A couple from Lebanon opened the province’s first pita bakery earlier this year, and it appears to be a hit with locals and immigrants.
“It feels like home,’’ said Ismail Alahmad, who spoke to The Guardian through an interpreter after he had purchased 20 bags of pita bread.
“It just smells like home back in Syria. It’s been 40 years that I’ve been eating this same bread so when I (moved to Charlottetown) it was like Yesssss!,’’ he added, pumping his fist into the air.
The bakery is owned and operated by Toufic Houchane and his wife, Maud.
“Nobody had the guts to do that,’’ Toufic Houchane said when asked why he and his wife opened the bakery. “We were looking as a family, using our past experience with bread and the Middle Eastern authentic bread. It’s a must that we should have a pita bakery on the Island and why not. Make it affordable to everybody.’’
Houchane said pita bread sold in traditional supermarkets on the Island is shipped frozen. Their bread is made in store by machines he had shipped from Lebanon.
“Islanders deserve better product, better bread. They deserve (it) fresh.’’
He said it took one year to produce the business plan and another year to bring in the right equipment. Back home, bakeries like his are common.
They use an oven that takes an hour to heat up to the required 1,400 degrees C. The bread goes in and comes out in seven seconds.
The temperature in the store must remain at 35 degrees C at all times, making the job of producing the bread challenging in the warm summer months.
“Can’t put in air conditioning inside so we have to work with the heat. It’s tough just to make this kind of bread. It takes a lot of sweat.’’
Royal Pita Bakery, located on John Yeo Drive in Charlottetown (between Kent Building Supplies and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans), employs three people, one from Lebanon, a Canadian and a Syrian refugee.
The Houchanes moved to P.E.I. in 2006 and it wasn’t long before they started thinking about opening their own business.
“My wife was still at UPEI taking her masters degree and I used to work as a mechanic, but we decided to open our own business.’’
And, as every entrepreneur knows, it’s not an easy step to take.
“We worked on the plan for about two years, me and my wife and we faced some hard times and finally we made our dream come true and opened the bakery.’’
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