Cooking, baking, help Mediterranean Deli owner survive a tough year

COMMUNITY NEWS

CHAPEL HILL– Between the fire that destroyed the Mediterranean Deli last summer and the anticipated grand reopening in January, owner Jamil Kadoura relied on cooking and catering to keep a level head.

“When the fire happened,” Kadoura told The Local Reporter, “my therapy was to do some cooking; my therapy was seeing my vans delivering something — if I didn’t do that, if not for cooking, I think something bad would have happened to me.”

From Palestine to Chapel Hill

Kadoura says on the restaurant’s website that his career in food started while he was still a kid in Palestine. Mr. Majed, who ran a pita and falafel stand in Qalqilya, hired Kadoura to help serve the customers. “Mr. Majed would give me a falafel for helping him. Sometimes I would go home after school smelling like falafel and my mom would ask why. I would tell her that I had been helping Mr. Majed.”

When Kadoura told his mother that cooking was fun, she replied that it was for women — he should aspire to be a teacher or a doctor. Nevertheless, when he emigrated to the United States in 1982, he entered the food and beverage world. He started as a dishwasher, worked his way up, and eventually became a hotel food and beverage service director.

In 1992 he and his wife Angela opened the Mediterranean Deli at 410 West Franklin Street “…with 12 seats and a six-foot deli case. My sister Nabile and my mom Ayshi (62, then) helped us with the cooking.” The building also included lots of office space. Whenever an office tenant left, the landlord offered Kadoura the chance to expand into that unit. He always said yes. Mediterranean Deli grew and became part of Chapel Hill, hosting multiple fundraisers and community events.

Then came the fire.

Rising from the ashes

Using a torch to repair leaks in the deli roof was an everyday occurrence until July 22, 2023. As Kadoura told Chapelboro, that time it wasn’t routine: a fire broke out, spread, and gutted the building. Fortunately, the fire department kept it from damaging the neighboring buildings. “When I saw that I really realized what they do for a living.” Kadoura said once the deli reopens, his first event will be a reception for the firefighters as a thank you for their work.

While he’s grateful nobody was hurt in the fire, the loss of the building still stings. “I miss my deli case. I miss everything.” Kadoura said he’d have reopened the next day if that had been possible. Instead, “it took us eight weeks just for the state of North Carolina to do the cleanup after the fire.”

After the cleanup and before the rebuilding there were “architects, engineering, drawings, five millions things that have to be done before the paperwork goes to the town for approval.” The building has to meet tougher code requirements than when Mediterranean Deli first opened: it’s concrete and steel with a sprinkler system inside. Fortunately, Kadoura said, local government officials have been on his side. “The Town of Chapel Hill has been five stars, first class. They really want us to open.”

The building itself should be standing again within four weeks to two months, Kadoura said. In October or November he’ll begin moving in kitchen equipment. While everything should be ready by late-December, Kadoura expects to delay the reopening until UNC students are back on campus in January.

With his wife and daughter working on redesigning the customer space, Kadoura said, it will look “more white, more modern,” but not substantially changed. The big difference will be in the kitchen: designing from scratch has freed Kadoura up to create his dream kitchen, bigger and better than before. It includes a 20-foot island, cooling systems, freezing systems, and other features he couldn’t achieve in the old building’s space.

Staying alive

Kadoura said Mediterranean Deli has a larger staff than most people realize: 89 employees before the coronavirus pandemic, 71 in 2023 when the fire struck and now, 38. The average employee has been with the restaurant 14 years.

One of Kadoura’s goals after the fire was to keep as many employees on staff as possible. Some key employees opted to leave but said they’d be back after the reopening. The ones who remained don’t put in as many hours as they used to. The deli still pays them as close as possible to what they used to make. “They’re not like family,” Kadoura said, “they’re really family.”

New on the menu: gluten-free pita

In the past year, Kadoura said, he’s poured his energy into new recipes for Mediterranean Deli. The one he’s proudest of is for gluten-free pitas. Breads made without gluten often break and crumble more than regular breads. Developing a gluten-free pita that won’t fall apart when diners open the pocket “…was a nightmare, but I didn’t give up.”

Kadoura says he began researching the possibility of gluten-free pitas 18 years ago, when gluten-free options were just taking off. When he finally started work, it took between 16 and 18 months to develop the recipe. As the bread has to be made separately from baked goods containing gluten, he installed a pita-making machine imported from Jerusalem in the basement. After he hit on what seemed a workable recipe, he asked the West Coast Gluten Intolerance Group to inspect the machine and ingredients, and to certify the bread.

The inspector not only certified the bread, he bought some pitas for his family back in New York, Kadoura says. “I said ‘oh, you don’t have to be nice.’ He said ‘I’m not joking — there’s only two gluten-free bakeries in the U.S. that do pita. And both their pita breads, they’re like biscuits.”

Looking back at his achievements in the past 34 years, Kadoura said, his top accomplishment is his catering business. “Number two is the gluten-free pita bread.”

Fraser Sherman has worked for newspapers, including the Destin Log, the Pensacola News-Journal and the Raleigh Public Record. Born in England, he’d still live in Florida if he hadn’t met the perfect woman and moved to Durham to marry her. He’s the author of several film reference books and has published one novel and several short story collections.
This reporter can be reached at Info@TheLocalReporter.press