Target Field with the Minneapolis skyline behind the outfield, before a Twins game.

Take me out to the gluten-free ballgame

By Gregory Wilson ·

I went to Target Field today to watch the Twins take on the Royals. I came for the ballpark, not the food — a stadium is usually a minefield for a celiac. Buns, fried everything, beer, all prepared on shared surfaces. The usual move is to eat before you go and make peace with being there for the baseball, not the concessions.

So I wasn’t expecting what I found walking the concourse: a dedicated gluten-free stand.

The "No Gluten Way!" stand at Target Field — a green concession booth advertising fresh gluten-free burgers, hot dogs, and snacks.

It’s called No Gluten Way! — its own booth, its own grill. A smashburger, a grilled hot dog, a cookie, all gluten-free off a dedicated surface, which is the part that actually makes it safe for a celiac.

The menu board at No Gluten Way: gluten-free smashburger, hot dog, cookie, and a Holidaily blonde ale.

They’d even thought about the menu’s edges. There was a Holidaily blonde ale on the board — and I don’t drink, so it’s not for me, but I know enough to know that detail matters. Most “gluten-free” stadium beer is actually gluten-removed — brewed with barley, then treated — and isn’t considered safe for celiacs. Holidaily comes from a brewery that’s 100% dedicated to gluten-free. You don’t put that on a menu by accident. Whoever set this stand up actually understands the disease.

And the stand wasn’t even the half of it. Back at my seat I pulled up the Twins’ concessions page and found that Target Field publishes a whole dietary section — a gluten-free list that runs well beyond a single booth.

The Target Field concessions page's Gluten-Free Options table, listing items like Killebrew root beer, a Pizza Luce gluten-free whole pizza, bunless hot dogs, and the "No Gluten Way" burger and dog, with their stadium sections.

Killebrew root beer and bunless hot dogs throughout the park. A Pizza Luce gluten-free whole pizza at section 234. Nachos, a baked potato, Indian food, soft serve, cotton candy, popcorn. And there on the official list was the very stand I’d stumbled on — “No Gluten Way,” section 112. When a ballpark writes all of this down on its own website, the gluten-free crowd has gone from an afterthought you accommodate to a group you plan for.

None of this changes the world on its own. But after my diagnosis I stopped watching for the big changes and started noticing the small ones — a labeled menu, a dedicated stand, a server who knows what cross-contact means, a whole dietary page on a ballpark’s website. On their own they’re minor. Side by side they’re a trend, and it’s moving in the right direction.

Good sign.