gluten Free” was not all it was cracked up to be…
Let’s start with my expectations, shall we? I guess I should know better by now, but I was pretty confident having checked out the concessions list online AND DC’s favorite team to hate, the Nationals, has hotdogs on gluten free buns, pretzels, beer, etc.—so, shouldn’t the Verizon Center? Especially with all of the changes that owner, the great Ted Leonsis, has made?
Upon arriving inside the stadium, my gluten-eating friend (and fellow Ted Leonsis fan) and I went in search of the section which housed the gluten-free offerings. We wanted to try a couple of gluten free hot dogs, and my friend has been wanting to see if the Redbridge GF Beer is as good as Karl Alzner says it is. When we didn’t see anything, I asked someone official looking who told me that the “gluten free cart” had moved to “somewhere on the other side” from where we were. OK. So we walked over to that section. Nothing. I asked a different person, and they had no idea—nor did the other guest services person with them. This same routine occurred three or four more times. I did at some point find a random cart that had a gluten free chicken breast sandwich, which I felt sort of obligated to purchase. It was $10, if you are at all curious.
As we made our way to our seats in the 400 section, I decided I would ask one more time, with a guest services team that looked far more competent than the previous. This team walkie-talkied with the food manager who said that the cart with vegan, vegetarian, and gluten free items, including Redbridge beer, was down in section 108—I had been there, it wasn’t. The guest services guy (Side note: I’m 99.99% sure I went to college with him—one of those ‘met you at orientation and then never saw you again’ scenarios) also told me that the list of concessions, which I had based this entire adventure on, had not been updated to reflect recent changes.
I was grateful for the info, but after walking and walking (and walking some more) in circles, I just wasn’t up for going back downstairs. We took our seats and I ate my chicken breast sandwich, which wasn’t bad, just not what I wanted. It wasn’t what I had been looking forward too.
My issue is not with the lack of gluten free options at the Verizon Center—I certainly do not expect to be accommodated (it IS nice, though…) but I felt like the items had been “promised” to me, especially since every time I asked I heard “Oh yeah! They have hot dogs! Even have that gluten-free beer!” Had I known any this beforehand I would have eaten at one of the nine restaurants surrounding the Verizon Center–no big deal. My biggest gripe with this situation is the actual situation. The lack of knowledge amongst the guest services teams, and the lack of initiative to find the correct information, was very frustrating. My first 20 minutes of the overall experience of the game were completely dampened. People with allergies and food sensitivities ALWAYS plan ahead, so why bother having a list of concessions that denotes gluten free items if it is not up to date?
The game was great, though I would have liked to see a brawl, and I had fun otherwise, but all I wanted was a gluten free beer and a hot dog to enjoy it with. And what I got was a chicken breast sandwich that crumbled all over my lap and a feeling of disappointment.
Gluten Free: The Undetectable Performance Enhancer
Recently, Tennis pro Novak Djokovic made national headlines when he likened his domination of the sport to cutting gluten out of his diet. Similarly, New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees reportedly follows a gluten free diet, and they won the Superbowl in 2010.
Generally, I’m not the biggest fan of someone cutting gluten from their diet if they aren’t allergic or intolerant to it because it tends to contribute that much more mis-information to the already large pot of misconceptions surrounding gluten intolerance and Celiac Disease. For those of us who have to actually “be” gluten free for health reasons, the perception of the lifestyle as a “fad diet” can make life difficult; It could result in a chef or kitchen staff at a restaurant taking cross contamination less seriously, which could make someone with gluten intolerance or Celiac Disease very very sick. One can hope that more awareness of Celiac will lead to more accurate diagnoses, but the reality is that many articles note that people with Celiac who accidentally ingest gluten will get “very sick,” but is its rarely reported that the effects of gluten can range from a stomach ache to debilitating neurological pain and it can take up to 6 MONTHS for a Celiac body to heal after being glutened. It’s a serious disease, and not something to be taken lightly.
In Djokovic’s case, it seems as he actually has an intolerance to gluten or Celiac Disease and a legitimate reason to stay away from gluten, and his sudden performance boost may very well be related to the fact that he no longer consumes what his body perceives as poison. When I first removed gluten from my diet, after being diagnosed by my doctor, it was like night and day. I didn’t even realize how bad I had been feeling until I stopped feeling crappy (pun absolutely intended), fatigued and was no longer plagued with “foggy brain.”
Now, it seems, we can add two more to the proverbial growing list of gluten-free athletes. Karl Alzner and Jay Beagle of the much-beloved Washington Capitals hockey team have cut gluten from their diets. As the only team that DC residents proudly admit to love, I’m curious to see if the elimination of gluten from their diets has the same affect on their performance as it has on Djokovic.
I’ll be at their game next Tuesday (Rock the Red!) cheering in the stands, and if they win, maybe they’ll celebrate with me with a hotdog in a gluten free bun and knock back a few of those Redbridge gluten free beer‘s that Karl Alzner is so fond of (both of which are served in the concessions at the Verizon Center).
