Gluten-Free Travel: KATE’S ICE CREAM, Portland, Oregon
OK, don’t judge me, but anytime I am in Portland, Oregon visiting my kids I NEED to go to Kate’s Ice Cream. Kate’s lists itself as “seriously great plant-based & gluten-free ice cream”. I literally dream of the Marionberry Cobbler ice cream with gluten-free walnut oat streusel. And I get to have it in a gluten-free cone!! I should probably try the other flavors, but I’m in love with Marion.
Says another enthusiastic Kate’s fan on the website, ““We’ve been vegan for 4 years now and have had plant-based ice cream in Boston, NYC, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Seattle, Denver, LA, and all over Portland, and in Iceland and Kate’s Ice Cream is easily the best we have ever had!” I would tend to agree, remembering disappointing visits for vegan ice cream, including Lick in the Pearl district of San Antonio. A recent visit to Lick for Key Lime Pie non-dairy ice cream has redeemed them in my eyes, except they don’t have gluten-free cones (frowny face emoji). Don’t tell anyone, but I even like Kate’s better than Portland’s infamous Salt and Straw’s dairy-free selections.
Kate’s is located in the eclectic North Mississippi neighborhood. There are fun shops to visit while working up an appetite like Pistils Nursery, the ReBuilding Center, and Sunlan Lighting, Inc. which has the wildest and weirdest lightbulbs to be found anywhere. There are also many restaurants on the street. My family wanted to eat at the Swedish restaurant, Broder Nord, and it was pleasantly surprised though I had to work to find something that didn’t seem glutenous.
Portland, Oregon is pretty gluten-friendly, but save room for dessert and save some time to visit Kate’s.
UPDATE:
A recent trip to Kate’s found me expanding my flavor choice to ‘Strawberry with Chocolate Covered Potato Chips’. What a fun combination! I also had to try my husband’s Java Chip cone (I’ll be getting that next time!), and a companion’s purple ‘Ube’ ice cream, which I liked because it wasn’t too sweet. It’s so fun to have 12+ flavors to choose from that all meet my non-dairy requirements.
