Za’atar and Olive Oil: Fishtown Native Serves Flavors from His Childhood at The Olive Branch Pizzeria
By Ben Bennett
November 27, 2025
As a kid, when Isharif Ahmad told people where he was from, they could not even place Palestine on a map. A lot of people thought he was Pakistani.
Today, their reaction is the complete opposite.
“They say ‘Free Palestine.’ That’s the first response you get,” Ahmad told Al-Bustan. “It’s a natural response.”
Ahmad is the owner of The Olive Branch Pizzeria, a family-run eatery in Fishtown. He said that Philadelphians have been tremendously supportive of both his restaurant and his homeland.
Isharif Ahmad, 27, opened The Olive Branch Pizzeria in November 2024, a block from where he grew up in Fishtown. Photos by Ben Bennett
Born in Philadelphia, the 27-year-old was raised just up the block from where the pizzeria stands today. His home, however, is in the West Bank. Although he didn’t visit Palestine until July 2021, he has always had a deep connection to his homeland. When he arrived in the West Bank the first time, it gave him goosebumps and made him feel like a child all over again.
“The sounds you hear in the morning, the smells from the open market, even the yelling of people selling stuff, it just makes you feel at home,” Ahmad said. “You resonate with it because of where your parents come from and how they raised you.”
Two years later, Ahmad visited the West Bank again. He planned to explore the country from top to bottom, exploring his roots and heritage to find out where he came from. The trip concluded on September 30, exactly one week before October 7, 2023.
“My heart dropped because now you know you’re never going to go back home, and it’s never going to be what you went to before,” Ahmad said, describing the past two years as “heartbreaking.” With relatives in Gaza, the genocide has been a constant, inescapable cloud over him and his family. Abdullah, a worker in the pizzeria, lost an uncle in Gaza.
“Getting that news, it’s so close to home,” Ahmad said. “There’s no way to avoid it at that point. Even if you’re not looking at the phone, it’s a direct change in your life when you lose somebody in the war.”
Until recently, anytime he went to his parents’ home, the news was always on, everyone wondering if a ceasefire would be reached. When the ceasefire deal was finally announced in early October, Ahmad and his family were “ecstatic.”
“We were really relieved to see that it was an actual ceasefire, not like the prior time,” Ahmad said. “It definitely helps us in the sense of not having to worry about people back home being killed or some [other tragedy] happening.”
As debate swirls around rebuilding Gaza, many are simply hoping for a permanent end to the violence. This dream is reflected in Ahmad’s name for his restaurant. But that is not the only reason he chose Olive Branch. In the West Bank, Ahmad’s family owns fields of olive trees. Every year they harvest the plants and make fresh olive oil, shipping it to the U.S.
“It’s just a Palestinian’s addiction,” Ahmad said. “You just know [when] you go to your parents’ house, you’ll have a couple big jugs of homemade olive oil.”
Visitors to the pizzeria occasionally bring small gifts — a bracelet someone made in an arts and crafts class, a painting related to the people in Gaza,
The name was the perfect combination of everything he believed in: his people’s desire for peace and his memories of dipping bread in olive oil and za’atar for breakfast while growing up.
When he first opened the restaurant, the toughest challenge was more mental than physical, Ahmad said. It was hard to decide how much of his culture to put into the pizzeria.
“We didn’t know how much people would love the za’atar pizza [or] …the za’atar knots. …How much they understand the difference in taste between Palestinian, homemade olive oil and the regular day–to–day olive oil you buy in a store.”
Olive Branch Pizzeria opened in November 2024, and according to Ahmad, the community in North Philadelphia has “really opened their arms to us.”
As people come into the shop, they occasionally bring small gifts — a bracelet someone made in an arts and crafts class, a painting related to the people in Gaza. Ahmad said that the support he has received from non-Palestinians has made the city almost feel like back home.
“You get a touch of empathy from them, and it makes you feel like people do see the struggle we’re going through,” Ahmad said. “People are aware of what’s happening, and the lives lost aren’t for nothing.”
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Ben Bennett is a Chinese-American visual journalist based in Philadelphia and an Al-Bustan Media Fellow. He is a recent graduate of American University's journalism program, where his coverage focused on underserved communities and the intersection of politics and popular culture.
Al-Bustan News is made possible by a grant from Independence Public Media Foundation.