Do Chipatis Exist in Chicago?

New York Pizza Depot in Ann Arbor, MI (on the University of Michigan campus) makes what could be my favorite food, the barbecue chicken chipati. As I learned upon inquiring freshman year, "what is a chipati?", it's a large pita-esque pocket bread stuffed with salad. I've learned since then that chipati is actually a middle-eastern bread, but at NYPD and several other restaurants in Ann Arbor, you say chipati and you get a giant stuffed salad.

Sounds too simple to be worth posting, and most restaurants' versions are, but NYPD's chipati bread was out of this world, and totally unlike pita - golden brown, crunchy and thin on the top half, crispy and chewy on the bottom half, delicious all around. Sorry pita, but this bread's got you beat. And elevate that by stuffing it with a combination of sweet bbq chicken chunks, crunchy romaine, always ripe red tomatoes, and red onion, and it's heaven. What can I say, I like simple pleasures. Other combinations exist, for sure, but this is all I needed.

Proper eating technique, for me, is to eat the chipati undressed and dunk the glorious bread into dressing. Others prefer making mini salad/bread sammys, pinching bits of salad with folds of bread, and I even witnessed one brave soul pick the whole creation up and dive right in. But I digress.

So, getting to the point, leaving A2 for Chicago 4 years ago had an unexpected consequence: chipatis as I know them apparently only exist in that isolated area. I've never run across anything like it, surprisingly, considering how simple the whole "salad in a bread bowl" concept seems to be.

I'm holding out hope, based on experience, that I am very wrong in this assessment. Can anybody help?

(and please don't say Pockets....ewwwww)

Could this be what you're describing?

Chapati, perhaps? It's an Indian flatbread, which at least in its local manifestations is puffier, grainier, and less buttery than paratha and tandoori naan. I like it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapati

My favorite sandwich made therewith is at the Lincoln Park Hema's Kitchen (2411 N. Clark), which has green chutney, hot peppers, and greens (your salad component) with tandoori chicken. The menu (it's called "Chicken Roll" under 'lighter fare) says it's wrapped in paratha but at this location it's much more like the chapati I've had on Devon and elsewhere.

Thanks, but sadly, no.

The NYPD restaurant web site, http://www.newyorkpizzaannarbor.com/chipatis.html, lists the decidedly un-indian chipatis, but sadly provides no photographic evidence. A google image search yields nothing either.

Perhaps it's just a regional thing? A spelling error? A coincidence in naming?

amyliz wrote:Thanks, but sadly, no.

The NYPD restaurant web site, http://www.newyorkpizzaannarbor.com/chipatis.html, lists the decidedly un-indian chipatis, but sadly provides no photographic evidence. A google image search yields nothing either.

Perhaps it's just a regional thing? A spelling error? A coincidence in naming?

Probably a spelling and/or conceptual error. Are the chipatis you know served on a flatbread somewhat similar to naan? If so, it's probably an Americanized, bastardized version of a chapati. Kind of like the "wrap" is an Americanized, bastardized version of a burrito, which is an Americanized, bastardized version of Mexican food.

Kinda sounds like what they serve at Pockets.

Jamie

It appears to be an Ann Arbor thing. Here is a link to the Pizza House, which not only claims to be "A slice of Chicago in Ann Arbor", but also lays claim to being "Home of the World Famous Chipati". It must be a small world. They even sell bottles of "chipati" sauce.

http://www.pizzahouse.com/Chipati.aspx?CategoryID=28

d4v3 wrote:http://www.pizzahouse.com/Chipati.aspx?CategoryID=28

The picture there makes me think Jamieson is on the right track. Go to Pockets, amyliz, and see if it works for you.

(and please don't say Pockets....ewwwww)

Nice job, people.

Seriously, give Hema a try. Her chicken roll sounds just like what you want.

Jamieson22 wrote:Kinda sounds like what they serve at Pockets.

gleam wrote:Go to Pockets, amyliz, and see if it works for you.

*AHEM*

amyliz wrote:(and please don't say Pockets....ewwwww)

d4v3 wrote:It appears to be an Ann Arbor thing. Here is a link to the Pizza House, which not only claims to be "A slice of Chicago in Ann Arbor", but also lays claim to being "Home of the World Famous Chipati". It must be a small world. They even sell bottles of "chipati" sauce.

http://www.pizzahouse.com/Chipati.aspx?CategoryID=28

Yeah, I don't really see the difference between that and what you would get at Pockets.

