Hummus Place

My first year in NY was wasn’t easy. Before finding an apartment in Astoria, we subleased a tiny shared apt on Bleecker street in Greenwich Village. That’s how we discovered “Hummus Place”. New to NY, and very much naive, I was amazed that such place existed. The food was familiar and people smiled with a Israeli smile. It felt like a little piece of home. My husband was getting hummus, while I was eating grape leaves or the tabule salad and than we would sip spiced Turkish coffee or the simple mint tea, served like in Israel, with nothing but hot water and fresh mint.

A few weeks ago I was asked to interview Ori Apple, the owner of “Hummus Place”.
Aside from being excited about my first journalistic assignment, I had a hidden agenda. After tasting the couscous at the Rosh-a-Shana gathering, that was catered by “Hummus Place”, my family threatened to rebel if I continued to get store-bought couscous. My husband made me swear that I won’t end the conversation without getting the secret for a perfect hummus. Only a few weeks ago, Ilan had a meeting in the east village and inevitably stopped at “Hummus Place” to get a “to go” order of his favorite hummus. He practically inhaled half of it on the way to the subway.

I first asked Ori about his role at his restaurants kitchen. Like any hard core journalist, I conducted my research (which consisted of Googling) and discovered that Ori is a French Culinary Institute grad and later worked at a 4 star french restaurant, called “Lespinasse”. As a chef, he is naturally very involved. He instructs the cooks by himself and is constantly looking for creative ways to improve and introduce new dishes, recently adding roasted cauliflower and vegetarian meatballs, to the menu. I was very curious to learn about the sort of food Ori grew up on but he said that the food at kibbutz “Maoz Haim”, where he spent his childhood, was anything but exciting. That said, the curiosity was always there. After working at a stressful gourmet restaurant, handing various dishes with numerous ingredients, he decided to return to his origins. And he recognized a business opportunity. Though it may seem as if the city has always been saturated with Middle Eastern eateries, Ori was one of the first to open a restaurant that is dedicated entirely to hummus. At first, most of of the customers were Israeli, but now the restaurant draws anyone who craves hearty vegetarian food.
The transition from gourmet to “street food” seemed drastic to me. But Ori says that he makes no such distinction. Food is food and if you love what you do and do it well, it makes no difference if the food is fancy or basic, he says.
His favorite restaurant, by the way, is neither french nor Mediterranean. It’s Sushi. And when cooking for his family, he makes one mean BBQ.

And why vegetarian, I asked (I would have loved to taste a “Hummus Place” shawarma or home style meatballs). “I really wanted to open a place, just like in Israel, that serves good hummus, plus the costumers loved the idea of a vegetarian place”. He adds that “no meat” also makes life easier in terms of kashrut, since the restaurant offers various dairy desserts, like home made Kadaif and Malabi.

Ori’s “Hummus Place” is growing and expanding. The St.Marks location has a bakery, where they make fresh, whole wheat and regular pitas. The branch on MacDougal, the one that made us fall in love with Ori’s hummus, had recently closed as it was too small to handle the volume of costumers, but another one opened on Bleecker and 7th ave, instead.

Since 2004, Ori opened three more Manhattan locations and currently owns two restaurants in the Village and another two at the Upper West Side. I asked about a possible Brooklyn location and Ori chuckled. He has obviously been asked this question a lot and he confirmed that “it’s definitely on the table”.

“So, what is the secret to a good hummus?” I asked in conclusion, conveying that Ilan makes hummus every couple of weeks, changing his recipe time after time, but yet to make that perfect one. Ori explains that in contrary to a home made hummus, the one at the restaurant needs to be good all the time. He takes the time to find the right cooks and trains them to make great hummus. The chickpeas are bought from special suppliers and the Tahini is imported from Israel (I tried, but Ori wouldn’t disclose the brand). Getting the taste right, is a matter of trial and error. Make, taste, improve and try again.

To guaranty that the new couscous is airy and flavourful, Ori brought a cook directly from Tripoli to train the cooks in making it authentic (So much for recreating it at home).

Still, by the end of the call, Ori didn’t disclose the secret ingredients of his humus, but did confirm what I suspected was the key for preparing any great food. “You have to enjoy making food and do it with love”. Just like the famous saying goes חומוס עושים באהבה או לא עושים בכלל

Yup. It shows.