Miznon Secures Pita Primacy at Chelsea Market

April 30 2018 | By Hannah Goldfield for The New Yorker
Miznon Secures Pita Primacy at Chelsea Market

Above: Shani developed a few pita sandwiches especially for New York, including the “folded cheeseburger” and a Reuben. Photograph by Krista Schlueter for The New Yorker

And stuff it you must: Miznon trades mostly in pita sandwiches, a dozen or so varieties each day, plus a few sides, including a whole-roasted baby cauliflower, a dish Shani claims to have originated, and the more convincingly proprietary and surprisingly delicious “run-over potato,” a baked spud so thoroughly flattened under parchment paper that it looks at first like a tray of nothing. When I asked, the other day, if I could purchase a plain pita, my request was denied. “Sometimes we have scraps that we give to children, but the chef doesn’t want people taking the pita home and reheating it, messing it up,” a cashier told me apologetically. There was nothing to do but order more pita: pita overflowing with thin but juicy flaps of “rib-eye minute steak,” buoyed by tahini and spicy zhug. Pita sheathing a supple yellow omelet, laced with salt and crunchy za’atar and adorned with a stalk of raw scallion. Pita enveloping the “folded cheeseburger” that Shani developed especially for New York, featuring a sheet-like patty of grass-fed beef, griddled briefly and then wrapped around Cheddar and griddled some more, until the meat is medium-rare and the edges of the cheese have gone lacy and crunchy. Smothered in sour cream, pickles, and tomato, it turns New York’s best pita into one of New York’s best burgers. (Pita sandwiches $7-$13.50.)

Each pita sandwich comes with a fried spicy pepper.Photograph by Krista Schlueter for The New Yorker

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