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Mehdi Zarhloul didn’t just chase opportunity. He built it into something lasting.
Long before Crazy Pita became a multi-location brand, before concepts like Salad Madness and Chicken Genius launched and before his company went national through crowdfunding, Zarhloul was just a 16-year-old kid from Morocco chasing a dream in America.
He still remembers the first time he saw the Statue of Liberty.
“When I came to the country and looked at the Statue of Liberty, I knew I was part of the American Dream,” he tells Restaurant Influencers host Shawn Walchef.
For Zarhloul, it was more than a landmark. It was a symbol of everything he believed was possible in America.
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Zarhloul arrived from Morocco as a teen, ready to work, willing to learn and determined to chase the dream that the statue stood for. His first stop? The restaurant industry, a world he knew nothing about.
“The only thing I knew about restaurants was you go and eat,” Zarhloul says.
He started at the bottom, washing dishes in a small spot in Washington, D.C. He wasn’t good at it. When they moved him to the kitchen, he hated that too. Bussing tables was worse. He broke more glasses than he served.
But instead of walking away, Zarhloul stuck around. Every failure taught him something. He learned how a restaurant runs by doing every job badly — until he started doing them right. Eventually, the owner noticed. Rather than let him go, the owner handed him responsibility. By 18, Zarhloul was managing the place. That first taste of leadership gave him a sense of purpose he had never felt before.
Hospitality became more than a paycheck. It became a passion. Zarhloul threw himself into the business, learning how to lead teams, manage operations and connect with customers. His drive took him all the way to Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, where he rose to food and beverage director. The job sent him around the world and immersed him in the highest levels of global hospitality. Along the way, mentors helped shape his philosophy, especially one who told him, “If you want the silver platter, you have to go get it.”
Zarhloul took that advice seriously. He decided that if opportunity wasn’t coming to him, he was going to chase it down.
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Venturing out on his own
In 2006, Zarhloul launched Crazy Pita, a fast-casual Mediterranean concept inspired by the flavors of his Moroccan heritage and the hospitality lessons he picked up along the way. It grew from a single Las Vegas shop into a four-location brand, with three restaurants around the Las Vegas Valley and one inside a Walmart. Along the way, Zarhloul set the stage for franchising and expanded into a growing consumer packaged goods line.
He also spun off two virtual concepts, Salad Madness and Chicken Genius, both designed to meet customers where they are. From a global pandemic to rising costs and shifting customer habits, Zarhloul learned to adapt without losing sight of what matters most: people.
For him, culture is everything. Whether in fine dining or a fast-casual pita shop, success comes down to the connection between team members and the guests they serve. Culture isn’t a buzzword. It is the difference between a customer who stops by once and one who keeps coming back.
Zarhloul also believes in celebrating success, even if you have to create the celebration yourself. That is exactly what he did with National Pita Day and National Crazy Pita Day, which he founded. Those holidays are reminders to him that business owners need to recognize their wins. As he puts it, if you don’t pat yourself on the shoulder and stop and take a moment, nobody is going to do it for you.
That mindset helped push Crazy Pita to a major milestone. Zarhloul expanded his company nationwide through a crowdfunding campaign. For him, it wasn’t just a business move. It brought him back to that first day in America, staring up at the Statue of Liberty and believing this country could deliver on its promise.
“The resources… are beyond my belief,” Zarhloul says. “You can use them if you know how to operate and if you know how to seize them.”
From a teenager learning the ropes to a business owner carving out his place in a competitive industry, Zarhloul’s story is about more than chasing the American Dream. It is about catching it and reminding the rest of us that sometimes, the only permission you need is your own.
Related: They Opened a Restaurant During the Pandemic — But Locals Showed Up, and Celebrities Followed. Now, It’s Thriving.
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