A Gluten Free Birthday Party

Something pretty big happens in March 2010. Towards the end of the month, my husband turns 30. Since it's an age ending in a -0 (and because, though he vehemently denies it, I know he wanted a fuss made) I decided to throw him a surprise party with some of his friends.

Since, obviously, you can't have a party without some sort of food, I had to find a place that was willing to accommodate a gluten free menu. Since most of our guests were coming from the Schenectady area, it had to be someplace with available parking -- effectively ruling out downtown Albany. My husband also abhors regular bars - he'd much rather play games and have something to actually do. Finally, I wanted to keep it within a reasonable budget for approximately 30 people.

After making a few phone calls, I came up with the perfect venue: Diamond Eight Billiards. It's located in Latham and it's the best pool hall we've found in the area. It had everything we wanted -- pool, darts, foozeball, and a wonderful party manager, Irene, who went above and beyond to accommodate all of my menu requests. My goal for the party - I wanted my husband to be free to eat anything he wanted, and I wanted it to be good enough for all the other guests to enjoy.

The menu that Irene and I worked out:

Starters:

• Cheese and fruit platter
• Veggie and dip platter (Marzetti ranch dip)
  

Dinner:

• Tossed salad (Croutons on the side and gluten free Marzetti salad dressing)
  
• Sausage and peppers (with gluten free sausage, of course)
  
• Chicken and peppers
• Chicken and mushrooms
• Mild and Medium wings (broiled and tossed with sauce, instead of fried)
• Potato salad

For dessert, Diamond Eight provided a brownie tray (not gluten free, but my husband doesn't like chocolate anyway) and we brought in an ice cream cake from Emack and Bolio's. This is another great place with amazing ice cream! The cake was a huge hit. While their website has a huge allergen statements that they cannot guarantee against cross contamination, the employees were willing to use brand new containers for this cake to mitigate that risk, which we greatly appreciated!

My mother, mother in law, and sister in law stopped by Diamond Eight that afternoon to decorate -- everything looked festive, the food was great (though, I'll confess, I ordered a bit too much - we're eating a ton of leftover wings right now), and my husband was thoroughly surprised. What made it even better, though, was that everyone was entertained for the entire evening. I reserved four pool tables that were constantly busy, they had karaoke, and overall a great time!

* Note: The puggle wasn't invited to the party, and, I'm pretty sure hates me after making her take that picture. But I couldn't resist including it. :-)