Last year, Monday Night Brewing and the Gluten Free Atlanta Facebook group threw a party they weren’t sure anyone would show up to. Founder and CEO Joel Iverson hoped they’d draw 500 people. They got roughly 5,000.
“We were completely overwhelmed,” Iverson says. “I think there were a lot of the vendors, too, who were like, ‘Are people really going to show up for a dedicated gluten-free festival?’ We just had no idea.”
On Sunday, September 27, the second annual Gluten Freedom Festival ATL returns, this time at Monday Night’s larger Garage location in the West End, with live music, lawn games, and a family-friendly outdoor atmosphere layered on top of the food.
The festival is a joint effort between Monday Night and Stephanie Pardue, who founded the Gluten Free Atlanta Facebook group 16 years ago and has since grown it into a community of more than 6,500 members. Iverson’s connection is also personal: his son is gluten-free, and one of Monday Night’s brewers has a wife with celiac disease. That personal stake is part of why last year’s turnout blindsided the organizers—and why this year’s version is built to better handle the demand.
What’s New
The festival is roughly doubling its lineup to an estimated 25 food vendors, on top of Monday Night’s own drink program. Pardue says the businesses that hesitated to sign on last year are now on board without prompting. “I can’t think of one bakery that everyone’s been asking about that isn’t coming this year.”
Confirmed vendors include Argentis Gluten Free Bakery (formerly 2B Whole), Botánico Cocina, Disco Chicken, Heavenly Cakes by Pharez, Hell Yeah Gluten Free, Hoagie Brothers, Love It Gluten Free, The Local Graze, and Valley’s Bakery, with more to be announced.
The headline addition is a gluten-free beer-battered onion ring made with Disco Chicken’s batter recipe and Monday Night’s own gluten-free beer. Monday Night’s Garage kitchen runs on wood-fired pizza ovens, not fryers, so the brewery is bringing in Disco Chicken’s dedicated gluten-free truck from Knoxville.
“Stephanie challenged our team,” Iverson says. “She was like, ‘I can’t tell you—gluten-free onion rings, if you can pull that off…’ So we begged [Disco Chicken].”
Pardue takes credit for the pairing: “It just came to me—you have the beer, and it can be beer-battered onion rings.”
Beyond the onion rings, the menu spans custom pizza, including a vegan cheese option, burgers, hot dogs, arepas, wings, salads, dips, and sweets. Monday Night will convert its kitchen entirely to gluten-free production for the festival to help prevent cross-contamination.
No Shrimp on a Salad, Please
Strictly gluten-free herself, Pardue is adamant that vendors serve the classic fair foods she and others with gluten intolerance have had to miss out on for decades. But not every vendor arrived at “festival food” on their own. Pardue recalls talking one fine-dining-trained chef out of a more elevated menu.
“He was talking about shrimp stuff, and I’m like, we want junk food,” she says. “As much as I like what he makes, we want less fancy. We want the horrible stuff. This is a splurge because we’re always conscious about what we’re eating anyway. Let’s get those burgers in there.”
What did he land on instead? House-made churros.
Pardue tried an early batch before he’d even signed on, watching him fry the gluten-free dough fresh and whip up a chocolate mousse for dipping. “I didn’t even know what to say,” she says. “That’s perfect…this is what we want.”
He’ll be making them live at the festival.
Not Every Festival Tradition is Edible
One returning touch has nothing to do with food: Monday Night keeps a 40-seat trackless train on-site that once made its rounds at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. When its longtime conductor, known as Mr. Ted, retired, he asked the brewery to give it a permanent home.
The train now comes out for a decorated Halloween ride through the warehouse and a Christmas edition benefiting Cure Childhood Cancer, and Iverson says it’s expected to make an appearance at this year’s festival, too.
Booze
Monday Night’s gluten-free Big Idea IPA and Placebo Pils return on draft and in cans—a detail Iverson says matters more than it might seem.
“There’s something magic in being able to enjoy a [gluten-free] draft beer,” he says, noting that dedicated gluten-free tap lines are still rare in Atlanta.
Rounding out the lineup is a gluten-free cider on tap and the brewery’s Yacht Water reposado tequila seltzer. A separate, dedicated bar will pour standard beer for non-gluten-free guests tagging along—or “the normies,” as Pardue and Iverson both put it—flipping the usual dynamic.
Why It Matters Beyond the Beer
For Pardue, the appeal goes beyond the menu. It’s about getting a break from the constant vigilance around cross-contamination for one afternoon.
“We have to be so hypervigilant, even at the grocery store,” she says. “To just have one time to go out and not have to think of every aspect—the fryers, the taps—it’s gratitude to have something we’ve never had before in Atlanta.”
Iverson frames it as an extension of what he sees as the brewery’s role beyond selling beer.
“We’re here to help people build community and not be isolated. This is one where we can check all those boxes: make a world-class gluten-free beer and help people connect with others at the same time,” he says.
And this year, there should be considerably more room—and considerably more onion rings—for that community to gather.
The Details
The Gluten Freedom Festival ATL returns to Monday Night Brewing’s Garage, 933 Lee St. SW, on Sunday, September 27, from noon to 6 p.m. General admission is free with registration through Eventbrite, and free onsite parking will be available.
Food and drinks are sold separately, and attendees are encouraged to bring a gluten-free canned or dry good for donation to the Atlanta Community Food Bank.