Great minds think alike, Dom.

Thanks for all your help. A chicken roll at Hema - will try.

In concept, it isn't different. But, as we all know, it's ALL in the execution.

jesteinf wrote:Yeah, I don't really see the difference between that and what you would get at Pockets.

Arby's French Dip looks
a lot like an Italian Beef.

It seems the Chipati is all about the bread, not the stuff inside. From the descriptions it appears to be a very thick and more leavened version of a pita that is baked to order in a pizza oven.

Pockets is in fact the Chicago-area version of the Ann Arbor chipati (I always was partial to the Pizza Bob's version). The bread in Ann Arbor tended to be a little thinner on top, so it got crunchy, as opposed to the Pockets bread which is uniformly chewy. The real secret to both is the addicting French-esque dressing. I am pretty sure the owner of the chain went to the U of M.

While Pockets might not be the perfect chipati, it's a pretty good approximation.

Now if we could just get an Angelo's or Zingerman's here.

Chipati was invented by Pizza House, I always thought; they serve salad in it. A chicken roll is not the same thing at all. The chipati bread is soft and thick.

Seems Pizza Bob's has actually trademarked the names Chipati and Chipopeye (at least they indicate so on their site). I read some speculation that the name may have been actually derived from the Italian "Ciabatta". Interesting.

Yeah, maybe it was Pizza Bob's instead. Never been there, but Pizza House's was always pretty nice, in a cheap and filling sort of way. Didn't know NYPD started making them now -- sellouts!

Cilantro, let me attest that NYPDs are FAR superior to Pizza House's pale competitors. Sellouts, maybe, but if you're gonna do it you gotta beat the originals - and they did, by a long shot.

D4v3 is right - it's all about the bread, cooked to order in the pizza oven, arriving still warm 'n crackling.

Never did have Pizza Bob's though....whenever I wandered south on state I'd invariably stop at Bell's.

amyliz wrote:Cilantro, let me attest that NYPDs are FAR superior to Pizza House's pale competitors. Sellouts, maybe, but if you're gonna do it you gotta beat the originals - and they did, by a long shot.

Glad to know NYPD's still around. When it opened in the late 90s it was the answer to a cri de coeur from a town beset by disgusting "pizza".

cilantro wrote:Yeah, maybe it was Pizza Bob's instead. Never been there, but Pizza House's was always pretty nice, in a cheap and filling sort of way. Didn't know NYPD started making them now -- sellouts!

Both claim to be the "Home of the Chipati", just as Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic both claimed to have invented the Mai Tai.

Glad to know NYPD's still around

Cilantro, it's around, and they've expanded - they're still on east william, but they're also now on south u where the coney island used to be (corner of south u and south forest)

A google search defines the word "chipati" as Indian flat bread. I have to say, that until this post, I had never seen it written as anything other than "chapati" which is indeed a flat bread eaten as part of the daily meal on the Indian subcontinent. These have no pockets. Pictures of the item in question seem to more closely resemble pita bread.

Jyoti

The wife and I were big fans of chipatis in Ann Arbor and sadly, Pockets offering is the only thing remotely similar that we've found in Chicago.

I never tried NYPD, but Pizza Bob's blew Pizza House's version out of the water. Get it with extra banana peppers

Ralph Wiggum wrote:The wife and I were big fans of chipatis in Ann Arbor and sadly, Pockets offering is the only thing remotely similar that we've found in Chicago.

I think Pita Pete's in Evanston actually used to be a Pockets, but they've kept a similar menu. I don't know if it's better or worse--I've never been to a Pockets, and I'm not big on salad. amyliz, you might call them though to ask them if they can make something approximating a chipati.

Pita Pete's
1571 Sherman
Evanston, IL 60201
847 905-1455

Pockets used to have a location around the corner on Davis in Evanston. Pita Pete's was the original location of That Mexican Cafe, though I am sure there has been something there since.

I ate at Pita Pete's once (thanks, I was struggling to remember the name) and IMHO it was OK, but the pitas themselves didn't strike me as particularly special. It's a pita topped with your choice of granola-crunchy type fillings in which things like hummous, chicken breast and alfalfa sprouts figure prominently. IIRC things weren't baked inside a bread.