SEPTEMBER 2024 16 with Bassel Osmani, co-owner of Pita Jungle 4340 E. Indian School Road • pitajungle.com In the Kitchen T hirty years ago, three ASU students were looking for a way to bring a taste of home to Arizona. Bassel Osmani, Fouad Khodr and Nelly Kohsok took their collective knowledge and love of food and opened Pita Jungle. Twenty three locations and a few menu changes later, the trio is still together and excited for what the future holds.  I was born in France. I’m of Lebanese descent. I started college in Canada because French was my first language. It was too cold, so I came to the U.S. in 1984 and went to Texas State University in San Marcos for a year before coming to ASU. I got my Master’s Degree in biomedical engineering.             During college, me, Fouad and Nelly all worked in hospitality, in hotels and restaurants. I worked in a Lebanese spot called Café Istanbul and Fouad was working at Byblos. My background in engineering came about because my dad was a doctor. I was going to go back home and set up a business where I would sell and distribute medical equipment to the Middle East and eastern Europe, but there was war after war and I was kicking the can down the road, so we finally decided to open a restaurant. I was working at the café, and people would come and order things that were mostly vegetarian. That’s where the idea germinated. We wanted to do something healthy and something that reads in English, not heavy on foreign words. We decided to roll the dice on it.          No, I worked at a Wendy’s! I worked at a lot of different places but I was a mature college kid by the time I worked at Café Istanbul and I saw what the customer wanted. By then I’d been in Arizona for a bit and I noticed what the customers were ordering, but I’ve flipped burgers, wrapped burritos… I’ve done it all [ laughs ].            It was in a second generation pizza store on Apache and Terrace. It belonged to a developer and architect – a really nice guy. He took a look at us like ‘Who are these kids?’ We did our research and reached a deal and he’s like ‘okay, fine.’ [ laughs ]. The space had everything but it was in bad condition. With the help of one handyman we put it back together and Pita Jungle Tempe opened in 1994. 
          I was having issues recounting our history [ laughs ] – I don’t know how it happened so quickly. It feels like it was just yesterday we opened the first location!          Yes! Every time we put something on our menu, and we remove it for whatever reason, somebody gets upset. ‘What? I came all this way, where is the Caribbean salad? Where is the fruit and cheese fantasia?’ For all the patrons who supported us throughout the years with their graceful presence, and who suffered because we removed items, we brought some back. It’s a good way to highlight the anniversary.          First, we felt there was a need. We worked in Mediterranean restaurants that were mom-and-pop operations and it was hit or miss the way they approached it. The menu was not 100 percent in line with what we wanted. We noticed the most sought after meal was the vegetarian combo. Another thing was that people would come to the restaurant and not know what was included in the meal because of the ethnic words on the menu. In the 90s there was a place called Gentle Strength Co-op in Tempe. It was a lifestyle center that had yoga, Pilates and a grocery store with vegetable based proteins. We would go there and we noticed it wasn’t alternative, like, hippie- type people shopping. It was soccer moms coming with their minivans and buying tofu sandwiches. That was enlightening. Our menu wasn’t just going to be Mediterranean, it was going to be ‘the art of eating healthy,’ which is our slogan. If you look at the menu, you see the usual suspects – falafel, hummus, baba ganoush – we have those, but we also have chicken pasta salad, blue corn nachos, we have pizzas, wood-fired salmon. We did a global menu with heavy influence from the southwest that was filtered through a Mediterranean diet. We use olive oil, lean proteins – no artery-clogging stuff! Lots of grains, veggies and nuts, and we wanted to make it all available at an inexpensive price.         Fouad, Nelly and I were the first three employees. We did everything, staying there until two in the morning! The first person we hired was a dishwasher and the second was actually a customer of ours who told us ‘I’m going to work for you someday.’ Back then we were an over-the- counter place, and she said ‘I don’t care, I’ll run food,’ and she did. Two years later in 1996 we transferred to full service. In 2015, we moved the flagship location to a different spot because the light rail came in and it made it harder to make left turns into the plaza. It decreased flow on Apache Boulevard. The pickup we got from those riding the train was less than those who drove in. We moved to Mill and University and we were thinking ‘it doesn’t get better than this.’ The rent is more expensive but there’s traffic, there’s people… and there’s no parking [ laughs ]. In Arizona, we like to pull up to where we are going and walk right in, but Tempe doesn’t work like that. Plus, the construction! Right now, as we’re talking, there’s construction right in front of the store.        There are 23 – there’s one in Tucson, one in Flagstaff and the rest are in the Valley. At one point, we dabbled in franchising and had a couple franchisees in California, in Pasadena, Newport Beach and San Diego.      Mostly from me and Fouad, things we like to eat, recipes from our families. The Lebanese heritage is very family and food oriented. Every Sunday, everyone comes together and brings food and cooks and competes for the better dish. It’s like Thanksgiving every week. Lebanon is very interesting and more exotic. Nelly – who was not the cook – had some influence on the menu too because she would say ‘I like this, why don’t you do this?’ So all three of us had our part in creating the menu.        Working in restaurants! I did mostly serving, but in mom-and-pop restaurants, you have to learn everything. On Channel 8 there was a show called Great Chefs, Great Cities that had reruns on every night – it’s the best show ever. Every episode had an appetizer, entrée and dessert from three different famous chefs. I gobbled it up. I would also call my mom and ask her how she made a certain recipe or how to cook a certain dish. 
         The chicken shwarma, gyro, hummus, Mediterranean chicken salad. Everything is popular! In general, in any restaurant, anything that has chicken is going to fly. People love chicken. We source locally as much as we can, but we outgrew the ability to distribute local to all of our locations. Our produce comes from Yuma, Mexico and California. There are some great producers here – nothing beats lettuce that was picked this morning – but it’s hard to fulfill with all the restaurants.        As owners, we wear a lot of hats. We’ve surrounded ourselves with a lot of very talented people in marketing, PR, HR, purchasing, accounting, but we have our hands in everything. What I like to do most is develop menus and evolve the content of

17 SEPTEMBER 2024 our marketing. I start my day at the corporate office and try to hit one store a day.      For me it’s when the ship crashes [ laughs ]. When the stars don’t align and every customer comes in at the same time and someone calls in sick and the printer stops working and the system crashes and you’re trying to console someone over the phone. Those days are super challenging. On a business level, inflation and labor. The market is stabilizing a bit but at one point, it was super hard to find people that wanted to work. This is one of those industries that people are either here for one or two years or who have been here since the beginning.     It’s the same thing. When I step inside and hear the music and see the staff running around and the clinking of the spoons and the pots and pans and the fire going up. When you start working a rush, plating food, checking on customers and everyone is happy. There’s something very satisfying about providing that hospitality. It’s like having a big party at your house and everything is going smoothly.    I love all kinds; I eat everything. Any kind of seafood, sushi is one of them, but I love Mediterranean style seafood where it’s fresh fish with maybe some potatoes or a salad on the side. I love pizza. People say ‘Italy this, Italy that,’ but I think North American pizza is great. My favorite one is Pizzeria Bianco – his pizzas are insanely good. At home, I cook comfort food. I like to grill fish. Home dishes like spinach stew with meatballs and white rice accompanied by Greek yogurt. Things like that, with a lot of flavors.    My parents. When I told them I was going to open a restaurant, my dad said ‘why did I spend all that money sending you to a foreign country with out-of-state tuition?’ [ laughs ]. Then he came to visit and saw the restaurant and was happy.  Well, the State of the Union is good [ laughs ]. People are getting more food delivered than eating out, so we’re adjusting to that. It’s a work in process. We remodeled the Arcadia location and added softer seating and dimmer lighting to create an experience for folks to come and dine in. JT’s is a chicken wing and burger place; Steak 44 and Buck and Rider are higher-end places – but people go for the experience. We want people to come and experience our restaurant. We’re excited to launch a new restaurant called Feta Cowboy, a Mediterranean meets southwest concept. It’ll be more fast-food-ish, a buffet line kind of thing with signature items. We want to have a stunningly vibrant kitchen display with produce being prepped in front of customers. We’re hoping to open it in 2024.