South Asian

Khan BBQ Owner To Open Khan’s Pita Inn on Devon

Grilled meats at Khan BBQ.
Grilled meats at Khan BBQ. Photo: Sky Full of Bacon

One of the best-loved spots on the Devon Avenue Indo-Pak strip is expanding to open a new pita restaurant further west on the strip. LTHForum poster “Hombre de Acero,” an artisanal metalworker, spoke with Khan BBQ owner Amjad Khan over the weekend who said he has taken over the former location of Afghan Kabob House (which we think we were the only person to ever write about) at 2657 W. Devon, and plans to open the fully Halal Khan’s Pita Inn serving “Pakistani food, Arabic food and American fast food like Gyros,” as well as vegetarian options. The plan is to open within a few weeks, and Khan is apparently already running ads in the Pakistani-language newspaper.

Khan BBQ started as a small Pakistani grill spot in a former Mr. Submarine location east of Western and quickly attracted fans for its charcoal grilled meats and naan. That location burned in 2006, but Khan soon reopened in a much grander spot at the high profile corner of Devon and Western, a former “Bombay Chinese” restaurant (Indians, like Americans, have their own adapted version of Chinese food) with two large rooms, plasma screens and chandeliers. It has been a favorite of ethnic-foodies ever since, an LTHForum Great Neighborhood Restaurant, and praised by your Grub Street editor in Maxim (“the chicken boti… explodes in your mouth like a Bollywood dance number in psychedelic Technicolor”).

Though Chicago’s South Asian scene has less of the fast food roti places and the like catering to younger Indians and Pakistanis than some other cities, the end of the strip where Khan’s Pita Inn will open is home to at least a few such places and it isn’t surprising that a new restaurant going in there would be more oriented to simple grilled foods and a mix of food cultures.

Khan BBQ Owner To Open Khan’s Pita Inn on Devon