Column: Ragadan is a Midwest diner crossed with a Jordanian falafel shop, and I can’t get enough

I’d love to be proven wrong, but I’m confident that Ragadan is Chicago’s only restaurant that purposefully combines the food of Jordan and Oklahoma. While the Middle Eastern country and the southern state might seem to have little in common, for owner Daniel Sweis, the two make perfect sense together. “I’m an Arabic dude who grew up in Oklahoma,” Sweis said. “The menu reflects me.”

This means you can swing by Ragadan and pick up a platter of hummus with falafel, while also scoring a double cheeseburger and a chocolate milkshake. All of it will be great.

According to Sweis, his parents first moved from Jordan to America in the 1970s, first to Chicago before deciding to head out to California. But they stopped briefly in Oklahoma City, because they heard there was an Arabic community. “There was and they stayed,” Sweis said. “That’s where I was born and raised.” His parents also opened a 24-hour diner, which served a few Jordanian dishes, along with pancakes and burgers.

Sweis spent years avoiding the diner life, instead working as a fine-dining chef around Chicago. That includes stints at Quartino and Tesori. “I had some awesome experiences, but it was always in the back of my mind to open my own place,” Sweis said. Now he lives within a short scooter ride of Ragadan, which he runs with the help of his family.

I became hooked after I tasted the falafel, which are unlike any version I’ve tried. They have an extra crunchy exterior that gives way to a soft and complexly spiced interior. “I missed the falafel I had in Jordan,” Sweis said. “You’d smell the spice before you were even eating it.”

In particular, he was trying to replicate the falafel he once tried at Al-Quds, one of the most famous falafel shops in Amman, Jordan. But after researching online, he knew his recipe was still missing something, so he turned to his mom. “My mom was trying to explain the name of the missing spice, but couldn’t say it in English,” Sweis said. Eventually, he figured out the recipe needed a tiny bit of caraway. “You wouldn’t think it would be there, because it’s such a strong spice,” Sweis said. “It overtakes things if you’re not careful. But it’s amazing if you use a small amount.”

While you can get falafel stuffed into soft pita bread, what you really want to order is the falafel ka’ak. This trades the pita for a toasted sesame seed loaf, called ka’ak, which is also how Al-Quds serves its falafel. “It was a pain to find that bread,” Sweis said. “But I found a bakery that is custom-making it for me. It’s not exactly the same, but it’s very close.”

Everything on this bread is worth ordering. On the “eggs all day” menu, you’ll spot a labneh egg salad sandwich, which features a tart and creamy yogurt sauce with sliced hard-boiled eggs with cucumbers, red chili and “lots o herbs.” I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed an egg salad sandwich this much, probably because it’s balanced by a lot of tart yogurt. “What can’t take a little more acidity?” Sweis said. “I grew up eating lemons like apples.”

Sweis excels in executing the small details, which you can see up close with the hummus platter. Each order comes with a bed of hummus, pita, green olives, a green chile sauce, celery and carrots, along with the topping of your choice (falafel, beef kafta, chicken breast or roasted eggplant and red pepper).

But I mostly couldn’t get over how the luxuriously smooth hummus made everything it touched better. When I asked Sweis about the hummus, he spent five minutes going into all the details, from the proper hydration level and type of olive oil to his aggressive blending method. “I feel like I’m going to break my food processor, because of the amount of time I let it run,” Sweis said. “But you have to keep blending it. If I break the machine, I break the machine.” He also sharpens the blades by hand to make sure they stay sharp.

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As for the Oklahoma side of the menu, you’ll find an excellent classic deluxe burger, a quarter-pound beef patty topped with lettuce, pickle, onion, homemade burger sauce and American cheese. But I can never pass up the “single Dan” burger, which is topped with extra sour shoor pickles and za’atar-spiced mayo, along with onions, mustard and a hefty squirt of ketchup. The milkshake flavors also split their time between America (vanilla, strawberry, chocolate) and the Middle East (baklava, pistachio, basbousa).

The space is small, with seating limited to a few tables and counter seating. But it’s charmingly decorated, with classic pictures of Chicago, along with nods to Oklahoma and Jordan. What’s even more impressive is that all three times I stopped by for lunch, Sweis was the only one working. While certainly not as quick as fast food, my order came out promptly and with an impressive level of precision.

You get the sense that Sweis simply loves being there. “Little things about the menu are memories for me,” Sweis said. “The fried egg sandwich is something my dad showed me. My mom would make labneh egg salad sandwiches.”

I like being there, too. Even though I don’t have any family connections to Jordan or Oklahoma, Ragadan’s thoughtful, yet unpretentious menu keeps luring me back.

Ragadan, 4409 N. Broadway, 773-654-1788, ragadan.com

nkindelsperger@chicagotribune.com

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