Hey NNMG Food Allergic Families,
I’m TJ. I’m the founder and only employee of Peanut Free NYC LLC, the most comprehensive peanut allergy atlas of the greater New York City region that’s helped me regain the dining convenience that food allergies took away. NNMG let me come on here and write a piece about my map, and I’m thrilled to show you all the work I’ve done to make food allergies easier.
To start with, I have to write this disclaimer: I am not, never have been, don’t really want to be and probably never will be an allergist or any other kind of medical professional. I won’t and can’t possibly guarantee any of the places I go will be safe in the future when you visit, unless those restaurants confirm otherwise; (if they do, they have one of the ‘Peanut Free NYC – Partner’ stickers I designed). The only thing I can say with confidence is that on the days I visited and reviewed each of these places, there wasn’t enough of a peanut in anything I ate to give me an allergic reaction (with an OIT tolerance of about 1/50th of a peanut) as of me writing this. While we give our best effort to make the map reflect the state of the world and provide unbiased sources for you to do your own research, we will eventually mess up, and I really don’t want to be responsible for killing anyone - I’ve heard that’s bad business practice. Do your own research, and if you find anything contradicting our information, please reach out.
AllergyEats, Spokin and others have probably saved my life more than once without me knowing, but they aren’t designed for the restaurant-dense, tourist-focused New York City region, and in particular the people living here. Eating out in NYC is basically a standard evening activity, and while Donut Pub is great, the novelty wore off a few months after I moved. Also, as soon as I mention that I have food allergies, I inevitably become the person responsible for the restaurant decision, and that’s a big responsibility. Thing is though, finding actually new places is usually really time consuming: to avoid legal liability, every review is accepted and hosted indefinitely, meaning the entire app is filled with old evaluations, single-line analyses, and so many restaurants without any reviews. Besides the few at the top that are probably Top 8 safe, it takes a long time to sift through and find anything unique. This isn’t even mentioning that as a user of an Android phone, the Spokin app isn’t available, and AllergyEats fails to load many times on my phone more often than not. So I made a map.
The current Peanut Free NYC atlas, available on peanutfreenyc.com and directly via Google Maps on your phone, identifies more than 1000 locations of restaurants with at least some level of peanut allergy safety, filterable by the safety protocols they use, and each with a cuisine-specific or chain-specific icon. These restaurants include more than 100 independent establishments extending out to an hour’s drive away from Times Square, including many with comprehensive allergy safety protocols. Clicking into the icon will display a comprehensive, consistent, allergy-focused review if it’s one of the several dozen locations I’ve personally tested, and a link to the Peanut Free NYC website database entry for that location. On the database, you can find mapping directions, booking links, and the secondary sources we used to verify that location’s safety so you can easily verify our information and make your own determinations, since I’m already running my map provider’s servers into the ground.
I’m TJ. I’m the founder and only employee of Peanut Free NYC LLC, the most comprehensive peanut allergy atlas of the greater New York City region that’s helped me regain the dining convenience that food allergies took away. NNMG let me come on here and write a piece about my map, and I’m thrilled to show you all the work I’ve done to make food allergies easier.
To start with, I have to write this disclaimer: I am not, never have been, don’t really want to be and probably never will be an allergist or any other kind of medical professional. I won’t and can’t possibly guarantee any of the places I go will be safe in the future when you visit, unless those restaurants confirm otherwise; (if they do, they have one of the ‘Peanut Free NYC – Partner’ stickers I designed). The only thing I can say with confidence is that on the days I visited and reviewed each of these places, there wasn’t enough of a peanut in anything I ate to give me an allergic reaction (with an OIT tolerance of about 1/50th of a peanut) as of me writing this. While we give our best effort to make the map reflect the state of the world and provide unbiased sources for you to do your own research, we will eventually mess up, and I really don’t want to be responsible for killing anyone - I’ve heard that’s bad business practice. Do your own research, and if you find anything contradicting our information, please reach out.
AllergyEats, Spokin and others have probably saved my life more than once without me knowing, but they aren’t designed for the restaurant-dense, tourist-focused New York City region, and in particular the people living here. Eating out in NYC is basically a standard evening activity, and while Donut Pub is great, the novelty wore off a few months after I moved. Also, as soon as I mention that I have food allergies, I inevitably become the person responsible for the restaurant decision, and that’s a big responsibility. Thing is though, finding actually new places is usually really time consuming: to avoid legal liability, every review is accepted and hosted indefinitely, meaning the entire app is filled with old evaluations, single-line analyses, and so many restaurants without any reviews. Besides the few at the top that are probably Top 8 safe, it takes a long time to sift through and find anything unique. This isn’t even mentioning that as a user of an Android phone, the Spokin app isn’t available, and AllergyEats fails to load many times on my phone more often than not. So I made a map.
The current Peanut Free NYC atlas, available on peanutfreenyc.com and directly via Google Maps on your phone, identifies more than 1000 locations of restaurants with at least some level of peanut allergy safety, filterable by the safety protocols they use, and each with a cuisine-specific or chain-specific icon. These restaurants include more than 100 independent establishments extending out to an hour’s drive away from Times Square, including many with comprehensive allergy safety protocols. Clicking into the icon will display a comprehensive, consistent, allergy-focused review if it’s one of the several dozen locations I’ve personally tested, and a link to the Peanut Free NYC website database entry for that location. On the database, you can find mapping directions, booking links, and the secondary sources we used to verify that location’s safety so you can easily verify our information and make your own determinations, since I’m already running my map provider’s servers into the ground.
