I was born into a family of skilled hummus craftsmen. My bloodline extends all the way to Alexander, when he invaded Persia and introduced the chickpea to Esfahan.Just kidding…
In late 2017, I was a 26-year-old finance geek in downtown San Francisco. Fed up with corporate life, I wanted, for the first time in my life, to create something instead of mindlessly consuming. So I Googled “How to start a food business in SF.”
Armed with a few of my own hummus recipes, a desire to spread joy through food, and the belief that taste and quality of ingredients always come first, I quit my job, found a shared commercial kitchen and got to work.
Today, Obour is the Bay Area's go-to for hummus, tahini, toum and pita chips, with recipes from the kitchens of Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Ethiopia, India, Korea and Mexico. You'll find us at 25 weekly farmers markets across the Bay Area and Los Angeles, on grocery shelves, in our fridges at breweries and taprooms, and at our flagship shop in the San Francisco Ferry Building.
Our 52-person team makes everything fresh each week, in small batches, in our own kitchen in the sunny Bayview District of San Francisco. Never outsourced. And we're obsessed with quality.
(Like, truly obsessed.)
Here’s what that looks like in every jar:
- Organic chickpeas, never canned, soaked overnight
- Organic lemon juice, fresh-squeezed, never bottled
- Organic extra-virgin olive oil, cold-pressed
- Tahini ground fresh in-house every week
- No preservatives. Ever.
We use reusable glass jars, and our jar return program cuts our packaging footprint by nearly half.
All of this adds up to what many people tell us is the best hummus they've ever had. We're inclined to agree. I hope you do, too.
Every flavor gets its own sun. Find yours:
The Lion & the Sun
Our logo comes from the Shir-o-Khorshid (شیر و خورشید), the Lion and the Sun, one of the oldest emblems of Iran. It has been woven into Persian art and heraldry since the 12th century, and it flew on the Iranian flag until 1979 (not a great year for flags, or for much else). People have read many meanings into it over the centuries. Right now, we'd just like you to associate it with the best dips you've ever had.
The flavors say something too: Zhoug, Berbere, Awaze, Gochujang toum, Hot Curry. Obour isn’t a “Mediterranean dips” company. It’s foods from different places meeting in one jar.
A crossing, which fits.
Obour (Persian: عبور) noun
1. a crossing; the act of passing over or through, from one side to the other.
2. a passage; the way across, as over a river, a border or a street.
Say it “oh-BOOR,” rhyming with tour.
For you, it’s the way over to much better hummus. For me, Elliot, starting Obour was a crossing of my own, both personal and spiritual.
Every step, done by us.
Plenty of food brands hand their recipe to a contract factory and let distributors and stores take it from there. We kept every step in our own hands, from the sesame seed to the jar you bring back.
Our recipes
Every flavor is our own, tested first in Elliot's home kitchen before we decide to sell it. Hot Curry was the very first, in 2017.
Our tahini
We buy toasted organic sesame seeds by the pallet and grind them into tahini ourselves. Most brands buy theirs in 40-pound plastic buckets that have been sitting in a shipping container somewhere for six months to a year.
Our kitchen
Our own team makes every dip and bakes every pita chip in San Francisco's sunny Bayview District. It's not a hummus factory. It's a real commercial kitchen, cooking in small batches.
Our trucks
We deliver it ourselves within 48 hours of making it, kept cold from our kitchen to every store and fridge, from Reno to Los Angeles.
Our stands
Our own people sell it at 25 weekly farmers markets and our Ferry Building shop, and restock the 71 Hummus Fridges we put in breweries and bars.
Back to us
Bring the jar back to any of our market stands and get $1 off, with no limit. We wash, sanitize and refill it in the same kitchen. That's our jar return program.
Why it matters: with no middleman in between, our dips never need preservatives to survive a long trip, so we make them fresh every week. And because it's us behind the stand, what you tell us goes straight back to the kitchen.
Obour starts in a shared San Francisco kitchen. Hot Curry, with 14 spices, is the very first flavor.
Our first farmers market stand.
Our first shop opens inside the San Francisco Ferry Building.
Hummus Fridges now stock fresh dips and chips in breweries and bars from Santa Cruz to Reno.
Our own kitchen in the Bayview, 25 weekly markets and over 90 wholesale accounts.