Restaurant news: Pita Thyme opens in Sumter, specializes in Mediterranean food

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There's a new restaurant open on Broad Street in Sumter.

Pita Thyme, specializing in Mediterranean food, has taken the place of the now-closed Pita Pit.

"This is our third day open," Greek-Lebanese owner Danny Oueini said on Friday. "We have some work to do to get it where we need it to be."

Oueini and his wife, Melina, commute from Lancaster to operate the store. The two have four children together: Effie, 22; Sophia, 12; Zoe, nine; and Sammy, eight. The family belongs to a Greek Orthodox Church in Columbia.

"I wanted to open up a pita store, and I've been nagging my wife for three years about it," Oueini said. "I worked for Procter & Gamble, but they were sold to China and Georgia, so I had a choice to move to either China or Georgia, and I decided I didn't want to move to either."

A real estate broker convinced Oueini to check out Sumter as a possible location for the restaurant.

"We thought Sumter was a little bit far away, but one Sunday we went down to look (and liked it)," Oueini said.

Oueini has family in Sumter on his wife's side: Jimmy and Georgia Dimitriadis, who own Georgio's II Famous Pizza on Pinewood Road.

Pita Thyme offers a variety of choices on its menu, including tahini sauce, tzatziki sauce and a secret-recipe house dressing.

"It's really tasty," Oueini said of the dressing.

Oueini wants to leave Sumterites with a good impression after visiting his restaurant.

"We want to be clean, consistent and all those good things," he said.