While that all is pretty useful on its own, this isn’t just a reskin of currently available information from another website in a cute package. All the reviews on the website are done by me personally, and updated about once a year to ensure the most relevant information is available. These reviews cover all of the popular NYC locations from major food allergy websites, but include a growing number of establishments personally discovered by me, or by a few individually-selected locals who also deal with life threatening peanut allergies. (Thank you, @nutfreeinnyc!) If you’ve never tried authentic chai tea, think Domino’s is the best pizza, don’t know how honeycomb flavored ice cream could exist, or assume Chinese take-out style food* will never be a thing you or your family members with allergies can try, we might be able to help you widen your own food world.
We are also the first allergy resource have a map of emergency rooms to help you create an emergency action plan before you arrive, and a map of the street vendors selling roasted nuts so kids can’t pick up discarded peanut shells. We have a massive list of public restrooms for your convenience so you don’t ever get desperate enough to have to consider waiting inside a Five Guys, and a separate map of hotels in the region with full and partial kitchens is forthcoming so you can supplement with food you cook yourself. I do posts on @peanutfreenyc about the unexpected food allergy risks in New York City’s dining scene, like how to stay safe in a subway train if you’re having a reaction. And I’m available on most days to answer questions, provide more detail, assist with navigation, and do 1:1 tours.
Just that modest level of added convenience of having all the information about all the peanut-allergy-safe restaurants together on a map continues to surprise me, and I’m the one who made the thing. I’ve used it to find the one Shake Shack close to the Megabus stop so I could get my favorite burger before I left to visit family. I’ve used it to send a list of safe restaurants to friends to give them choices while avoiding risk. I’ve used it to find the nearest hospital so I can try new foods while standing outside it (ambulances are expensive!). I’ve used it to find a free public toilet without a massive line on New Year’s Eve. I’ve used it to help me navigate to a half dozen different food places in Boston in twelve hours on a trip to expand this business at one point soon. Just having this one map has just made me able to be more spontaneous with my food decisions instead of worrying about everything, and that’s quite a special thing.
Also yes, PeanutFreeNYC is a paid subscription to help me cover the losses I’ve incurred by running the map so far. I also believe that the peace of mind and convenience of worrying less about food allergies is totally worth the $6 for a three week visitor plan or $33 a year for a subscription - a bit less expensive than Xolair. Still, the point of this operation is to help people and not be a profit-seeking tech startup; if the subscription cost is a struggle, you’re a student, or you have other life-threatening allergies, just email me (mailto:[email protected]) and we’ll work something out. Also, if you ever have an adverse reaction within 24 hours of eating at a location based on map information, we will fully refund you.
If you’d like to support this project, or want more information, please visit our website at peanutfreenyc.com. Thank you so much for your time!
TJ Faber
Peanut Free NYC LLC
* in Boston, not NYC
We are also the first allergy resource have a map of emergency rooms to help you create an emergency action plan before you arrive, and a map of the street vendors selling roasted nuts so kids can’t pick up discarded peanut shells. We have a massive list of public restrooms for your convenience so you don’t ever get desperate enough to have to consider waiting inside a Five Guys, and a separate map of hotels in the region with full and partial kitchens is forthcoming so you can supplement with food you cook yourself. I do posts on @peanutfreenyc about the unexpected food allergy risks in New York City’s dining scene, like how to stay safe in a subway train if you’re having a reaction. And I’m available on most days to answer questions, provide more detail, assist with navigation, and do 1:1 tours.
Just that modest level of added convenience of having all the information about all the peanut-allergy-safe restaurants together on a map continues to surprise me, and I’m the one who made the thing. I’ve used it to find the one Shake Shack close to the Megabus stop so I could get my favorite burger before I left to visit family. I’ve used it to send a list of safe restaurants to friends to give them choices while avoiding risk. I’ve used it to find the nearest hospital so I can try new foods while standing outside it (ambulances are expensive!). I’ve used it to find a free public toilet without a massive line on New Year’s Eve. I’ve used it to help me navigate to a half dozen different food places in Boston in twelve hours on a trip to expand this business at one point soon. Just having this one map has just made me able to be more spontaneous with my food decisions instead of worrying about everything, and that’s quite a special thing.
Also yes, PeanutFreeNYC is a paid subscription to help me cover the losses I’ve incurred by running the map so far. I also believe that the peace of mind and convenience of worrying less about food allergies is totally worth the $6 for a three week visitor plan or $33 a year for a subscription - a bit less expensive than Xolair. Still, the point of this operation is to help people and not be a profit-seeking tech startup; if the subscription cost is a struggle, you’re a student, or you have other life-threatening allergies, just email me (mailto:[email protected]) and we’ll work something out. Also, if you ever have an adverse reaction within 24 hours of eating at a location based on map information, we will fully refund you.
If you’d like to support this project, or want more information, please visit our website at peanutfreenyc.com. Thank you so much for your time!
TJ Faber
Peanut Free NYC LLC
* in Boston, not NYC
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