This story is part of our “Reasons to Love Houston” package, published in the Spring 2025 issue.

Southern hospitality truly shines in the city of Houston. Whether through teamwork cleanup after a natural disaster or support for a new local restaurant, you can always count on the hospitality community to be there for one another. Abbas Dhanani of Burger Bodega and Rafael Nasr of Craft Pita, for instance, uplift each other—and plenty of other chefs—through pop-up collaborations. The motive? They just want everyone to succeed.

How did you meet and begin working together?

Nasr: One of my very close Lebanese friends went to school with Abbas at UH. He used to talk about Abbas a lot and be like, “Hey, I have this buddy. You guys are very similar, you both like sports, you both like food, you guys need to meet.” Abbas just came in one day, and we hit it off right off the bat.

Dhanani: The first time I went to Craft Pita, I was a big fan, and like Raffi said, we hit it off. Then, when it was time for me to really start thinking about my concept, the first person I told was Raffi, because I knew Raffi would really offer that support that I need. He’s really been here since the beginning.

Although you offer different cuisines, both are fast-casual concepts. In other cities, this might be seen as cutthroat competition, but Houston is different. Why do you think it’s important to work together rather than against each other?

Dhanani: The sense of camaraderie in Houston that you have is unlike any other cities. I’ve had friends from other cities come to Houston and say, “Wow, we do not have this at all.” Everyone’s each other’s biggest cheerleader [here], and I think it kind of really speaks to Houston as a city.

Nasr: I think part of it is Houston’s size. There’s 11,000-plus restaurants in the city of Houston, and I don’t see a burger restaurant on Washington [Avenue] as my competition. I see it as an opportunity to maybe gain some customers that may not know about Craft Pita. I think especially for Abbas and I, being fast-casual restaurants, we’ve done a lot of collaborations with very renowned chefs in town, and I think it gives us an opportunity to maybe gain some business [we] may not have had before.

Dhanani: I think the cool part of [collaborations], is you may see your favorite chef in a light that you might not see otherwise. Like you won’t see Chef G of Street to Kitchen or Chef Mayank [Istwal] of Musaafer making a burger in their restaurants, but we give them that opportunity.

What are collaborations like between your two concepts?

Dhanani: Craft Pita is the first [official collaboration] we ever did. It laid the groundwork for it all. I knew that the first one I wanted to do was with Raffi, because of our history and him being there from the start. We’re always sharing different ideas, whether or not we have a collaboration on the books, so it just makes it that much more exciting. The first time we sat together we were like, “Alright, how do we put a pita and a cheeseburger together?” And it doesn’t feel like work at that point. It’s just two best friends messing around and trying to figure things out, and then it just happens to go on a menu.

Nasr: Abbas and I are always exchanging ideas and we’re sending each other ideas for each other’s concept. I think we appreciate it because you know, you have your own idea of what you should sell at the time, but it’s nice to have someone who understands what you like but also thinks differently than you.

What else do you think makes Houston’s culinary scene unique compared to other cities?

Dhanani: I think for me, Houston has so much that other cities don’t offer. You can literally eat from any continent, any country in the world, in Houston. I think that education part that Houston has to offer—I think that chefs and food people in general don’t take it for granted, and I think that also adds to the togetherness.

Nasr: I always say if you drive down Westheimer, you can get every cuisine in the world. I think [there is] the affordability aspect of it. People eat out a lot here. They know about different kinds of food, and I think that’s one of the things that makes Houston unique. As someone of two different cultures, my mom is from Peru and my dad is from Lebanon, but I’m as Texan as it gets, and Abbas is the foodie, sneakerhead, Pakistani guy—there are a lot of people like us, and that allows for people to want cool experiences like what we offer at these collabs.