Old Country Lebanese Cooking in Old Pasadena : Pita Pita offers authentic Middle-East dishes at reasonable prices. And the appetizers are gratis, part of a hospitable tradition.

At Pita Pita, the waitress starts bringing Lebanese appetizers to the table even before she takes your order.

Here come green olives, small yellow peppers, strips of purple pickled turnips and two kinds of pita bread--fresh and toasted--to plunge into a silvery chalice of spicy red sauce. The sauce resembles a North African harissa chile dip mixed with a healthy dollop of sweet barbecue sauce.

And it’s all gratis, part of the hospitable Middle Eastern tradition of offering guests little things to nibble on while the real meal is being prepared.

Owner Jesse Chehayeb, a Lebanese native, lived for years in Texas, where he tempered the Middle Eastern food at the catering business he ran for Lone Star palates. But he has gone back to basics with Pita Pita on Fair Oaks Avenue in Old Pasadena, where he offers Lebanese Mediterranean cuisine that ranges from vegetarian eggplant stew ($7.95) to spicy lamb spiked with garlic and chilies ($9.95).

Most dishes are under $10, with weekday lunch specials from $4.95 to $6.95 that allow patrons to choose from 14 dishes, including beef kebab, green bean stew and spicy chicken plates, all of which are served with soup or salad, rice and pita bread.

A cozy, narrow eatery stuffed with green plants and boasting an outdoor terrace where you can watch as half of Old Pasadena strolls past, Pita Pita has a laid-back air about it, enhanced by the hypnotic, swirling Lebanese music of famous chanteuse Farouz, whose CD plays in the background.

For fans of Eastern Mediterranean cuisine, there are dolmas , grape leaves stuffed with rice and vegetables, and baba ghanouj , a smoky roasted eggplant pureed with lemon and sesame paste.

In addition to seafood and chicken, there are also plenty of meat dishes from beef to lamb, even Armenian sausage, sauteed with onion, chilies and tomato.

“We do everything fresh-cooked to order,” Chehayeb boasts, “with very little oil; we use only canola and olive oil and no animal fats.”

Why did he call his place Pita Pita?

“It’s a reference to the old country,” Chehayeb says. “I wanted originally to put a bakery in for pita bread, a wood fire oven, but this location is very small. Still, everybody knows pita bread.”

In addition to running a catering business in Texas, Chehayeb put in 13 years cooking and managing Middle East Restaurant in Alhambra and cooked French cuisine for three years in New York City.

Now he has his own place, and it’s clear from the menu that while you can take the man out of Lebanon, you can’t take Lebanon out of the man. And that’s good news for Pasadena diners.

“L.A. is the most diversified place for ethnic cuisine,” Chehayeb says. “Our success is here.”

Pita Pita, 37 S. Fair Oaks Ave. in Pasadena. Open weekdays from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Phone: (818) 356-0106.