"Coming soon" signs for the popular Israeli eatery were recently put up at the former location of Fast Tony's Chicken, toward the back of the 855 El Camino Real shopping center.
Oren's Hummus is opening a fifth location in April at Palo Alto's Town & Country Village. Photo by Elena Kadvany.
According to a press release, this will be the first of several "express" versions of Oren's that will focus on quick, grab-and-go service. They plan to open more Oren's Hummus Express locations in downtown San Francisco and the East Bay by the end of the year and "anticipate carrying the brand out of the Bay Area with an expansion in 2020," the release states.
The 855-square-foot space at Town & Country will be open seven days a week with a counter where customers can order hot items made for pick up as well as to-go orders. The menu will feature Oren's "greatest hits with a few new items," the release states.
Namesake Oren Dobronsky, an Israeli-born technology entrepreneur, opened the first Oren's in downtown Palo Alto in 2011. With an eye toward expansion, Dobronsky and his wife Nancy partnered with restaurant consultant Mistie Cohen and her husband and Oren's executive chef, David. Together, the co-owners went on to open locations in Mountain View, Cupertino and last summer, San Francisco (the only location that serves breakfast to date). Oren's also has a presence at local farmers markets, is available at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara and operates a catering company.
Hummus topped with Moroccan-spiced ground beef at Oren's. Photo by Michelle Le.
Oren's creamy hummus, made with tahini and garbanzos from Israel, is served with a range of toppings, from the classic chickpeas to roasted cauliflower to pomegranate-braised lamb. Every Oren's location is decorated with signature, instructive photos of a child at each stage of ideal hummus consumption: ripping off a hunk of pita, scooping a dollop of hummus and eating with gusto.
Photo by Michelle Le.
In 2013, Cohen said that he imported an estimated 40,000 kilos of chickpeas a year — which he expected to double once the downtown Mountain View restaurant opened.
The restaurant's menu is full of other Israeli staples, from falafels, kebabs and shakshuka to baba ganoush and bourekas. Oren's also makes whole wheat and gluten-free pita.
Oren's Hummus Express will debut several new dishes including "Golden Falafel," which has more garlic than herbs in it, and shawarma-spiced chicken -- both available in hummus bowls, rice bowls, plates or as a pita sandwich. Food will be delivered daily from the company's new 8,500-square-foot commissary kitchen in San Jose, though hummus will be mixed in-store at least twice a day and all the vegetables and proteins prepared to order.
"We still do everything fresh, every day," David Cohen said in the press release. "Wherever we go, we will never sacrifice that."
The first Oren's Hummus Express will open in April.
