PITA SABABA 540 KINGS HIGHWAY (BETW. E. 3RD & 4TH STS.), ...

/b> 540 KINGS HIGHWAY (BETW. E. 3RD & 4TH STS.), BROOKLYN, 718-382-1100

"YOU SHOULD SEE what happens here around the holidays," says Natalie Mouyal of Pita Sababa in Brooklyn. "On Chanukah, people are outside banging on doors for the jelly doughnuts. It's hideous when grown-ups behave this way. The day after Passover, I literally had to lock them outside."

An 18-year-old who wears a Brooklyn teen's uniform of track pants and a cotton tee and has a habit of calling customers twice her age "sweetie," Natalie is boss for the day. Her mother, Smadar Mouyal, owner of the 12-year-old Israeli bakery, is away visiting her former home, Tel Aviv.

"Just the two of us run this place," Natalie, a precocious beauty who looks 30 and is a dead ringer for a Sephardic Marisa Tomei, assures me.

Located in a section of Brooklyn concentrated with Israelis, Pita Sababa is one among many native-oriented businesses serving the community, but is the only pita bakery. Most of the Israeli supermarkets on Kings Highway import their pita or purchase it from local commercial bakers. Therein, insists Natalie, lies the difference: Theirs is not commercial, but a neighborhood bakery that distributes authentic, small-batch pita.

On the afternoon of my visit to Pita Sababa, every customer is either Israeli or a religious Jew. As Orthodox Jews, Natalie and her mother keep a picture of the Rebbe pinned behind their cash register for good luck. It is one of the only decorative touches in this no-frills space, which I would have described as rundown had I not known that it had recently been painted.

Pita Sababa makes an assortment of Middle Eastern sweet and savory treats as well as more conventional bakery items—sugar cookies, assorted cakes—but pita is the main draw. The plastic sacks of the flat bread are stacked in shallow plastic crates on the linoleum floor, forgoing the false modesty of a more attractive display. Each customer makes a beeline for the white or whole-wheat pitas, confirming that the bread speaks for itself.

The flat disks of yeast bread, central to most Middle Eastern cuisine, are baked on the premises and sold each day by the thousands. The pita bread—made simply of flour, water, yeast and salt—develops its characteristic "pockets" in the oven, where the high temperature pries the dough open.

Whereas most supermarket pitas serve as little more than neutral wrappers for your sandwich, Sababa pitas boast distinct texture and flavor. The rounds are fluffy on the inside, slightly crusty on the outside and chewy overall, with a salty bite that differentiates them from blander varieties. The pita can be purchased directly from the bakery—they're a steal at 85¢ for a bag of six, but make sure to toast it when you get home. They're also sold to several Manhattan restaurants and falafel joints, such as Mr. Broadway, Village Crown, Pick-a-Pita and Nergila Grill.