Great food! The garlic chicken wrap is the bomb. No matter what you order, be sure to get lots of extra pickles and hot sauce.

If the scent of aromatic spices wafting from the front door of Mama’s Bakery and Lebanese Deli isn’t enough to activate your Pavlovian salivation response, then I fear that you may be nasally challenged. If you close your eyes, you can almost believe that you’ve been transported to a faraway market bazaar. Some of the menu items may sound a bit exotic, but Mama’s actually serves up delicious, pleasing comfort food. It just happens to be Lebanese. There’s nothing scary here, only good stuff. Nothing is too spicy or too weird. All of the menu items are fully described in English, so you can tell exactly what you are getting. It’s fun to visit Mama’s with a group of friends, so each person can order something different that everyone can share. Mama’s specializes in sandwiches and wraps made with traditional Lebanese style flatbread. The bread is made fresh on site and is cooked to order on a special oven called a sajj. The sajj looks like a hollow brick cylinder with an upside down wok on top of it. The flatbread is similar to pita, but it is slightly thicker and chewier and much tastier. There are lots of healthy and/or vegetarian items to choose from at Mama’s. My personal favorite is the “manakeesh ultimate” This wrap is cooked on the sajj, filled with lebni (Lebanese yogurt-cheese), tomatoes, mint, olives and a remarkable spread made from thyme, olive oil, sesame seeds and sumac. (Note: Edible Lebanese sumac “Rhus coriaria” is not to be confused with poison sumac “Rhus vernix”, a plant common to the U.S.) This wrap has incredibly intense flavors. I’ve eaten a lot of falafel over the years, but Mama’s has the best falafel of all. It is not deep fried, like most preparations; it’s cooked on the sajj. Other mouth-watering choices are the cheese pie, made with melty mozzarella and feta, spinach pie, creamy hummus, smoky baba ghanouj and savory fool mudamas (fava and garbanzo bean stew). They also make meat pies, lamb pies and kafta (ground beef with Lebanese seasonings) and shawarma (chicken or beef marinated with Lebanese herbs) plus makanek and soujouk (Lebanese and Armenian sausage) which the omnivores salivate over. Mama’s resides in a bright red building that was once a part of a house; the other section of the house likely serves as a residence for the owners. There’s an outside patio which is covered and partially enclosed. It’s very cozy and keeps out most of the street noise. But do I hear a bell ringing? No, it’s only my Pavlovian salivation response.