Excellent Hotel Accommodation

[Lan]

Hi all,

I have to tell you all about my time in Blackpool, as was the best holiday I ever had. I went last weekend and have found the best hotel for allergy sufferers ever.

On arriving there I was given a peppermint tea and my possessions taken to the room. When asked about breaskfast, I thought 'here we go', but couldn't have been more wrong.

I was cooked fresh dairy free porridge every morning :drool::drool::drool: (like the chef said, just as easy as making it with milk as water) and my toast was buttered with my own spread. I had taken the milk and butter up there, but still. They were very helpful and made sure that all my food was dairy free.

The details are as follows:

The Pembroke Hotel
11 King Edward Avenue
Blackpool
Lancashire
FY2 9TD

Tel: 01253 351306

E-mail: info@neartheprom.com
Web: www.NearTheProm.com

When leaving I was actually asked for details about my milk, butter etc as was told they wish to cater for allergy sufferers. He said 'wouldn't it be nice to come here and not bring your own food?' and I nearly cried. It's nice to see people are taking as seriously.

The accommodation was lovely and spotlessly clean. The toilet seat had a seal on it saying it had been sanatised that day!!! :D:D:D

There was also a pub down the road called The Gynn and the service there was excellent. They weren't too busy to ask the chef and had time and patience, sometimes lacking in staff.

What more can I say? I am very excited about finding such a great place to holiday.

Just had to let you all know.

On another positive note, Steve is looking in to getting a facility on here to allow us to post great places like this under place names. I will let him tell you more about that in the foreseeable future.

Take care all.


Lan. :D:D:D

[ellsie]

Sounds great! Good chillin' time!:dance:

[scranL74]

Wow, it sounds fantastic!

[Nic]

I had a similar experience recently (a B&B near Maldon) and it I know what you mean - catering for allergies shouldn't really be that surprising in this day and age, but it is, and its makes you feel much happier than you would expect.:D

Glad your holiday went so well - time to book another one!

Nic

[paranoidangel]

Wow, Lan that sounds really excellent. You'd think that big hotels would be better placed to offer alternatives but it always seems to be smaller places that are more interested.

[Lan]

Hi all.

It was that good I would highly recommend it and will definitely be going there again. One of my friends is on about going next month. Will see how it goes.

Lan.:p:p:p

[The Pembroke Hotel]

Hi,

I own the hotel that Lan stayed at in Blackpool.

What I would like to do is introduce an alterantive Diary Free Breakfast Menu for our 2006 season.

We now already stock the soya milk and pure spread which Lan recommended but would like details on other foods which we could use and and diary free dishes which could be served at breakfast.

Any help members could give would be greatly appreciated.

Also thinking of some items or dishes I could use for evening meals aswell

Many thanks
Michael
The Pembroke Hotel
Blackpool
www.pembrokehotel.com (http://www.pembrokehotel.com) & www.neartheprom.com (http://www.neartheprom.com)

[linny]

Great to hear of a hotel that cares for it's clients that are dairy free! :)

Regarding breakfasts I think that you have the main things covered, the milk and margarine. Another thing is sausages - I know that Richmond and Walls pork sausages are dairy free.

Thinking of the dinner menu one thing you have to watch is gravy. I know that Bisto granules are dairy free and of course gravy that you make from basics.

Any Yorkshire pudding or batter mix can be made from soya milk.

Desserts are the difficult things! Swedish Glace 'ice cream' dessert is lovely and available in different flavours. There is also a soya custard called Alpro and also a pouring cream from Alpro. Cakes, pastry and sponge puddings can be made using dairy free margarine.:D

Hope this is of some help.

P.S. The hotel website is the best I've seen for a hotel, a guided tour wow!!

[rebecca c]

Breakfast ideas

I am also gluten free and source gluten and dairy free sausages from my local organic butcher. What about experimenting with hash browns made with pure? Pancakes or porridge made with soya or rice milk work well. Then there are the obvious things like fruit salads.

