Tonight I visited a good friend of mine in town from North Carolina who was staying at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. While waiting for him to change to go out to dinner I was hanging out on his couch and happened to see the room service menu on the nightstand next to me. I was shocked to see so many GF’s all over the menu. I usually go into immediate cynic mode as I have continued a crusade for food establishments across the country, and probably the world, who abuse the use of the term “gluten-free”. Just because a dish does not contain wheat products DOES NOT make it gluten-free. It is essentially wheat-free and should be labeled as such. Gluten-free suggests that the dish was prepared on its own prep tables, pots, pans, utensils, even gloves for proper handling but we all know that most places don’t go to that extent to make a dish “gluten-free”. I was hard pressed to believe that some of the food options offered were in fact truly gluten-free but what really caught my attention was the legend on the bottom left page that indicated, and I quote, “GF indicates these items are gluten friendly”. GLUTEN FRIENDLY!!! What does that even mean? At face value that would mean that the dish is best buds with gluten and therefore NOT gluten free. Is this a playful joke or someone’s misunderstanding of what gluten-free means? Perhaps they meant that the dishes are “gluten-free friendly” which would be the complete opposite of “gluten friendly”. Unreal. Guess the crusade continues. We went to Bare Burger on 46th and 9th St for dinner which is a place I have frequented over 150 times. I have the credit card statements to prove it. Luckily I stuffed my face with the usual double patty of elk, bison, topped with brisket and avocado on a tapioca rice bun. So suck on that “gluten-friendly”…