Davanni's Pizza. How's this for cool CYA?

[Macabre]

We've seen these all over the Twin Cities. I finally went to their website tonight, and it looks like we'll be trying them.

http://www.davannis.com/allergies-info

"To try to accommodate our friends with food allergies or sensitivities, we are providing menu ordering options that should allow you to dine at Davanni's. Click on the item below that you want to avoid to view your menu options."

Did you see that?  They called us friends. 


The statement in bold is in bold on their website:

No allergen or nutritional information on our website should ever be considered a guarantee, but simply a best faith effort to serve our customers.

We have no items containing peanuts or shellfish in our restaurants. All of the other "big 8" and gluten are present in the facility in one form or another. We ask that when placing your order you alert the manager on duty to your food allergy or sensitivity. We will then try our best to avoid any accidental cross-contact, but again we can offer no guarantees and accept no liability. The more information relating to your specific needs you can provide, the better we can attempt to protect you.

The range of tolerance or reactions to the presence of food allergens varies greatly from person to person. Decisions on the amount of precautions you should take or risks you may expose yourself to, are always best made by you in consultation with your physician.

Please see our Allergen Disclaimer for more details.


And the Allergen Disclaimer says (unsurprisingly):

"We understand the challenges facing the community of people who struggle with food allergies or have to manage food sensitivities in their lives. We know how difficult it is to eat safely, especially when eating out. Your options are severely limited because of the absence of available information. It is with that understanding that we have compiled information on all of our menu items and are providing it to you. The information on our website includes allergy declarations for all menu items as well as foods that should be safe to order for each of the major food allergens and gluten.

The allergen information provided is accurate and up-to-date to the best of our knowledge. It is based entirely on the information provided by our ingredient manufacturers and suppliers. We have limited this discloser to the "Big 8" (wheat, soy, milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish) as those are the only ones manufacturers are required to disclose.

The labeling practices and terminology relating to manufacturer's handling of other potential allergens in their facilities varies greatly and can be vague. Because of this, we have not included in our listings allergens that may be present in the manufacturer's plants or may even come in contact with the same manufacturing equipment. Where possible, we have tried to ascertain with our manufacturers that proper segregation and cleaning procedures are in place to prevent accidental cross-contact. However, these things are beyond our control."

[luci]

I worked at Davanni's in the 1990's.  They had peanut oil in their pizza sauce.

They have a separate prep line for pizza, and separate prep line for hoagies.  However, if it wasn't a lunch rush or dinner rush, you could have one cook prepping both your hoagies and pizza.  Also, the cleaning cloths were kept in a bucket of sanitizing solution and it didn't matter where you were wiping down, each cloth could end up in any bucket.  The solution was changed every 30 minutes or less.  However, the bucket was rinsed and wiped out with the existing cloths and not run through the dishwasher and new cloths to replace the old.  It was sanitary, but if there were any of your allergens present on either line, I'd have considered the chances for cross contamination were very high. 

This was back in the 90's so maybe they have changed, but I see no reason for them to have changed their practices - it was sanitary.  We do not eat there.  If we need pizza in the Twin Cities we have gone to Punch Neapolitan Pizza and had lots of success.

- Oops, I re-read your post and looks like you felt it was safe and planned to eat there.  So they must have become educated about food allergies.  Please tell me how your visit went.

[Macabre]

BTW--we eat at Davanni's probably five times a year.  They host fundraisers for the Minnesota food allergy group.  I don't know if their bread is safe for me (sesame), but there is no blatant sesame.