Evening meals

I prefer simple things cooked with lots of fresh ingredients. If you do food like this you would be able to cater for quite a range of allergies not just dairy. Grilled fish with a salsa verde and saute potates and a veg. If you cook the meat or fish and add the sauce afterwards it gives people the option of not eating it if there is anything in it they may react to. Soups cooked with a stock rather than cream would be a welcome addition to most hotel menus.

Most of the people on this site play around with menus substituting pure or rice or soya milk for the normal ingredients. The same thing goes for people who are gluten free.

I have a lot of allergies and intolerences and so when eating out I am often relieved if I see a really simply cooked meal on the menu.

I am so impressed by your attitude - asking us for ideas. I rarely have the courage to tell a restaurant about my needs because I am afraid of getting a negative or ignorant response.

[Pam]

If you do breakfast cereals then Kelloggs have free from lists on their site but cornflakes and rice krispies are definitely fine as are weetabix and branflakes. Cooked breakfast is usually ok as long as you don't add butter to anything. Some bread (though not much) contains milk so watch out with the toast, a lot of rolls are glazed with milk as are french sticks and croissants are made with butter.

Most packet soups contain milk in some shape or form, for home made soups you need to miss out the butter, milk or cream. Again, watch the rolls.

Main courses - plain meat and veg are fine, sauces and casserole mixes tend to contain milk (I don't know how much is made from scratch and how much comes from a jar/packet - I have worked in restaurants using packets in the past). No cheese and no butter on veg.

Puddings - most recipes can still be made using dairy free marge (vitalite and stork solid blocks are dairy free too) and just use water or soya milk for the liquid. Swedish glace or Tofutti ice cream are both good - or a fruit sorbet. Custard can be made with soya milk but does taste different so might not be appreciated by milk drinkers. Meringue, (some) dark chocolate and fruit are dairy free too.

I think it is great that you are making the effort to help people with special dietary needs. I'm sure that Foods Matter, Allergy UK and dairy free websites will be happy to give you a plug when they know that you are willing to go to such lengths.

[Copper]

I am also impressed that you care enough to try and cater for our special diets. I am intolerant to a few foods as well as the lactose. I find that simple meals are usually best for me. The lactose is the hardest to deal with as cream appears to be added to so many things. My other intolerances are easier to deal with as I can usually avoid them.

[cnc]

In very general terms, when I go somewhere I like to eat something very similar to everyone else. Its nice not to feel so different!

Slightly random point I'm afraid, but what soya milk do you intend to stock as I know many people are very fussy, and personally I would hate to be disappointed if I turned up at the hotel to find that the soya milk on offer was one of those that I can't stand.. (I do apologise I'm a very fussy person!)
As someone else said, do the meat etc and then add sauces later, then people have more freedom.
Sorbet is a good dessert as many non-dairy people eat it as well, and is also easier to get hold of.

It's also the little things that make a difference, like when you're having tea/coffee at the end of a meal and you're offered a chocolate which isn't dairy free (having stated no dairy throughout the meal), it just really annoys me :)

Sorry for the fairly random content of my post but I hope it helps in some way. Am very impressed with the lengths you are going to :) Well done!

[The Pembroke Hotel]

Hi,

thank you to everyone who has taken the time to add a reply. Some brilliant and easy to impliment suggestions.

Wouldn't have thought about the mint - will have to find some and the sorbet is a great suggestion.

I too agree that the meal should be as near as possible to what is being offered to everyone else - no one likes to feel different.

The soya milk I use is Alpro. As this is very new to me and I don't really know what alternatives are available - so any suggestions are REALLY useful.

Again this week we have someone who needs dairy free and they was inpressed that we had the soya milk and pure spread in stock.

I find that guests with food intolerances tend to book bed and breakfast only but it would be nice to let people know before they arrive that we had a good range of alternatives for breakfast and the evening meal.

Once again, many thanks for all the tips and KEEP THEM COMING IN!!

