Tahini’s adds Winnipeg to expansion menu

Omar Hamam was born in Windsor, Ont., and spent his formative years in Cairo, but Winnipeg has a special place in his heart.

The 44-year-old entrepreneur called the Prairie city home for five years while earning an economics degree at the University of Manitoba. In 2018, he started a Mediterranean restaurant in London, Ont., called Tahini’s. It’s since grown into a franchise with dozens of locations in Canada and one in the United States.

The company is opening numerous restaurants this year, but Hamam says he’s most looking forward to entering the Manitoba market. The first Tahini’s in the province will open in Winnipeg’s St. James neighbourhood next month.

“I hear the word Winnipeg and a smile automatically comes to my face,” he said by phone on Friday. “I’m more excited about opening there than any other province just because of my past history with (Manitoba).”

Situated at the northwest corner of Portage Avenue and Cavalier Drive in the Crestview Place shopping centre, the new Tahini’s location will feature the same menu the chain has become known for in other parts of the country. Shawarma wraps, rice bowls, fresh salads and fries are among the offerings.

The menu includes fusion items such as butter chicken shawarma, Jamaican jerk chicken shawarma and shawarma poutine. Customers can also order one of the chain’s latest creations, shawarma ramen.

The 1,400-square-foot restaurant will employ 15-20 people and includes seating for around 30 customers. Food will also be available for takeout. July 6 is the projected opening day, Hamam said.

Manish Patel, a businessman in Collingwood, Ont., is the franchisee. He already owns three Tahini’s restaurants in Ontario, and has connected with two local partners who will manage the Winnipeg location.

“I’m so excited,” said Patel, 51. “It’s good quality food, with a good taste.”

It will be a unique offering at the shopping centre, which also includes Pizza Hut, Wayback Burgers, Joey’s Seafood and Sushi Maru.

Across the parking lot is a well-known eatery adorned with golden arches. It’s fitting, perhaps, since Hamam was inspired to start Tahini’s after reading Grinding It Out by Ray Kroc, the businessman who was instrumental in turning McDonald’s into the successful global fast food corporation it is today.

“I just fell in love with the whole concept (of franchising),” Hamam said. “I started reading more and more about the concept, because there’s no How to Start a Franchise for Dummies book. I just had to learn from different people’s stories.”

After establishing three Tahini’s restaurants of his own, Hamam granted the first franchise in the first half of 2020 to a businessman in Whitby, Ont.

Around the same time, he started a company called Alex Food Service to supply Tahini’s locations in Southern Ontario, plus other restaurants specializing in Mediterranean cuisine and halal meat.

Today, Hamam serves as chief executive officer at Tahini’s. His younger brother and a cousin are partners in the business.

The chain has more than 70 locations across Canada and last year the company opened its first U.S. restaurant in Rockford, Ill. At least three more Tahini’s eateries are scheduled to open south of the border this year.

Hamam credits the company’s success to its unique menu and its strong social media presence. The chain’s YouTube page has around 3.2 million subscribers, and more than one million people follow its TikTok account.

Hamam describes the last eight years as “surreal.”

“Me and my partners and my whole team have been working very hard in making this dream become a reality,” he said. “It’s finally becoming true and it’s just an unbelievable emotion.”

Hwang Lee owns Sushi Maru in Crestview Place. He says he’s happy to have Tahini’s in the shopping centre.

“If more people are coming, they will see my restaurant also,” said Lee, who started his business 20 years ago.

Brenda Edge, who’s owned and operated the Joey’s Seafood location in the centre for more than 30 years, says she’s happy to have a variety of restaurants in the area — including Tahini’s.

“Are (they) taking business away from me? I don’t think so,” she said. “I’m gonna go try it out and see what it’s like.”

Meanwhile, Patel is already planning to open a second Tahini’s restaurant in Winnipeg in the next three or four months. It will be located in the shopping centre at 1122 Henderson Hwy., near McLeod Avenue, he said.

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca