We were lucky to catch up with Omar Abou-Ismail recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Omar, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I was working as a geophysicist in Kaho’olawe Island Reserve , Hawaii, 2003/4 It was my first job after graduating from the University of Utah, 2002. I realized that I did not want this Career, although studied very hard for my bachelors degree, and mainly to impress my parents. My new found passion was health. I wanted to shift careers and become a naturopathic doctor. Unfortunately i could not, due to family circumstances, my dad was ill and after the project i was working on in Kaho’olowe ended May 2004, i went back to Utah to take help take care of him, my mom had a full time job as a chef at a Lebanese restaurant called Mazza, and my brother was young and getting into trouble. As i was taking care of my dad, i got a serving job at the restaurant my mom worked in. At home, i was so passionate about raw foods, and making delicious meals using raw foods. I was sprouting, dehydrating different foods creating different textures and flavors, and creating amazing foods. My mother was inspired by me and started to adopt my lifestyle of only eating raw foods. She healed her body from a lot of aches due to aging and stressful career, and we just collaborated and continued to create great food together. My dad passed away in Dec 2004. After his passing i was so committed to making a difference in the world, and creating a restaurant that was all healthy eatery. I also wanted to support organic agriculture, and create awareness to farm to table concepts. I had very little money, yet, i was eager to go out there and spread my knowledge and passion. I was teaching classed at wild oats, now whole foods, and had quite the following. In January 2005, i found a space at the back of a vitamin store called Herbs for Health, and rented it from the tenant, and built my very own Raw food Bar. It was very tiny, and started business in July 4th, 2005. There was nothing like it back then and now!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Omar Abou-Ismail. I was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1979 under war. My parents were living in Ghana at the time, but there was turmoil there as well, and so my dad sent my mom to Lebanon, to stay in the town he was from, and get to have his family help. Shortly after i was born, my mom went back to Ghana, and after a few years moved to Nigeria, and lived there until 1991, and then moved to lebanon to continue our education and get to know our language and culture; as we are from a tribe in the mountains of Lebanon called Druze. We always went back in the summers to spend it in Nigeria, since my dad lived there. In 1996 i convinced my father to send us to America and live with my Grandma in Utah and continue education and so he liked the idea and sent my mom, brother, sister and me to Utah, 1996. Very complicated! Studied Geophysics cause i was lost at that point and did not know what to study, i attended my senior year of high school in Utah, and my physics ap teacher was a retired geophysicist and i enjoyed his teaching and his stories of working in that field. Graduated in 2002 with a bachelor degree of science in Geophysics… and i think my story continues after that in the previous page i filled out…

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Well, it’s challenging to start a restaurant that is healthy and very different than what’s out there! Everyone was against me, and everyone thought i was extreme. I never ate out, and all my food was organic, a lot locally sourced during the growing season, i ate no processed food and i did not cook anything. I was on a Raw Food Diet, or Live food diet that was completely plant based. It was different than vegan or vegetarian because no cooking involved, but pretty vegan with the exception of Honey. I was an educator, so i would always talk about the importance of cleansing from all the bad food, processed foods, bad oils, candy, heavy metals, and other toxins we eat during our lifetime. I felt like the planet needed more consciousness, and we needed to support things that promote health internally and externally in our environment. Again a lot of people eat junk food, watch a lot of tv, play video games, and overall a gluttonous society, that looks at me like i’m weird because i’m telling them not to drink diet coke due to all the chemicals in it etc It’s a lot, and yet i kept going, creating great healthy clean food for all that seek healthy food! I was in sugar house, and it was a very happening place with a lot of diversity and people were enjoying what i had to offer. However with all the construction that went on we were forced to move in 2007, across the parking lot, and this time only my restaurant survived as herbs for health shut down. And my restaurant was called Omar’s Rawtopia, but everyone called it Omar’s. It was a struggle with the high cost of organic food, and parking situation was brutal, and there was so many road closures due to so much construction. I spent years looking to move from sugar house but no one would take my Restaurant serious, even if it was successful and i had a lot of media coverage, they still turned me down until finally i found my current space, and called it Rawtopia Living Cuisine and beyond
The building i was in in Sugar House was under construction so i was forced to move in Feb 14, 2017. I found my new location just 3 months before, and it took a few months to build and moved in Aug 17, 2017. What a journey? I expanded my menu, introduced cooked foods, wild meat, and a lot of raw food, coffee and alcohol. I had to expand my vision of health and instead of health, i was more interested in sustainability and building community so that everyone could enjoy despite there different diets… I felt more aligned by sustainability and wanted to continue my mission of health and overall wellness. It was a nightmare, as most of the vegans boycotted me because i was using animal protein, and i had to start from scratch with the few customers that loved my concept. Then Covid hit, lol, and i pushed through, i had to open 7 days a week, and work all day, everyday with the few employees i had left. Word of mouth, door dash, uber eats, grubhub, and loyal customers kept me going… And here we are now.. Still pushing through!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Well, when i moved to my new location, i had to expand my menu to survive. i also changed my diet from a raw food diet to a more sustainable diet, that is pretty much no processed foods, organ meats, bone broth, wild meat, and a lot of fruits and vegetables. So as i grew, and changed, my business grew and changed too, with me, and here we are.

Martha Steward came in in the Spring and loved my food, and invited me to go to new york and filmed with me some of my recipes at Rawtopia, hopefully when it airs in the fall it will help me be more on the maps and affirm my expertise and my passion…

I’m now hoping to create more online content and education, write and book and run away from the restaurant business lol no but who knows, i’m exhausted!

Contact Info:

• Website: rawtopia.com
• Instagram: @omarsrawtopia
• Facebook: Omarsrawtopia and Omar Abou-Ismail
• Linkedin: Omar Abou-Ismail
• Youtube: Omar Abou-Ismail
• Yelp: rawtopia