Michael
The Pembroke Hotel
www.pembrokehotel.com (http://www.pembrokehotel.com) & www.neartheprom.com (http://www.neartheprom.com)

[Pam]

If you provide after dinner mints then After Eights are usually dairy free (some that are produced on the continent contain butterfat so check the label) and Elizabeth Shaw mint crisps are dairy free if you get the dark variety.

I think it is unreasonable to expect you to keep more than one brand of soya milk in stock just in case someone has a preference. Alpro is the market leader so is probably your best bet. If you go for the unsweetened variety it can be used in cooking too.

I stopped drinking tea and coffee when I went dairy free as I didn't like tea with soya milk. I usually drink fruit teas these days or just plain water. A lot of places now offer individually wrapped fruit tea bags on their drinks tables (Twinings sell them like this) which is nice as I have gone without quite often in the past.

I'm a bit of a doubter and not always sure that people who are not dairy free themselves are as careful or aware of all the hidden places you find milk - I've been caught out even after years of following a dairy free diet and I know what I'm looking for, someone who does it on a part time basis might not think about the less obvious places. It would make me more confident if you specified the brands used or kept packaging available for me to check.

I still think you are doing a great job though.

[cnc]

I think it is unreasonable to expect you to keep more than one brand of soya milk in stock just in case someone has a preference. Alpro is the market leader so is probably your best bet. If you go for the unsweetened variety it can be used in cooking too.


Fair point, I was struggling to write coherently last night. I would agree that Alpro unsweetened is probably the best to stock, as its multipurpose.

Hope it all goes well in the hotel with the alterations you make :)

[Nic]

Michael - first of all wow! Its really impressive that you're doing this research.

My only addition would be that some people have really bad (life-threatengin) allergies and need to know about any possible cross-contamination (ie if milk was spilled in the kitchen, then a jaycloth used to wipe it up, and then that cloth also used on a surface which was then used to prepare non-dairy food). I think its probably impossible for you to cater for these people, and it would be helpful to make that clear. But for us lot who can cope with the possibility of cross-contamination, your hotel sounds wonderful!

Nic

PS I will go out of my way (a *long* way out of my way) for a non-dairy pudding that isn't fruit salad. So I would expect those to be a good draw, if you can manage them. There are quite a lot of good vegan pudding recipes on vegweb.com, though I tend to find you need to quadruple all the spices/herbs/other flavourings.

[Copper]

I have posted a dairy free chocolate mousse on this site - it is very very nice. If you would like the recipe and can't find it here, just ask and I will send it to you.

[LynneButler]

Hi :rolleyes:

Good to see more people are taking care of our needs.:p ;)

I myself am a hotelier in Blackpool and am not only Dairy Free but also Gluten/Wheat Free I can guarantee many needs are safe here and the only thing I will need is for you to supply your own bread as peoples tastes vary along with the differences of bread available.

Thank you

I hope more people will attempt to take care of our needs.

Lynne

[matt]

suddenly the member list becomes full of hoteliers!!! but after the summer hols...oh well we'll know for next year.:D

[Pam]

Lynne, you'll have to give us your hotel's name so that we can add you to our "dairy free places to stay" list. It is nice to know that there are places to stay where people actually understand special needs and we won't just get dry toast and a piece of fruit to eat.

[Copper]

Wow two hotels in Blackpool catering for our needs. I hope more hotels think about us.

[LynneButler]

Hello All
;)
As Pam has requested my details you can access my website at www.jollieshotel.co.uk (http://www.jollieshotel.co.uk) This has all the information you will need.

:) :cool: :rolleyes:

Thank you Lynne

[LynneButler]

Hello I forgot to mention.

It is not only the hotel that is Allergy Aware I am a Coeliac with Dairy Intolerance so the food is always in stock.:p

[Lan]

Hi there.

Nice to see that more people are catering for us. Please leave the name of the hotel here as gives us more places to stay.

Lan :D:D:D

[The Pembroke Hotel]

Thanks to everyone who has reponded to my requests.

