Pita and Naan offers fast-casual mix of Mediterranean and eastern cuisine

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) -A new restaurant in downtown Lincoln is serving cuisine from across the world by a family with decades of experience in Lincoln’s restaurant scene.

Pita & Naan opened their doors a little over two weeks ago. The fast-casual restaurant offers Mediterranean and eastern cuisine where people can get a taste of other cultures right here in the Capitol City.

Pita & Naan’s owner, Omar Attaie, said the restaurant business is something his family knows well. When he saw the building that formerly housed Rutabagas and Lazzari’s Pizza was available, Attaie knew he needed to jump at the opportunity.

“We saw this building was available and I was able to convince dad to come here,” Attaie said. “He’s been downtown serving good food for about 32 years now and mom also has been in the restaurant industry for about 30 years.”

Attaie runs Pita and Naan with his parents who grew up cooking in Afghanistan. Now, his dad handles the Mediterranean cuisine while his mom handles the eastern recipes.

“We have a lot of different cultures,” Attaie said. “We’ve got Afghan food, we’ve got Indian food and then some other eastern food that we kind of mixed all together.”

Pita and Naan serves food from chicken tikka korma to gyros and falafel. Attaie said he wanted to offer a variety of foods, while also offering options Lincoln doesn’t typically see.

“There’s a lot of Mediterranean foods out there,” Attaie said. “There’s not to many, like, eastern Indian-Afghani type restaurants kind of in the area or in Lincoln at all and we kind of had a unique opportunity to bring both elements both sides together. It’s funny because we see a lot of people come in and if they haven’t seen the menu online they come in and you just kind of see their face we don’t have your typical hamburgers,your cheeseburgers, pizza. We’re unique.”

Pita and Naan is located downtown near 14th and O Streets and is open seven days a week.

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