The biggest compliment Nuha Hammad, co-owner of Peace Bakery & Deli, receives is seeing customers enjoy her food.
“We have a good relationship with our customers; some customers come daily,” she said, waving at a man seated at an adjacent table. “We have some from Georgetown, Buda [and] San Antonio. It’s all word of mouth.”
Nuha and her husband, Jihad, opened Peace Bakery & Deli in August 2014 in North Austin and serve cuisine from variety of Middle Eastern regions, including Palestine and Lebanon.
Nuha said she enjoyed cooking as a child in her native Palestine and always had a dream of opening a restaurant.
She has lived in Texas for about 20 years and met her husband, who is also from Palestine, through a relative. Her family and friends encouraged her to open Peace Bakery & Deli, she said.
The restaurant uses family recipes that Nuha said she put her own personal touches on.
“It’s a very healthy restaurant,” she said. “We have a good salad bar and use extra-virgin olive oil, fresh veggies that are never frozen or canned, and fresh meat.”
Many of the restaurant’s signature items, including the shawarma, hummus and kibbe—a deep-fried dish made of onions, spices and meats—take hours or even days to make, Hammad said.
“It’s a long process,” she said. “This is what makes [Peace Bakery & Deli] unique and different.”
The restaurant is cafeteria-style, where customers choose their meats and then select their sides, which range from dips such as baba ghanoush to salads such as tabouli, made from cracked wheat, parsley, onions, mint, lemon and olive oil.
The other half of the restaurant is a bakery serving a variety of baklava with honey and chopped nuts and other Middle Eastern cookies and breads.
“The freshness of food is what brings the customers,” Nuha said.
Peace Bakery & Deli
11220 N. Lamar Blvd., Austin
512-386-1152
www.peacebakerytx.com
Hours: Sun.-Thu. 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m.
