Pita Bread in Jacksonville, Baked Fresh Daily
The process of making pita bread seems so simple. Yet from just five ingredients — flour, water, yeast, salt and a pinch of sugar — comes puffs of doughy delight, a perfect accompaniment to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern meals. Good news for those of us who don’t bake bread at home — Northeast Florida boasts several commercial operations providing fresh pita loaves on a daily basis.
It may be surprising to learn that Jacksonville is home to the 10th largest Arab population, and the fifth largest Syrian population in the U.S. Area residents of Arab, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern descent have played a major role in the continuing growth and evolution of our community. Their influence is evident in every aspect of local life, including the food scene, with a wide array of restaurants, eateries and markets serving culinary offerings. It’s only natural that pita bread, a staple of those cuisines, has found a home here as well.
“Pita” is actually a Greek word; the more generic term is “khoubez,” which means bread in Arabic. The majority of pita bread consumed in Northeast Florida is baked fresh daily at the Pita Bakery on Merrill Road in Arlington. Owner Rosaline Assi has worked there since 1988, but the company’s roots go back much farther. “In 1958, my husband’s uncle came from Lebanon,” she says. “He came over here and opened a restaurant, and then he decided he wanted to make bread. He called his mom, and she gave him her recipe. And then he thought of the idea of stuffing it.” The rest, as they say, is culinary history, in terms of the Camel Rider sandwich — Jacksonville's most distinctive local food creation stuffed with deli meats and other fillings.
Today, Rosalie runs the bakery along with her husband, Melad, who’s been there some five decades. It’s one of the oldest Arabic businesses in Jacksonville. “We’re wholesalers,” says Rosalie. “We make the bread, we deliver.” It only takes a small crew to run the machinery; most of the real work is processing and packaging the finished product. Their fanbase runs the gamut from large corporations like Mellow Mushroom to neighborhood favorites like the Casbah to small cafes, kiosks and convenience stores. “They drive in from Miami, they drive in from Atlanta,” she says.
How much pita bread do they make? “Plenty,” says Melad. “We’ve been around so long, we don’t bother counting anymore.” But with hundreds of wholesale clients, and thousands more hungry customers queued up daily, the total number of pieces runs easily into the high five figures. The pandemic has been a challenge, but the business model is sound; what revenue was lost in certain sectors, like brick-and-mortar restaurants, was regained in others such as grocery stores and home delivery. On Saturdays, they even make prosphora, the ceremonial bread used by the Eastern Orthodox church; that bread gets a special stamp along with blessings from a priest.
When the subject of Middle Eastern food comes up in conversation, an often mentioned business is Hala’s Mideast Eatery and Market, an Englewood staple since 1974. At Hala’s, they bake two different kinds of pita, starting each batch with 50-pound bags of flour. The thicker variety uses a high-gluten type of flour, while the thinner style uses patent flour, a high quality commercial flour. “For the rider [thick] bread, each 50-pound bag yields about 45 to 50 bags of pita loaves,” says manager Ansar Owais, who is of Jordanian-Palestinian descent. Hala’s tunnel-style brick oven was imported directly from Lebanon; it’s only their third in 50 years of operation. The ovens get extremely hot, between 500 and 800 degrees, much like a pizza oven.
“The heat and the yeast makes it blow up into a ball,” says Melad. “It puffs up as a ball of steam, and then it goes back down.” The resulting product is light and airy, but substantial, with a stretchiness that allows it to hold up against one’s best efforts at overstuffing. Its basic, uncomplicated flavor makes it ideal for showcasing the kind of fresh, vibrant flavors that typify Middle Eastern cuisine. Pita Bakery does their baking from midnight to 5 a.m.; the product is packaged and out the door before sunrise. From start to finish, pita bakes up in less than a minute. “The most tedious part is bagging the bread,” says Melad. “That takes forever!”
Pita bread is made with no preservatives, so it lasts only a couple days at peak freshness. Users buying in bulk tend to freeze their supply; it can last for months under those conditions. “You can tell immediately whose bread it is,” Owais says, as every bakery has its own unique process and taste.
“There’s so much demand for pita bread now, especially over the past five to ten years,” says Owais, who sees the business atmosphere as being more collaborative than competitive. “We all like to help each other out — it’s kind of a back home kind of thing.” That emphasis on cultural unity and shared experience has helped our city’s Middle Eastern community thrive, even through the difficult times, and there is probably no greater example of that dynamic than in their leading export: pita, these pockets full of dreams.
Find fresh pita at Hala's Mideast Eatery and Market, 4323 University Blvd S, Jacksonville, Noura Cafe, 1533 University Blvd W, Jacksonville and other area markets.
