We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hatem Askar a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
HATEM, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Mission Statement:
At Middle Eats 808, our mission is to bring people together by sharing the vibrant flavors and stories of our Middle Eastern heritage with the beautiful communities of Hawaii. We’re passionate about offering a healthier, delicious alternative that blends the traditions of our culture with fresh, local ingredients, all at a price everyone can enjoy. Hawaii is home now, and we love creating connections with the local community—not just through our food, but through the stories and history we share in our cooking classes. At Middle Eats 808, it’s about feeding both body and soul, one plate at a time
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
What may be shocking to some is I have never worked in a restaurant in my life. From a young age I’ve always enjoyed cooking and being around food so it felt natural getting into the industry. I surprised myself and was able to turn a food tent operated solely by me to the first ghost kitchen in the state with 6 employees in just 2 years. Originally from Cairo (EG) I moved to Hawaii in 2019. Never being exposed to Asian cuisine, I struggled finding food that I could enjoy. When covid hit few months later, it turned out to be the perfect time for me to begin this business and something I was always passionate about, feeding people good healthy traditional food of my homeland. I started with my favorite dish ever, Falafel. It took a lot of trials to get my best version of it and after multiple versions, I hit a local farmers market right awa to share this amazing dish with the local people where 90% of my customers never had had it before. That was the best feeling. You could read it on their faces this was the recipe for success. It only took that first bite from each customer I knew I we had something special. I gained more confidence, and I started to introduce more dishes, like kebabs and Egyptian national dish “Koshary” and this was a hit. We made a ton of it every week at the farmers markets and always sold out. While it’s currently not on the menu, we still get phone calls asking if we will make it again, yes we will do very soon!
Our signature Shawarma brisket, is hand crafted and procured by myself, as the staple dish of middle eastern culture. where is it a combination of the of the heavenly shawarma seasoning and the mouthwatering flavor of the brisket, combining both worlds in a dish is just delicious.
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
I’m my transition from mobile to brick and mortar business model, I had to spent all of my previous profits plus 60K in loans on just buying kitchen equipment and setting up my new place, again, I had to start with nothing other than 2k worth of inventory from the past year, and one loyal worker Natalia, that she was believing so much in our business since she started with me 2 years before, and accepted to start the new journey with me without getting paid since I had no money at all at this time, we had a very rough start, the first week we only had 3 orders ! And was already starting to lose hope, but she is the one was always telling me not worry, and supported me.
This was a big motivation for me, that I had to figure it out. This when I started focusing more on our online presence and promoting our business, yet we had a big challenge that we didn’t have a store front and people were not used to this idea since we are the first, yet. I kept working to improve our food offerings to make sure that anyone who tires it, will be bragging about it to their friends and family until we build a solid regular customer base, and it happened very fast, way more faster than I was expecting. As of last week just signed a contract with the university of Hawaii to start serving food to their students for this fall. This is such an exciting time as we embark on this new journey.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
I worked as an Uber driver during peak the of covid, since most drivers were hesitant to drive people around during this time. I took the risk and was able to make around 30K in just 4 months including all the bonuses and incentives that rideshare companies were giving out to keep their business going. I paid off my 4K car, and flipped it for 6k after the car prices were sky rocketed during covid, and took this money to start my business, literally with nothing in my pocket.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.middleeats808.com
- Instagram: middleeats808
- Yelp: Middle eats
