Midtown Lunch

When The Hummus & Pita Co. opened its second NYC location downtown I wondered what their crowning glory would be. I had an enjoyable chicken shawarma sandwich where the meat was almost outshined by the vegetables stuffed in alongside. Based on the strength of that meal, I decided to stop into the shop on Chambers St. (btw. Broadway & Church) for round 2. Once again, I was seduced by a spinning cylinder of meat. 

It’s hard to get a sense of the size of the laffa sandwich ($8.95) from the picture. When it’s unrolled the puffy bread that’s baked in store is the size of a small pizza and the thickness of a crust. There’s no cheese here (although you can get feta sprinkled over the top) but it’s basically a flatbread pizza. You kind of have to eat it like one, too, because it’s an unwieldy sandwich that’s hard to pick up. It was kind of loosely rolled up when I got it, but with no overlap of the laffa and nothing to hold it together, it unrolled itself before my eyes. Make sure to grab a fork, knife and plenty of napkins before eating this.

Right beside the spinning cone of chicken shawarma, you’ll see one made with a combination of lamb and beef gyro, topped with a lemon and onion. They seem to carve it frequently so you’re likely to get a mix of slightly browned outer pieces and more of the inner softer pieces. Although it tastes somewhat similar to what you’ll get at most street meat carts, this meat wasn’t chopped into small pieces to crisp on the griddle, but rather left in long strips. The lamb flavor was also more present than at most carts, which I appreciated.

Other components of the sandwich included hummus swiped over the laffa and I chose fried eggplant as my “fill it.” Then I got to go crazy with the “top it” section which is mostly vegetables in either raw or pickled form. My picks were pickles, pickled cauliflower and peppers and red cabbage, and I got the whole thing topped with chimichurri sauce. The flavors of my sandwich were good and I liked the balance between the fatty meat and pickles, with the hummus to cool the whole thing down.

I’d have to say I liked the chicken shawarma flavors a bit better than the gyro, but you can’t go wrong with the enormous laffa sandwich. You definitely won’t be hungry again until dinner (or breakfast the next day).

Hummus & Pita Co., 79 Chambers St. (btw. B’way & Church St.), (212) 571-6700, on the Web