FAIRFIELD — What started out as a food truck for Nisan and Helenee Alva has turned into a bustling restaurant in downtown Fairfield.

The Alvas own Hungry Camel, which serves Middle Eastern cuisine on the north side of the former Orpheum Theatre on West Broadway Avenue. Both Nisan and Helenee are from Israel, and after his military service, Nisan worked at the No. 1 steakhouse in Israel, a place called Limousine in the town of Ramat Yishai.

The couple moved to Fairfield about five years ago, and Nisan put his cooking talents to use at Everybody’s Café. In October 2021, he decided to start his own venture, a food truck he called Hungry Camel, selling Middle Eastern food. The Alvas set up at the Fairfield Farmers Market, and served at other special events. Just a few months later, they discovered there was a retail space opening up in downtown Fairfield, in the back of the Orpheum Theatre, which has hosted a number of restaurants in the past decade. Nisan and Helenee jumped at the chance to move into a permanent location, and the restaurant has been busy ever since.

Hungry Camel is open for lunch three days per week, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Nisan said that, while three days might not sound like much, he’s in the kitchen seven days a week preparing food, because he makes everything from scratch.

Hungry Camel sells three main dishes: hummus, falafel and shawarma, which consists of meat cut into thin slices and roasted on a rotating spit. Nisan said he cooks all the meat fresh that morning, and usually sells out by the time the restaurant closes for the day.

“If I do have anything left, we either eat it or I take it to the family,” Nisan said. “Everything is fresh every day, and that’s why we can only be open three days a week.”

Nisan said he has dreams of expanding the restaurant someday, but for now his priority is taking care of the couple’s two young girls.

“I’m busy all the time, so I’m staying at this level right now, and once my girls are a little older, then we might look into a bigger space,” Nisan said. “I love the idea of a steakhouse. It won’t be an American-style steakhouse. It will be something different.”

Nisan said it’s a joy to run a restaurant in Fairfield because he gets to interact with people from different backgrounds and from all over the globe. Some of his customers grew up in the Middle East and are happy to find their favorite dishes in their new home. Other customers are trying falafel or shawarma for the first time in their life.

“Fairfield is unique because there are two different worlds living in the same place, and both worlds are coming here,” he said.

Nisan said he’s branching out into catering for special events, such as one for Cambridge Investment Research employees in June. He said he’s willing to take on more catering orders, if they’re done with a week’s notice.