Special Requests for the Kitchen Crew
Please read (in full) before submitting special requests
Submit any special requests at least 1-week prior to the retreat’s start date (please use the form at the bottom of this page, even if you’ve already emailed Sarah or Alex about this)
About us:
We’re a super small crew of hosts who absolutely love providing amazing food for our guests! Jack, Noi, and Sabine take care of the dining experience at Grappler’s Retreat — we’ll coordinate any special requests with them.
Breakfasts are always “made to order”, so it’s never a problem to accommodate special requests for breakfast — but we need to know in advance if we’ll need to source ingredients that we don’t typically stock (e.g. gluten free bread, beyond meat, vegan egg substitute, etc).
Lunches and Dinners are all made “family style”. This means that there is a set menu for each meal, with one main entrée and a number of sides, and possibly with a custom homemade sauce or homemade dressing served with that meal.
We strive to accommodate special requests, but please keep in mind our limitations (based simply on time) — i.e. we can’t create entirely distinct dining experiences for one or two people, while still having the time to make an amazing family-style feast for the bulk of the group.
That said, we can (and very often have) provided excellent dining experiences for those with special requests, including the following requests:
vegetarian diet
vegan diet
gluten free diet
pork-free diet
peanut sensitivities, other sensitivities
etc.
For our Dinner Feasts, our objective is to make sure you can enjoy one main entrée and at least one side dish — please don’t feel “short-changed” if we’ve put out a huge spread of options and you don’t like one or two things!! Most of our guests (even those without “dietary restrictions”) don’t eat or try everything (we just like to put out a feast with lots of options!). So… If you can be happily well fed with a good part of the meal, we hope you’ll be satisfied.
As far as specialty requests to help you meet your dietary requirements: we’ll make it happen, BUT we must keep them within the “theme” of what’s already being made. Again, this is simply because our chefs don’t have the time to create an entirely distinct culinary experience for one person, while still having the time to make an amazing family-style feast for the bulk of the group.
What does this mean?
Well… here are some examples:
Vegan Diet special request
instead of grilled teriyaki chicken and pork-fried rice, we’ll grill you a teriyaki vegetable kebab (cremini mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash, peppers — or your other favorite grilled vegetables) and make a separate batch of vegetable fried rice for you (without pork).
On “Thai night”: instead of chicken Pad Thai, we’ll make you a separate batch of vegetable Pad Thai (without eggs, and we can add tofu if that’s something you like)…and we’ll hand roll some spring rolls for you without the meat filling (just vegetables, herbs, and glass noodles).
when we make the “carne asada bowl” lunch, we’ll simmer some organic beans for you to enjoy with the basmati rice, homemade guacamole, fresh salsa, and tortilla chips
If we’re grilling burgers for lunch, we’ll grill you a “beyond burger”…
etc, etc
No Pork special request
easy: instead of crispy pork fried rice, we’ll make you vegetable fried rice
instead of pork baby back ribs, we’ll roast some beef ribs for you
We won’t put bacon on your sandwich
etc.
Gluten-Free diet
you’ll have to skip out on some things, but we’ll stock gluten-free bread for you for the mornings, and for a possible sandwich lunch
If we make meatloaf for dinner, we can make a separate small meatloaf for you without breading
if we pick up pizzas and you let us know in advance, we’ll get you a gluten-free pizza