Monday night, I was invited to the premiere of The Exploding Girl, because my friend, Caitlyn works for the distributing company, Oscilloscope Laboratories.  The premiere started at 8 pm at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, and we needed a place to eat beforehand.  I tried to do some online research to find gluten-free or just gluten-free friendly restaurants in the area but no luck.  Serendipitously, Caitlyn’s co-worker with a celiac brother overheard her talking about restaurants for her celiac friend, and suggested Risotteria.

This was exciting.  Risotteria is the Mecca for the gluten-free; it is the first restaurant to pop up in a Google search for gluten-free restaurants in NYC.  It was a little bit of a hike from Tribeca, but this gave Caitlyn and me time to catch up and work up an appetite for dinner.

Risotteria is small, even for New York standards.  There are only 2-3 tables for four, and perhaps 8 tables for couples.  The look is a hybrid between a diner and deli, which is extremely charming.  They don’t take reservations, but we got lucky and only had to wait for 5 minutes.  During that wait I was able to observe all the gluten-free options they had there: cookies, breads, brownies, and other items available for purchase at the cash register.  Then, it was time to sit.

The first thing you will notice after being seated are the gluten-free bread sticks in a cup.  These are awesome.  They are crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, and only taste very faintly of xanthan gum. So faintly, that even Caitlyn did not mind.  I gobbled mine down.

The second thing you will notice after the breadsticks is their drink menu, or more accurately, drink bottle.  The drinks are pasted onto a green wine bottle and even cooler than they, they have 5 different gluten-free beer choices.  Bard’s, New Grist, Redbridge, Green’s, and St. Peter’s. Like I said, this place is a Mecca.  I went with the Bard’s because it was cheap ($5.25) and I knew it was good.

Risotteria is named for its signature dishes, risotto.  I did not have risotto and neither did Caitlyn. Blasphemy, you say?  I had the shrimp and gruyère pizza.  Being a celiac, you must seize the opportunities to enjoy typically glutenous foods like pizza because they just don’t come knocking often.  Taking the waitress’ advice, we ordered a pizza each, but they were actually large and given the rather steep prices, Caitlyn noted that we could have easier shared one.

And the pizza did not disappoint.  The crust was thin and crisp and stays that way despite the massive amount of cheese that could potentially soften it to a soggy mess.  The shrimp were grilled to perfection and added a contrasting texture to the pizza that made each bite interesting.  The gruyère cheese atop the right amount of sauce provided the clutch flavor that propelled the pizza from good to great.  Risotteria’s pizza was far better than New York delivery pizza, and it should be, for $17.50.

Caitlyn and I only finished 2/3 of our respective pizzas and headed off to the premiere.  Despite the slightly rushed experience at Risotteria, it made a lasting impression on my taste buds and I will most definitely return.