DINING
Engineering Change Pita Jungle works to stay relevant after 25 years By Octavio Serrano
B
assel Osmani always had a passion for cooking. That passion, however, wasn’t necessarily born out of a love. He needed to make creative dishes at home as a struggling ASU student. Twenty-five years ago, he, along with fellow students Nelly Kohsok and Fouad Khodr, parlayed those skills into a new restaurant, Pita Jungle, just as their schooling was coming to an end. “In 1993, as we were all nearing the end of our college careers, we knew there was a need because we had endured four to seven years of hard culinary reality with our budgets,” says Osmani, who came from France to earn a master’s degree in bioengineering from ASU. “And we lived in Tempe so we knew there was a need for something that would be targeted to students that would be affordable and that would be an upgrade in quality and nutrition over what the market was giving.” Pita Jungle now boasts 21 locations, including a restaurant at Norterra. The road to
nearly two-dozen locations was paved with hardships and risks, but it has since paid off. Now, Pita Jungle works to stay relevant in a demanding and competitive market. Osmani says they did not have any outside funding when they opened the first location and did most of the work themselves the first few months. “We scrambled for pocket change and came up with $10,000,” Osmani says. “We modeled a little bit with whatever money we had, a lot of sweat equity, and the first one was born back in November of 1994, nearly 25 years ago.” Osmani says they experienced three very tough years after opening their second location in Chandler. Because it was built from scratch, Osmani says all of the profits from Tempe were going toward its funding. “The pressure was real. One morning we got there and there was a lock on our door because we were three months late on our rent,” Osmani says. “So again, we had to go and
scramble to find the money to pay the landlord and miraculously, three and a half years later after we opened, things turned around. “Phoenix has become a restaurants lab. People, not only from this country but from all over the world, come here because it’s a great market. The competition is fierce.” To compete, they engineered a menu that was affordable, balanced and diverse. Pita Jungle offers a wide selection for its starters. The Blue Corn Nachos comes with blue corn tortilla chips, lemon-cilantro mixed beans, melted cheese and seasoned yogurt sauce topped with pico de gallo and cilantro. If a customer would like a lighter appetizer, the cilantro jalapeno hummus is an option. It includes chickpeas, tahini, fresh cilantro, jalapeno, garlic, evoo, lemon juice and it is topped with pico de gallo. The hummus is served with a fresh pita. For its pitas, Pita Jungle offers the Philly steak pita, which includes a grilled marinated chicken breast, garlic sauce, tahini, served with greens and veggies wrapped in a pita. For guests looking to share a meal, the roasted garlic and portobello pizza is a good option. It includes roasted garlic cloves and onions, roasted portobello mushrooms, olives, basil, herbs, mozzarella cheese, served with a thin lavosh crust. The dessert menu is mouth-watering: turtle cheesecake, rice pudding and chocolatedipped walnut baklava rolls. “We’re trying to consolidate our presence here in the Valley by always reinventing ourselves, and staying relevant in the hospitality business,” Osmani says. “The whole social interaction and habit of shopping and eating are changing and we’re working on staying relevant by adapting those changes.” Each location embraces the surrounding neighborhood. Its Norterra location on Happy Valley Road and I-17 is vibrant, drawing customers from east Glendale, North Phoenix and Anthem, Pita Jungle offers a wide selection of healthy dishes that will appeal to those who have diets like paleo, keto or pescetarian. (Photo courtesy by Pita Jungle)
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85085 | APRIL 2019