Allergy-friendly Travel Eats! Find #3 - Cinnamon Works, Pike Place, Seattle, US

Wonderful surprise discoveries while travelling with allergies!

Find #3 - Cinnamon Works, Pike Place, Seattle, US

I was fortunate enough to get to visit Seattle in September of 2016 and I have to say, travelling along the west coast of the US was so much fun and full of amazing allergy-safe finds. 

Living in Australia with allergies is certainly getting easier as each day passes. However, after visiting places like the US, Canada and the UK, you do get a real sense of how different it is in countries with genuinely larger populations and therefore larger populations dealing with dietary restrictions. Just walking through markets, supermarkets and stores presented me with so many more options than I'd ever seen back home and while some of those were clearly catered to specific diets, being 'vegan' or 'free from', often you'd find those allergens not getting included at all in regular items, which is great. 

One of the places I did stumble upon which allowed me to go a little crazy with desserts on my last day in Seattle, was Cinnamon Works in Pike Place. 

I went just a little crazy.

This place specifically caters for vegan and gluten free customers with a great variety of delicious classic cinnamon-y baked goods. I actually found them entirely by accident while I was walking along Pike Place and glancing in the stores along the path. I know that the pacific north-west has something of a hipster vibe to it and so I always feel like there's a bit more chance for me to find some safer options and this time, I was not disappointed at all. 

That day, I walked away with a cinnamon scroll, a banana chip muffin, a lemon and poppyseed cookie and a choc chip cookie. Yes, quite the massive haul, however the next day I would be jumping on a train up to Vancouver so I figured some extra treats to take with me would be a good idea. All were dairy, egg and nut free and I was so excited. This was one of the most varied buys I'd ever been able to make at a bakery since Veganz in Germany (which I will absolutely have to write about another time!). 

I can never stop myself gushing when I find these places so I was profusely blessing the staff up and down for the allergy-safe options and they were very, very sweet about it. When I finally walked away to find a place to sit and try the scroll, I was genuinely beaming like crazy. 

I found a spot at the edge of Victor Steinbrueck Park, watching this crew hip hop it up, and pulled off a test strip from the edge of the enormous cinnamon scroll. I'd only had my first scroll the year before and had become very quickly enamoured by this pastry so I was really excited to try another one - and it was so good. 

Now, I always have test bites of new foods, and then I wait a 10-15 minutes to see if I detect any kinds of reactions. That being said, there have definitely been those foods that made those test minutes quite the pain because they tasted so great, I didn't want to keep waiting. That scroll was one of them! It was fluffy and sweet, with just the right amount of cinnamon goodness. 

After deeming it safe, I actually decided to save the rest and give one of the others a try so I went for the lemon and poppyseed cookie. Oh my gosh, do I love my citrusy desserts! That cookie was so good and balanced the sweetness and tartness perfectly. Happily fueled up and ready to go, I continued on with the rest of my day, saving the rest of my yummy goods for later. 

When I eventually did tuck into the rest of them later on, they were all just as good. Thinking about it, I was pretty spoiled for good food in Seattle. My Airbnb host was amazing and took me to a local Co-op for some groceries and they had allergy-friendly pizza and pastries. It's a great feeling being in a city that seems so actively conscious and aware of different diets and especially about allergies. 

Ultimately, if you have allergies and have the chance to pay this fun city a visit and feel like some delicious baked goods, take a walk in Pike Place, scoot past the massive line into the first Starbucks, and drop by Cinnamon Works!

Such a great city to visit!

EMP Museum, now called the Museum of Pop Culture. Excellent museum! I got to play guitar, piano and drums, play games, learn more about the horror genre, Jimi Hendrix and the Seattle music scene. Could not recommend more!

Inside Chihuly Garden and Glass. Mind-bendingly beautiful.