Chicken nimbus wrap, anyone? How about some wings of fire or a shrieking steak wrap?
These are just a few of the cleverly-named dishes available at one of Georgetown's newest restaurants, Shawarma Alley.
Hifza Humayun and husband Zishan Ashraf opened their Harry Potter-themed Middle Eastern restaurant in early November at 232A Guelph St. The usuals like shawarma and falafel are all there.
In addition to the names that derive from Harry Potter puns, what really makes the menu unique is the pizzas. Hawaiian-Homora, ultimate kedavra and pepperoni patronus will surely put a spell on those who stop by. And the king of their pies is the shawarma pizza.
“I think it's a big seller. And the way we make it, no one else makes it,” Ashraf told HaltonHillsToday.
Patrons have a choice between tomato and garlic sauce with cheese. They can also choose which shawarma meat they want to top it off.
“The dough is made in-house, the chicken is marinated every day, the beef is done every day,” Ashraf said. “When a chef walks in, he can tell right away that I am using high-quality chicken.”
Some things hungry Harry Potter fans can find in the establishment include a sorting hat, wands, flags of all the houses, a wall wrap with images from the books and branding done in the Harry Potter font. The name Shawarma Alley alludes to Diagon Alley, the shopping district where Potter goes to buy his wand from Ollivanders.
Humayun is the Potterhead of the two. She fell in love with the series on a grade school theatre field trip. She used to work in the banking industry, but when her husband asked her to help with the business, she made a deal with him.
“When it came to designing, he's not good at that. So I told him I am going to do everything, whatever I want to do. You just have to say yes,” she explained. “I was like, ‘I'm quitting my job, so you got to listen and I'm going to do this (Harry Potter theme).’”
Ashraf was born in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. There, in the region where shawarma originated, Ashraf learned about the popular dish. His family moved to Canada in 2005 when he was 17. He introduced his wife to her first shawarma not long after they met.
“I was just like, ‘Oh wow, this exists?’” recalled Humayun, who was born in Pakistan.
In case you were wondering, Humayun has taken the Harry Potter quiz multiple times and her house changes each time. Her latest test says she is a Gryffindor and jokes that her husband is a Slytherin.
