July 19, 2025 — A new flavor has arrived in Old Town Clovis, and it’s one that’s been simmering in family kitchens for generations.
Tete’s Kitchen, a Mediterranean restaurant located at the corner of Pollasky Avenue and 4th Street, held its ribbon cutting Friday as part of its official grand opening. The business is family-owned and operated, and built on recipes passed down from Grandma Leila, or “Tete,” the Arabic word for grandmother.
“It’s our first location,” said Annabelle Gharibeh, part-owner and general manager. “It’s recipes from my mother. Tata means grandma in Arabic, and so we took her recipes — she always cooks for everybody — so we took her recipes and decided to open up. This location came up here in downtown Clovis, and we decided as siblings to take her recipes and make them ourselves and serve the community.”
Before opening the restaurant, the family ran a gas station and liquor store in Clovis and worked in bread distribution. The idea to open Tete’s Kitchen started at home.
“We had a barbecue or something and somebody came over and they’re like, ‘Oh, you guys should sell this.’ Just after a year or so, we decided to do it.”
Gharibeh said they didn’t plan specifically for Old Town, the opportunity came to them. “It fell on our laps. I live in L.A. half the time and I come up here to help run the business. So our whole family’s here, we have generations here, so we decided to do it here.”
Tete’s Kitchen brings something new to downtown Clovis — a dining option that fills a cultural and culinary gap. “There’s no Mediterranean around here,” she said. “I think the farthest one or the closest one I should say is 3 miles away, 4 miles away from downtown. There’s nothing. You have Mexican food, Italian food, and American food, and we decided to bring Mediterranean food here.”
The menu includes beef, lamb, shrimp, and chicken kabobs, as well as homemade salads and pita wraps. Gharibeh said her favorite thing to make is the salads. “Yeah, I make the fatoosh salad, the tabbouleh salad. I like making the salads.”
For newcomers to the menu, she offered a couple of recommendations: “The burgers are good. It’s a spiced ground beef in a pita bread… Our customers actually all like the fatoosh salad with some protein on it. It’s very filling. It has romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, radishes with some pita chips, homemade pita chips, with our special dressing, and we add chicken to it. It’s a really filling meal.”
Another popular option is the Texas Burger. “It’s ground beef in a pita with our fries and our secret sauce.” When asked what’s in the sauce, Gharibeh smiled and said, “It’s a secret. I can’t tell you.”
Asked what she looks forward to most now that the restaurant is officially open in the heart of downtown, Gharibeh didn’t hesitate. “Meeting everyone. There’s so many nice people out here. I met the mayor of Pulaski, his name is Melvin. There’s just so many different kinds of people. I met somebody from Miami at the farmers market on Friday. We weren’t even open, they came in and had a great time with them. So just meeting different people.”
Nearly everyone behind the counter at Tete’s Kitchen is family.
“It’s good because I could tell them what to do,” she laughed. “But I have my nieces, I should say my nephews, my sisters, everybody here that’s related to me works here so far. You want their names? You got Mia, Lauren, Jordan, my sister Stephanie and Helen. The one of the chefs or the prepper is the only one that’s not related. Yeah, but they’re all, all the nephews, all the cousins, they’re all working.”
For the Gharibeh family, opening Tete’s Kitchen isn’t just a business venture. It’s a tribute to their mother’s cooking, and a way to keep her legacy alive through every plate they serve.