Pita Hut, Kosher in Downtown Rockville - Owner Avi Peretz In The Former Chopstix Space - Closed

[DanielK]

Only open a few weeks, Pita Hut has obviously gotten the word out within the local Kosher community. The place was humming along and busy at noon today, and I think I was the only patron not wearing a yarmulke.

The menu has a decent number of choices including falafel, schwarma, various kebobs, grilled whole chickens, and of course Jerusalem Mix (steak, chicken, turkey, hot dogs, all mixed together and grilled). There's a large selection of fresh salads out on display, which you can order as a salad plate, as sides, part of the combo platters, or of course stuffed into your schwarma or falafel sandwich.

My schwarma sandwich was very good. Excellent pita, lots of very tasty (if a little soft) schwarma, and about 5 different salads spread evenly through the sandwich. For less than $10 including a drink and a side of Israeli salad with pickles, I walked out stuffed and happy.

There are quite a few seats, and they seem to be doing a pretty brisk takeout business. I haven't been to Max's in a while, so I hesitate to do a comparison, but the sandwich really was very good. After only one visit I'd hesitate to send someone across town, but I will certainly be back.

Don't forget, like Max's, kosher means closed from mid-afternoon Friday until Sunday morning. They note that they are considering opening on Saturday night after Shabbat, a move that I have long suggested to local kosher restaurants who want to survive more than a few months.

Website here, but they haven't updated it since they opened. What's on the menu currently is only about half the grill items listed on the website, and the website doesn't list the sandwiches and combo platters.

[Michael Landrum]

...and of course Jerusalem Mix (steak, chicken, turkey, hot dogs, all mixed together and grilled).

Jerusalem Mixed Grill (Me'urav Yerushalmi), at least in Jerusalem, consists of chicken liver, heart, gizzards and, if your lucky, some thigh maybe. The best purveyors tend to be of Iraqi descent and serve it "laafa" style (rolled up--laafa is colloquial Arabic for rolled or wrapped--in an extra large, thin pita)--definitely the way to go. The root for laafa is a cognate of the same in Hebrew, which in Hebrew slang has definite sexual connotations--adding an extra measure of lustiness to this hearty and cheap street food indulgence. Even better, the word "Me'urav" puns irresistably with both "ambush" and "crow" which is always a suspected source of product from less reputable vendors adding an extra frisson of danger to the whole affair.

[Michael Landrum]

If I could figure out how to use this damn editor function, I would add, perhaps unnecessarily, that the "ambush" (ma'arav) is what occurs to the digestive system later in the evening (erev) if the "Me'urav" is made from "crow" (arev), especially if one is of Western descent or origin (Maravi).

[Michael Landrum]

After this last post, it may surprise no one to learn that while in the army, if I may share, I avoided a severe court-martial for being discovered, while on guard duty, being "tended to" (pants-at-ankles, but flag at full staff) by the base nurse--and boy was she ever base--by the base commander conducting a surprise inspection by explaining--straight-faced--that I thought my orders to "stand my post" (la'amod a'mudi) were orders to "make my post stand" (l'ha'amid amudi). After he, a commander in the 73 war, stopped laughing, picked himself off the ground, and regained his composure fifteen minutes later, he realized that no court could ever hear my case and maintain any sense of dignity or decorum and that he would look twice as bad as me, he let me off with three months of personally administered brutal, extraordinary punishments and weekly blood donations instead. (The nurse also got off unscathed (at least from that incident), in case anyone's worried, although I did wreck her dad's Citroen six month's later while on leave from Lebanon).

TMI?

[hmmboy]

Not at all - I would personally enjoy one of these stories every morning with my coffee and bagel. Can we start a series?

[hungry prof]

Can we start a series?

Ray's the Memoirs

[Michael Landrum]

Not at all - I would personally enjoy one of these stories every morning with my coffee and bagel. Can we start a series?

Well...I could tell you about the time I *was* court-martialed...for shooting a wild boar (every bullet had to be counted and accounted for) while out on a "mid-night mission" with our Druze trackers in Syria (the Druze do eat pork) who misguidedly loved me and so took me along with them at night for coffee, stories and adventures--they didn't trust or really like "the Jews" but they thought, strangely enough, that I was related to Michael Jackson and so took me into their secretive fold thinking that I could somehow arrange them citizenship and blonde women...but that's another story.

By the way, that was some damn tasty pork.

[smokey]

Only open a few weeks, Pita Hut has obviously gotten the word out within the local Kosher community. The place was humming along and busy at noon today, and I think I was the only patron not wearing a yarmulke.

Have you been recently, Daniel? Pita Hut received quite a glowing review in the Gazette recently. Ever since they brought in Brian Patterson (who I think did the Pita Hut review, though I couldn't say for sure), Bernice August has actually gotten a bit of a critical eye (tongue?) and no longer raves about every Gazette advertiser whose restaurant she reviews. I would be most likely to eat there for Saturday lunch because of my schedule, so this kosher thing really makes it hard for me to stop in.

[DanielK]

Unfortunately, the review was indeed written by Bernice.

It's been a few months since my last visit.

Thanks for popping the topic to the top, though. I'd nearly forgotten about Landrum's story.

[pras]

Closed.

[Lori Gardner]

i thought it had closed ages ago. We had such a bad meal last time we went (over a year ago or more) that it slid off my radar.  on the other hand, sorry to lose yet another kosher restaurant.  at least we gained Blue Star.

[DanielK]

Yeah, it's been closed about a year. They talked several times about opening in the Kemp Mill area, but not sure if that was a business plan or a pipe dream.

[DonRocks]

Yeah, it's been closed about a year. They talked several times about opening in the Kemp Mill area, but not sure if that was a business plan or a pipe dream.

Pita Hut is now a Peruvian restaurant called Sazon Inka - here's their Facebook page.