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Finally starting to get back in the swing of things after being gone a week.

I stayed at Opryland Hotel for 4 days and 3 out of 4 dining experiences
were wonderful. One kind of sucked ...

Cascades Restaurant: Had an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. We toured
it first and it seemed like there would be some things I could eat. Many
things were floating in sauces, so I asked to speak with chef to ascertain
what was okay. Head Sous Chef John came out, and immediately said
"well, having had some celiacs here before, what worries me is
cross contamination. I can tell you that the mussels are in a GF chicken
stock, but I can't promise that someone didn't use the tongs from the
deep fried shrimp. So lets make this easy -- tell me what you liked
on the buffet, and I'll make you your own plate."  WOW. There were shrimp
and oysters and smoked salmon and roast beef -- enough to fill the belly.

To add to the WOW factor, the hostess came over with the bill and
said "I talked with John and it is just such a shame that there was
so much on the buffet that you couldn't eat. So instead of charging
you the $31.95, we just charged you $10.95 for a kiddie's plate."
When does that happen?

Cracker Barrel: Thanks to some helpful pre-trip emails, I knew
exactly what to do. Baked potato and salad where more than
enough to fill me -- plates-o-vegetables were too huge for me.

Old Hickory Steakhouse: Had called in advance to confirm they
could do something GF ... waiter was notified, wanted to know
what the allergy was. I said "gluten -- which is in wheat,
barley, oats, rye ..."  ... waiter came back from the kitchen and
said "are you a celiac? the Head Sous Chef, Paul , has a celiac
brother .. would you mind if he came out to meet you?"  I was
pampered silly there and it was nice to know that Paul was
looking out for me. Paul's brother was diagnosed as a kid, so it has
been with them a long time. He stressed that he'd love to cook
for other celiacs, so be sure to ask for him by name: Paul Jensen.

Beauregards: Feh. Called in advance, and even met the Head
Sous Chef, Dwight. Nice fellow, just nodded and said "oh, sure,
I've cooked for plenty ah ya'll. Just tell your waiter to see me,
and I'll make whatever you want GF" ... Had not planned on
getting a butthead for a waiter. He refused to speak with Dwight --
"we are too too busy for specialized things"  -- and our relationship
spiraled downward from there. [A snotty aside is that there were
only 2 other tables occupied at the time and 7 waiters, so my
duuuude must have had a time management issue.]  I tried to find
the hostess, to no avail. Certainly a waste of a good $100+ on a
dinner that I was never certain was GF ... when I asked about
the creme brule, duuuude whipped out this teeny book -- a listing
of everything on the menu and every single ingredient. So he had
that tool, and chose not to use it, which is a darn shame. Has the
potential to be a good GFer choice ...

And that's the downside to Opryland. Aside from is hugeness, every
single restaurant had a 2-3 hour wait for a table ... so stomping
out of Beauregards, my knee-jerk inclincation, woulda just left
me hungry for the night as most of the kitchens closed at 10 and
this was 9:30  ...

The food court, however, was nothing but helpful and I was
impressed with how much ingredient knowledge every single
staffer possessed. [Food court does close at 5 or 6  -- fairly
early.]

Thanks tons for everyone's Nashville suggestions. I did not realize
that Opryland was a city-within-a-city [mom and I spent 30 minutes
trying to find an *exit* door]  -- so the concept of leaving the
OprySphere and actually going into to town was a rather quaint
one indeed.

Tracey in Connecticut   GF lodging:  http://www.innseekers.com/feature.htm