Hop Hog Gluten Free Options- In Greenville & Lowell Michigan

Dedicated gluten free fryer. Those four words always get my attention. Hop Hog, with locations in Greenville and Lowell Michigan, offers a wide variety of gluten free options. From fried chicken and fish to homemade gluten free carrot cake, you’ll want to try everything on the menu!

How Did You Hear About Hop Hog?

I learned about Hop Hog in a Grand Rapids Area Facebook group many years ago. I finally had the opportunity to visit their Lowell location in the summer of 2024. Before dining, I had the opportunity to speak with owner David Harvey and head chegg Sheila Wilder. Below are some of their answers to FAQ about their menu and gluten free food prep.

Why do you choose to offer gluten free items?

Owner David Harvey has a long culinary history. He worked in restaurants such as Johnny Carino’s, Gilmore Collection restaurants, as well as The Winchester & Donkey Taqueria. Throughout the years, people would frequently ask questions about gluten free and food allergy options.

He took it up on himself to listen and learn. He even made a study guide for the staff to be able to have more knowledge. It was very comprehensive and it took a lot of work to maintain as our menu changed wildly every season.

When David decided it was time to open his own restaurant, he knew from day one that he wanted to make gluten free and food allergy options the standard, not the exception. David told me “Running a restaurants is hard, and doing Gluten Free the right way is even harder. But it is so immensely rewarding.”

Is your menu also free from any other allergens? I.e, nut free, dairy free?

Our menu features BBQ, burgers, chicken tenders and fries. We also offer pasta. Our kitchens contain no peanuts, tree nuts or shellfish. No egg containing foods are cooked in our fryers.

What kind of oil do you use for frying/cooking at Hop Hog?

We choose not to use soy oil because of food allergies. We fry our food in sunflower oil, which has a hi-olec, which means it sheens off so the items do not stay greasy or get soggy. Sunflower oil also has a longer fry life, meaning with proper cleaning it will last longer.

Do you have a separate gluten free menu?

We do in fact have a separate gluten friendly menu. However, our regular menu also highlights “gluten friendly” items. We use the term “gluten friendly” to distinguish ourselves from a completely 100% gluten free restaurant, such as Papa Chops. We know people may not necessarily like that phrase, but we think that it’s important to make that distinction.

What steps do you take to prevent cross contact in the kitchen?

We start by making the majority of our menu without gluten containing ingredients. The utensils that we use on the expo side of the line to put the sides on the plates are ALWAYS gluten free. When the server denotes that the gluten friendly items are an ALLERGY, the kitchen knows to be very careful.

Staff use all new items for preparing the food. One of the other things we do is we have a “bun warmer” that is used for the gluten items to toast the buns. When a gluten free order comes in, we toast gluten free buns in the oven.

Does Hop Hog Have a Dedicated gluten free fryer?

All three fryers at both the Greenville and Lowell location are completely gluten free. That means anything deep fried food on our menu is totally gluten free. Neither location even has all purpose flour in their kitchen anymore.

Do you have picks or special plates that denote a GF meal?

Yes, and we learned about them from you! Thank you for sharing these picks* with us. We’re willing to take all the extra steps we can take to help our Celiac customers feel more secure in dining with us. *Amazon Affiliate Link

Hop Hog Gluten Free Fried Chicken Tenders

What’s your most popular gluten free menu item at Hop Hog?

This is hard to pinpoint, since all of our smoked meats are gluten free. I’d say the favorite options among our gluten free clientele are the fish and chips, chicken tenders, nashville hot chicken sandwich or the fried pickles. Most gluten free people love the fact that they can have anything that’s deep fried. Knowing they can have fried chicken (tenders or nashville sandwich), just blows them out of the water.

Do you offer gluten free desserts?

Yes! We’ve recreated our famous carrot cake to be entirely gluten free.

Do you offer gluten free beer/ hard cider/ wine?

We offer locally made Painted Hard Turtle Cider. If you haven’t had a chance to visit their orchards, plan to leave some time and visit them in person! We also plan to serve Groundbreaker Brewing beer. In addition, we also serve wine by the glass, and Michigan made Gypsy Vodka.

Do You Offer Any Weekly Specials?

On Mondays we offer Burger & Beer Night for $10. Unfortunately, we don’t have gluten friendly beer for this deal. We do offer Burger & Soda for $9, Burger & Wine for $11 and Burger & Cider for $12. (Burgers also come with house made chips.) However please note that there is an additional charge for the Udi’s gluten free bun.

We also offer a lunch menu. Our Lightning Lunch Menu is designed to be size appropriate and quick. In includes more than 10 items for $10 and under, Sun-Fri from 11am-4pm.

While we do offer family meal deals, we do not currently have a gluten free version.

Does Hop Hog Offer Catering?

We offer catering, and the majority of our catering menu is prepared gluten friendly.

Do you have patio seating? Are dogs allowed outside?

We have a patio at each location. The Greenville location has a very large greenspace that includes an edible garden. Last year we grew tomatoes, zucchini, melons, jalapenos, rosemary, mint & more. We have full permission from the health department to use this produce at the Greenville location.

Lowell has a smaller but very charming patio. It did not get much use in 2024 as we were still getting used to normal dining but will certainly be used in 2025. They are both pet friendly to all nice and friendly doggos.

What unique events do you have at your restaurant? Karaoke? Trivia? Concerts?

The Greenville location has live music every Friday & Saturday evening from 6-9 pm. The Greenville location also has Keno & Pull Tabs. Keep an eye on the events tab on our Greenville Facebook page for future activities.

What additional things would you like my followers to know about your business?

The Lowell location is within the Social District, which allows you to take alcoholic beverages to go. Both restaurants brew their own beer on premise. While none of those beers are GF, we do offer GF beer from Groundbreaker.

The main thing that I would want your followers to understand is we are committed to offering an ever expanding gluten free menu. That includes reworking existing menu items to make them gluten friendly. Our baked beans is our latest example of that.

All menu development focuses on not just “good enough for gluten free.” We want our entire menu to be excellent, regardless of ingredients. For too long, people with Celiac have had to deal with substandard products with a hefty price tag. We want to do better than that.

Do you have parking on premises? Any tips on traveling to your business?

There is ample parking at either of our restaurant locations. We hope you’ll be able to come visit us soon!

Hop Hog Location, Hours and Contact Information

Hop Hog – Greenville

1310 W Washington St

Greenville MI 48838

Phone: (616) 712-6226

Hours: Mon – Thurs 11 am – 9 pm/ Fri- Sat 11 am – 9:30 pm / Sun 11-8

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Hop Hog – Lowell

318 E Main St

Lowell, MI 49331

Phone Number:(616) 987-3155