Pita Pouch Brings New Restaurant Concept to City
By Stephen Siegel
Falls Church Times Staff
June 10, 2015
After more than a year of indications that the company which owns the Burger 7 chain was planning on opening a Middle Eastern restaurant in the City, their plans finally came to fruition recently when Pita Pouch opened in the long vacant space previously occupied by a bagel and donut store located at the Falls Plaza.
Having a new restaurant is always a bonus, especially compared to a vacant storefront, but Pita Pouch is more than a new restaurant. It’s a new restaurant concept, which brings the approach of the popular Mexican chain Chipotle to food from the Middle East.
Like other restaurants working the same general territory, Pita Pouch offers beef, chicken, and the ever popular ground garbanzo bean patties known as falafel as their three staples. The beef and chicken are displayed on a rotisserie behind the counter and the meat is shaved off while the customer watches.
But where it mimics the Chipotle model comes after that.
After selecting the desired meat or falafel, customers are given the choice to pick from either a piece of pita to hold their Middle Eastern sandwich or to have their food served in a bowl. Then, they can select from a smorgasbord of complementary items, including basmati rice, bulgur, or couscous.
A variety of flavorful vegetable options follow those three grains, including a tomato-mint salad and chopped onion blended with the traditional spice sumac, among many others. The entire ensemble is finished off with a choice of hot, garlic, or tahini sauce.
This is the company’s first foray into such a Chipotle style model, and it remains to be seen how well it will be received. But it appears to be off to a good start, as it was doing a brisk business during several visits by the Times, even at off-peak hours. The company is confident enough in the model that it’s planning a second location in Tysons Corner.
The pouches are priced at $7.29 and the bowls at $8.29.
By Stephen Siegel
June 10, 2015
Falls Church in the News
Thanks Stephen. Sounds delicious.
Ate there tonight for their grand opening. I’ll be back.
Betty and I tried a bit before mid-afternoon. It’s a winner! Very tasty. The choices offer the opportunity for future experiments with variation in content and spices. Very generous serving size (it’s a meal plus a snack or possible even a 2nd meal). We’ll definitely return. The fairly steady flow of non-peak hours customers seemed to confirm our evaluation.
Other:
Interesting, attractive modern interior design.
The music was much too loud (because one can have it loud doesn’t mean that it should be) for easy table conversation.
Suggestions:
Merchants whose businesses are the subject of FCT stories should be at least told about if not provided with the story about their place. None of the small business owners whose places we patronized as a result of a FCT story (THANKS for them; we’ve enjoyed all the recommended places) had known about/seen the stories about their business. We either provided a copy to them or showed the story to them electronically; they were delighted!
For new businesses, there can be another story: the hassles, time and cost of complying with regs and getting all of the necessary approvals. From what I’ve heard, it’s local, not Fed regs., that are the burden. Can’t the process be quicker?