I will be implementing a Dairy Free breakfast alternative for our 2006 and want to run the menu past you all

Choice of fruit juices
-------
Cereals or Porridge (using Alpro milk)
or
Grapefruit Segemnts
or
Tropical Fruit Cocktail
-------
Full English Breakfast comprising:
Free range fried egg
Pork sausage (Richmond Sausages)
Grilled tomato
Grilled Bacon
Sauted Mushrooms (using pure spread)
Fried Bread
or
Poached egg on toast (pure spread)
or
Scrambled egg on toast (using Apro milk and pure spread)
or
Smoked Haddock
or
Buttered Kippers
or
Beans on toast (pure spread)
--------
Toast & Preserves ( Pure spread available)
--------
English breakfast, decaffinated or earl grey tea ( alpro milk available)
Columbian, Italitan or decaffinated coffee ( alpro milk available )
Selection of fruit tea's

Have I forgotten anything and would the above items be safe for someone with a dairy allergy?

As mentioned in a post, I will keep the packaging to show people whats in the items.

Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated!
Michael
THE PEMBROKE HOTEL
www.NearTheProm.com (http://www.NearTheProm.com)

[The Pembroke Hotel]

Just remembered that we will also be stocking Alpro yoghurts.

What I need to know is what bread can I use? - I normally use Sainsburys to shop at.

Many thanks
Michael

[Lan]

Hi Matt,

Can't help you on the bread as not wheat free, but would like to say that the menu looks fab and hoping to join you all again next year.

Thanks for the help.

Leanne
:D:D:D

[Copper]

Lan I think that Michael was planning a dairy free range of breakfast items, so this would mean checking the ingredients listed on the bread in Sainsburys. I don't use Sainsburys :)

Michael - it all sounds very good to me. Just a small point what do you mean by "buttered kippers"? Would this be the one and only item we could not have? This would not be a disaster as there is so much to choose from - well done. :D

[matt]

you seem to have covered most bits. the bread should have the ingredients on the side so you can get a suitable one. or get a bread machine and make some. but rather intensive and more for you to do. depends on how many guests you have at any one time.:D

[Pam]

Most commercial bread is ok. I think some of the long life loaves have milk added and calcium proprionate which is put in some breads can be milk derived. Croissants are almost definitely a no-no and some rolls/loaves are milk glazed so you would be safer buying pre-packed labelled bread rather than their in-store bakery products which are usually not labelled.

For your own protection it would probably be safest to put a disclaimer on your menu saying that whilst every effort is made to ensure that the food is dairy free you cannot be held responsible should an error occur. You could perhaps invite guests to request to see packaging etc so that they can be reassured. I've been dairy free for 4 years now but still occasionally get caught out by recipes that have changed or poorly labelled products. You should also say that milk is used within the same preparation area so that, whilst great care is taken, you cannot rule out cross-contamination. I know that this sounds like the cop-out that we all hate to see but I think your guests still have to take some responsibility for their diet and it would save you from a legal battle should the worst happen.

I wish you luck in your dairy free venture and would definitely consider staying with you if we came to Blackpool. If you get in touch with Foods Matter magazine (subscription only but they have a web site http://www.foodsmatter.com/) I'm sure they would consider running an article on you. Allergy UK might also be willing to publicise your establishment.

[Nic]

Michael - it looks lovely, and I think any dairy-free person would be *very* happy. On bread, most bread is fine but if you look at the Sainsbury's free from range you'll be able to find stuff that is definitely OK (including muffins and other types of bread). But it is more expensive, so probably better just to buy standard bread and read the label.

Nic

[matt]

any suitable places near shrewsbury???? going in jan to see friend.

so either a good hotel or a travelodge and take my own.

[pinkfairy]

Your breakfast menu looks great and its wonderful to see some hotels caring about us allergy sufferes.

You may need to watch out for some of the foods you use. I have been told by my consultant to avoid these because when tested at the hospital lactose has been found.

Carton fruit juices. (Only use own fresh squeezed juice).
Bread - Hovis ok
Baked beans - Heniz ok. Some other varities contain lactose but don't state it on the tin.
Tinned fruits?

Hope this is some use.

Jane