Photo by Emilie Boenig 
Photo by Emilie Boenig 
Photo by Emilie Boenig On almost any weekday, the lunch crowd at Pita Fusion lines up for a turn to create a meal from more than 100,000 possible combinations of ingredients. The create-your-own pita restaurant offers a variety of vegetables, proteins, cheeses, homemade sauces and extras to stuff into a pita pocket or toss in a salad.
"Most people never get the chance to try fresh pita bread because they are afraid of that kind of food or the flavors associated with it, but we are trying to be something new," said owner Nick Calandro, who handpicked South Austin business Phoenicia Bakery for its pita bread. "We marinate and cook all-natural and hormone-free chicken every day. We make about half of our own sauces right now with the goal to make all of them eventually."
Pita Fusion opened in June 2009 and has grown to serve, on an average weekday, more than a hundred loyal lunch customers, many of whom work at the Dell campus across the street. Calandro said at its peak, the restaurant filled 320 lunch orders in one day.
"I'd say more than half of our lunch crowd is regular customers who come in two or three times a week, or sometimes four or five times a week," Day Manager PJ Gonzales said. "Those are the ones who we can see them pull up, and we pretty much know what they want in their sandwich and what they like."
