Pita House Delivers Real Mediterranean Fare at a Fair Price
October 7, 2008
by Hank Russell, Patchogue Medford News
In 1986, Joff Sahin came from Turkey with only $30 in his pocket. A chef by trade in his native homeland, Sahin sought to start his own restaurant, which took seven years in the making. During that time, he worked 16 hours a day at a gas station in Northport, and took business classes at Suffolk County Community College in order to make that dream come true.
When the Nor’easter hit Long Island in 1993, Sahin opened his doors for the Pita House. At the time, the restaurant had only four tables. Now that it has expanded into the former Premier Car Rental facility, Pita House has seating for 50 people.
The food served is what Sahin described as Eastern Mediterranean or Middle Eastern. “The people who eat this food are Turkish, Greek, Lebanese, Israeli, Syrian and Armenian,” said Sahin, Pita House’s owner and chef. “Its influence is carried out all over the Middle East.”
Sahin touted the value of Mediterranean food that influences the way Americans eat. “What people should know,” he said, “is that all dieticians agree that the Mediterranean Diet is one of the best for a healthy diet and it’s great for the heart.” The reason, he said, are the olive oils and spices used in the preparing and cooking of the food — a tradition that has gone back during the days of the Ottoman Empire. “The Ottoman Empire influenced Greece, Arabia, Persia and the Balkans, and [those ethnic groups] influenced each other,” Sahin explained. “They were taking from each other. They were blending each other [their influences].”
The taste of spices is evident even in their soups. Pita House offers four different soups: red lentil, spinach, turkey orzo and chicken lemon. Soups are available as appetizers ($2.50 for small, $3.50 for medium, $3.75 for large), or as part of a lunch ($1.95 for small, $2.85 for medium, $3.25 for large). Soups of the day are available upon request.
While you can taste the spices in these soups, they do not overwhelm you. The red lentil soup has a rich taste and a smooth consistency that makes it enjoyable to eat. The lemon chicken soup offers a nice mix of ingredients. The spinach soup is very tasty and full-bodied, while the turkey orzo is rich and spicy.
Unlike most restaurants and take-out places, Pita House sells soup year-round. According to Sahin, Pita house sells 200 gallons of soup a week during the wintertime. “My soups are what keep me in business,” he said.
With the exception of the red lentil soup, according to Sahin, all the soups are made using Sahin’s own recipe. He added that he offers soup and salad as side dishes to dinner entrées and platters instead of French fries, as the diners do. “We’re the only restaurant that doesn’t carry French fries,” he said. “We don’t cover our food in French fries.”
The food is always fresh, Sahin said, and that nothing is ever frozen, except for the shrimp, and the spinach because “you can’t get the sand out” of fresh, whole-leaf spinach. “To keep the food fresh, I need a high volume and a high turnover,” he said, adding that his products are imported directly from Turkey.
During an interview with Sahin at his restaurant, he gave a tour of the kitchen. In the kitchen, he only uses a refrigerator to store the meats; there is no icebox or walk-in freezer. “There’s no processed food,” he said. “There’s no microwave; there’s no freezer. The food here is fresher than in any American household — fresher than in my house.”
The stuffed grape leaves appetizer ($5.50) is made with fresh leaves and stuffed with rice, currants, pine nuts, cinnamon, cooked onions and what Sahin calls “secret ingredients.” They have a sweet and spicy taste to them, again without the spices dominating the taste.
He also said he does not deep-fry any food. The only food he fries are eggplant, which he pan-fries, and falafel. “In my fryer, I only use canola oil,” he said. “It costs me more, but I use a healthier version [than vegetable oil].”
What awoke him to the Americans’ eating habits was reading the book “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser. “It amazes me what you put in your body based solely on price and also the influence of advertising,” said Sahin, who describes himself as an avid reader. “I think, later in life, you’ll pay to the doctors much more, in [terms of] price. The choices you make in food will haunt you later on.”
Sahin said his food is a healthy — and less expensive — alternative to fast food. Sandwiches cost between $6.50 and $7.50, and dinners are priced from $11.50 to $17.95. Some of the recommended dishes include the Turkish shepherd’s salad ($7.50 small,. $8.50 large) with tomato, cucumber, onion, green pepper, parsley and black olives with olive oil and lemon juice dressing. (Salads can be served with a kebab or gyro for an additional $3.95.) The vegetable combo ($13.95) consisting of humus (ground chick peas with fresh garlic, sesame paste and herbs), eggplant spread, stuffed grape leaves, pan-fried eggplant and bulgur is a more unique sampler, and better-tasting than the derivative ones offered at other eateries. Fro those looking for a hot appetizer, there is the lahmajun ($5.50), a mini-pizza consisting of spicy ground lamb over a layer of baked crust.
Dinnertime specials that should be tried are the adana kebab ($13.75) — chopped lamb with fresh red bell peppers lightly covered in paprika, and served with roasted green peppers and tomatoes — and the Anatolian special ($17.95) with an assortment of shish kebabs, gyros, adana kebab, and chicken kebab grilled and served with tomatoes and green peppers.
His clientele is 30 percent professional, white-collar workers, Sahin said. He noted that his customers keep coming back for lunch or dinner. In fact, his following resulted in his restaurant being Zagat Rated as “Excellent & Extraordinary” since 1997. In January 2008, he opened a second restaurant in East Setauket. He said he might even branch out to television, along the lines of Emeril Lagasse or Rachel Ray.
When asked about his recipe for success, Sahin replied, “My entrepreneurial experience is copied from my father, but I never thought that, when I came to America, I saw a niche in that market. If I could teach them an alternative way of eating, they’d respond, but it took a long time.
“Preparing food is like a communicator preparing for a speech,” Sahin continued. “You need to know your audience well. We give them difference choices. You have to listen to the customers.”
Pita House is open 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Take-out service is available (no delivery). For more information, call (631) 289-2262, or visit www.pita-house.com.
*Prices in this story are based on Pita House’s Take Out Menu. Dine-In menu prices may vary.
