Flatbread’s popularity feeds new restaurant

At first, she sold 20 or 30 a day, then quickly 100, the most she could produce at a time. The large, fluffy flatbread called taboun that Taqwa Obaid started selling through Middle Eastern grocers in the Milwaukee area three years ago became so popular that she needed a larger kitchen to meet demand.

“I needed more room,” said Obaid, who grew up in Virginia and moved to Milwaukee seven years ago. And then, “A lot of people started asking me to do their weddings.”

So she made the move last year to open Taqwa’s Bakery and Restaurant, at 4651 S. 27th St. in Greenfield.

Obaid opened it this summer with a new business partner, Luran Allabadi, and with Obaid’s husband, Abdullah Habahbeh. Previously, it was just Obaid and Habahbeh running the catering operation.

“He was very supportive. I couldn’t have done it without him,” Obaid said.

Taqwa’s first day of operation was July 31, on the Eid al-Adha holiday.

The bread is Obaid’s mother’s recipe. “She taught me how to do it” in the months just before her mother died, Obaid said.

“It’s all my mom’s recipes. People just keep asking for it,” Obaid said.

The restaurant serves main dishes ($9.99 to $15.99) including shish kebab, grilled half chicken and lamb chops.

Obaid’s dawalee have been popular since she began catering, she said. At the restaurant, she serves the Palestinian recipe for smallish, rolled grape leaves that are filled with ground beef and rice alongside a quarter chicken, cucumberyogurt salad and bread.

But even Obaid was surprised at how many of the morsels she sold when the restaurant opened. She estimates she sold 1,000 just in the first two days.

“I was not expecting to sell that many grape leaves a day,” she said.

The restaurant, which has table service at its 10 or so tables inside and several tables outside, serves Middle Eastern breakfast items ($2.99 to 7.99) all day, such as the cream cheese spread labneh, falafel or diced potatoes with eggs, as well as sampler platters ($9.99 and $24.99).

It serves its bread baked to order with toppings ($4.99 and $5.99) that include zaatar, the mix of thyme, sumac and sesame seeds with olive oil, or seasoned ground beef with tomato and onion.

Hot and cold appetizers ($2.99 to $8.99) include kibbeh, the ground beefcracked wheat balls, and hummus; the restaurant also has soups and salads ($4.99).

Obaid thinks the fatayer (99 cents), the savory little hand pies filled with spinach, cheese, ground beef, potatoes or hot dog, will be a popular on-the-go item when the restaurant’s drive-thru opens in about a month.

Besides breads, the bakery prepares sweets such as maamoul, the date-filled cookie (for Eid, the restaurant sold about 4,000 of them, Obaid said). Another dessert is warbat, pastry filled with cream cheese that Obaid makes herself.

Until the drive-thru opens, customers can pick up carryout orders inside the restaurant; call ahead at (414) 539-6878. The menu is at the restaurant’s Facebook page,

Customers also can call Taqwa’s to reserve a table. A portion of the restaurant, the former site of a Burger King, has been redecorated to resemble a Jordanian tent, Obaid said. (Her husband is Jordanian.)

Taqwa’s is open daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Customers can use it like a photo studio, taking pictures of themselves with their phones. “People will wait in line to take pictures with their families,” Obaid said.

Taqwa’s also plans to add delivery through third-party services.

A Basque dinner, inside or out

Mina, the newest vendor at Crossroads Collective food hall, will feature plates inspired by the Basque region when it holds its first multicourse dinner, at 7 p.m. Sunday.

Sunday is the day that the food hall, at 2238 N. Farwell Ave., is closed during the pandemic. That means Mina will have room to distance customers for the dinner, with seating inside or outside on the patio. Seating will be at less than the 50% capacity allowed.

Mina is the European small-plates food stall operated by Patrice Gentile and Ryan Hoffman, previously sous chef at Balzac Wine Bar on Brady Street.

Mediterranean countries largely supply the inspiration for Mina’s changing menu. For this dinner, the couple will prepare plates that pay homage to the region that lies in both Spain and France.

One of the things about Basque food that interests Hoffman is the experimentation by its famous chefs, who operate some of the world’s most critically acclaimed restaurants.

“You’re not necessarily locked into a list of ingredients or flavor profiles,” he said.

Dishes that Hoffman and Gentile had while traveling in the region will inspire some of Sunday’s menu, but they’ve also come up with on their own plates that incorporate Basque flavors.

The dinner will have six courses — possibly more, Hoffman said — and start with pintxos, the small happy-hour-ish bites eaten with drinks.

Some of the plates planned include beef cheek braised in Rioja wine and grilled head-on prawn with shishito beurre blanc.

Drink pairings include Basque cider; txakoli, the lightly fizzy white wine; and a cocktail with dessert.

The dinner is $120 a person, which includes drink pairings and tax. Diners can email ciao@minamke.com for tickets or reserve online at

COURTESY OF TAQWA’S BAKERY AND RESTAURANT COURTESY OF TAQWA’S BAKERY AND RESTAURANT Taqwa’s Bakery and Restaurant offers table service indoors and outside, as well as takeout picked up in the restaurant. It will add drive-thru service and delivery.

One of the desserts at the new Taqwa’s Bakery and Restaurant, 4651 S. 27th St. in Greenfield, is hareesih, a semolina cake topped with syrup, pistachio and almond.