Food service
What Levantine items are trending on café menus?
Three Levantine items are showing up on café menus well outside dedicated Levantine restaurants right now: halva worked into pastries and desserts, za'atar moved into snacking formats like popcorn and focaccia, and tahini used in dessert applications rather than only savoury ones. Trade coverage has tracked all three as part of a broader interest in Middle Eastern flavours in bakery and café settings, rather than any one of them being a passing single-season fad.
None of these require a café to build a Levantine menu section from scratch — in each case, the trend is about a single ingredient finding new applications inside menus that already exist. For a café already running a bakery case, a coffee bar and a snack menu, all three trends are additions to existing categories rather than entirely new ones.
Halva is having a moment on pastry menus
Trade coverage — including a widely cited feature describing a 'halva renaissance' — has pointed to halva turning up in croissants, babka and dessert sauces well beyond the traditional sliced block. The appeal for a café is that it's an ingredient move rather than a new menu category: existing laminated pastry, quick bread or ice cream programs can absorb halva as an addition rather than requiring a dedicated station. See how a café can put halva on the menu for specific applications.
Za'atar leaves the flatbread for snacking formats
Za'atar fries, za'atar popcorn and za'atar-finished focaccia have moved the spice blend well past its original manakish application into general snack and bread-service formats that don't read as specifically Levantine to most guests. That crossover appeal is part of why it travels — a café can add a za'atar-dusted item to a fry basket or bread basket without needing to explain the ingredient the way a full mezze plate might require. See where restaurants are putting za'atar beyond manakish for the fuller list.
Tahini shows up in dessert, not just savoury, applications
Tahini has traditionally been a savoury kitchen ingredient — the base of hummus and tahini sauce — but trade press has tracked it moving into dessert applications like tahini caramel, tahini cookies and tahini-swirled baked goods. The nutty, slightly bitter flavour works as a counterpoint to sweetness the way brown butter or miso does in other dessert trends, which is part of why it's found a foothold outside its traditional savoury role. See what a kitchen can do with tahini beyond hummus for more on the crossover.
Why these particular ingredients are the ones crossing over
All three items share traits that make them easier for a mainstream café to adopt than a full regional menu would be. They're shelf-stable pantry ingredients rather than items needing daily fresh preparation, which lowers the operational bar for testing them. They also connect to flavours guests already recognize from other cuisines — sesame, through tahini and halva, overlaps with flavours already familiar from other Middle Eastern and Mediterranean menu items long established on North American menus, and pistachio, a common halva flavour, is already a familiar dessert note well outside Levantine cooking.
That familiarity lowers the risk of introducing them as a small addition rather than a headline item — a guest trying a halva pastry or a za'atar-dusted snack for the first time is doing so alongside things they already recognize on the same menu, not as a leap into an entirely unfamiliar cuisine.
Related questions
Are these trends specific to Levantine restaurants, or showing up more broadly?
More broadly — the coverage tracking these shifts has generally come from general bakery and café trade press, not Levantine-specific publications, which suggests the crossover is happening in mainstream menus, not just specialty ones.
How can a café start testing these ideas without overhauling the menu?
Start with one addition rather than a menu overhaul — a single halva pastry, a za'atar-finished snack item, or a tahini dessert sauce added to an existing dish is enough to gauge guest response before committing further.
Do these ingredients require special sourcing or equipment?
No — all three are shelf-stable pantry items that slot into existing bakery, dessert and snack prep without new equipment.
Should a café expect these trends to keep growing, or are they a short-term spike?
Trade coverage has framed them as part of a broader, sustained interest in Middle Eastern flavours in bakery and café settings rather than a single-season spike, though any specific menu item's popularity will still depend on how well it's executed and merchandised locally.