Today we’d like to introduce you to Danny Omari.
Hi Danny, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Happea’s, pronounced “Happy’s,” is a mix of being Happy & a Chickpea. We are 3 partners – myself and my two brothers in law. My family, originally from Israel, owned a successful restaurant in Soho NYC called Cafe Bari since I was 13 years old. I started managing that restaurant early on, and it lived until I was 34 years old, so I pretty much grew up in the business. I went on to open a number of F&B businesses, including restaurants, coffee shops, fast food concepts, night clubs; I co-founded a company called Baked by Melissa, as well as Kith Treats. I moved to Miami towards the end of 2016, where I went looking after my soulmate whom I met back in NYC in 2006. Her and her siblings came into my life through a childhood friend. They were Venezuelans visiting NYC yearly during spring break time. Ever since we met, we would spend spring breaks together in NYC, and then they’d go back home. By 2016 they had moved to Miami due to the living situation in Venezuela. At that time an Israeli hummus company with 70+ locations in Israel approached me with the idea that I would expand their business in the states. The concept was Hummus made fresh on the spot. At that time my two brothers-in-law, Eduardo & Carlos, looked to move away from their then-construction development business as the market was dried out here in Florida. I offered them to roll out this hummus business along with me since we all had different backgrounds. Eduardo is a Civil Engineer by trade, and Carlos is a wizard in Finance & Computer Science; with me having more of vision to create, it seemed like a proper team. They jumped on board; we purchased a built-out restaurant lease in Hollywood Florida and were ready to open up our first hummus place associated with the Israeli company. Within a couple of months into our renovation, we found ourselves in the middle of an internal breakdown amongst the owners of that company, so we decided to part ways. Having a lease in our hands and a restaurant pretty much almost done with cosmetic construction we thought let’s take what we learned of making an incredible hummus made fresh on the spot but Americanize it. We created Happea’s. It was a Chipotle-style business model where you would walk the line and choose your base, toppings, and sauce. Everything was plant-based, other than a hardboiled egg, which we then decided to eliminate as that was the only item keeping the place from being vegan. 11 months into it, the pandemic hit. We shut down and like everyone else we were thinking what will be our next steps. After being locked up for a couple of months we decided to tour Downtown Miami and Brickell in order to get a sense of the energy. Brickell seemed to be somewhat alive, and we found a beautiful built-out restaurant in Mary Brickell Village. The landlord was willing to give us a sweetheart deal, 10% of sales for a year, we prove ourselves and they’ll extend for a 10-year lease. The restaurant was fully equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, way more than we needed. Having that in our hands we understood that the Create Your Own bowl concept we had can only be a part of our menu, and we went ahead and evolved the menu to that of a full restaurant: breakfast items, wraps, smoothies, coffee and fusion bowls (the CYO bowls from previous location). Except we also added all animal protein substitutes and kept the restaurant plant-based. I myself have not eaten any animal or animal-derived foods for about a year, and during the pandemic, prior to this new location, I would experiment all types of mainstream dishes for my wife and I at home, all plant-based, as cooking is a passion of mine. Once we were working on the space, I implemented all my learnings into the new menu. Happea’s was a hit; once a customer came in, they became a regular, coming in 3-4 times a week. My partner Eduardo, a systems genius who steers the operations, amongst many other things, created the most efficient systems, Carlos kept the customer experience techie, and Melanie (my wife, their sister) has a distinctive creative eye and a creative touch that makes it impossible for me to turn to anyone other than her. She created the cosmetic & interior design of the restaurant, menus, digital menus, website, all photos, videos, all copywriting, logo (the list goes on and on…), and together we all kept on pushing the business forward. As we were nearing the 12-month period of the pop-up lease, as we reached out for extension the landlord had other plans. Told us we had two week to pack up and leave as they already signed a lease with a different tenant. We never understood the reasoning behind it all, but one thing I’ve learned along the years is your path is drawn forward; all you have to do is keep on walking. And so that’s what we did. We found a prime location in the heart of Brickell, of a restaurant that had just been served with an eviction notice. Long story short, it was the same landlord we had back in the Hollywood store, and we had parted ways respectfully, and they seemed to have valued that by giving us an opportunity when they had other deals lined up on their table. We signed a 10-year lease and went back into construction. Between leaving MBV and opening up the new location, it took almost 8 months. In the meantime, we opened up a ghost kitchen out of our commissary in the Aventura area, and day in, day out we worked on bettering our concept, from menu items to design to efficiency, compostable materials, and really prepared ourselves for the Brickell opening of Happea’s which took place July 25th, 2022. Our first-ever employee Liliam, who started out in the dishwashing position in our Hollywood location is now head of operations in our commissary and ghost kitchen. She stuck with us the entire journey, along with a few other team players from our MBV location. Our DNA is constructed of values that are simple yet solid. Everyone who is part of our Happea’s team is considered family and that transfers over to our customers. Our customers feel at home. “Happea’s makes me happy” is what they say. Our reviews are 5 stars across all platforms. It’s been a challenge, but we managed to start something very special, and our dreams are full of colors with a broad yellow brick road.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Great companies are built on challenges. We learn from the bumps on the road. The key struggles for Happea’s were:
– creating a concept when we parted ways from the Israeli hummus co
– the pandemic
– closing our first location and then opening and operating another
– reinventing ourselves over and over
– educating the Miami customer on plant-based foods
– getting kicked out of our Mary Brickell location and having to start over again
– opening new location during the low season
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Happea’s exists so that people who are or are not plant-based can have access to delicious plant-based meals without feeling like they are sacrificing any flavors or textures they are accustomed to with their normal diets. When you eat at Happea’s over eating at any other restaurant you naturally do good to yourself and to our planet, as all our foods are plant-based, and all of our containers/silverware are made from plants/compostable.
Contact Info:
- Website: Happeas.com
- Instagram: @happeas
- Facebook: @happeas
- Other: TikTok: @happeasvegan
