Stumble upon Turkish eats near UNCC

Tom Hanchett

You might not look twice at Wrapway, located in a generic shopping plaza on Highway 49 just past UNC Charlotte near I485. If you ventured inside, you’d find a menu of Mediterranean wraps, rice bowls and salads. And lahmajoun.

Lahmajoun? That’s from Turkey!

Lahmajoun is a Turkish cousin of pizza. An ultra-thin flatbread called lavash — made daily in-house — is covered with ground beef in a blend of fifteen ingredients, notably urfa pepper flakes found only in Turkey.

At Wrapway you can get lahmajoun rolled up as an American style wrap. But you should order it the Turkish traditional way. That’s open flat, with marinated sweet peppers, onions, lettuce, and miniature pickles on the side, the bread crisp and puffy from the hot oven.

Wrapway’s co-owners both hail from Turkey. Baha Sahin came to the U.S. with an information technology start-up, but he always loved cooking. In Charlotte he met Elton Veziroglu, a fellow techie with a restaurant dream.

“The fastest growing segments of the American restaurant market? Fast-casual eateries and Mediterranean food,” enthuses Veziroglu. Wrapway combines the two, perhaps the first store in a future chain.

Along with lahmajoun, Wrapway features another Turkish item. Most Middle Eastern cultures have a kabob made of grain, ground meat and spices. In Turkey it is called çiğ köfte and has a popular variation that omits the meat. It’s usually served cold, wrapped in a lettuce leaf.

Wrapway calls theirs a “grainburger.” It’s a blend of cracked wheat, avocado oil, ground walnuts and gentle spices that comes sprinkled with hemp seeds and drizzled in pomegranate molasses — totally vegan. You won’t miss the meat.

Wrapway’s vegetarian offerings also include a “Greek Village salad” — another nod to Turkish tradition. Sahin is from Çanakkale on the Aegean Sea. Today part of Turkey, it was the legendary Greek city of Troy in ancient times. Says Sahin proudly, “The Trojan War happened on my hometown beach.”

Wrapway
Monday – Sunday  11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
10221 University City Boulevard (NC 49)
Charlotte, NC  28213
(844) 972 – 7929
Wrapway.us