Self-Financing Is His Middle Name

Serial restaurant entrepreneur Danny Omari, who ran Café Bari for twenty years in SoHo in New York City until 2014 with his father, and then co-founded Baked by Melissa with Melissa Ben-Ishay, also in New York City, which has grown to 14 outlets and concentrated on healthy desserts, has introduced a new plant-based restaurant concept, Happea’s.

But this time he’s in the Miami area, not New York. Omari’s latest venture, launched in 2020, is opening two Happea’s in Brickell, a neighborhood in Miami and a ghost kitchen in Aventura, just outside of it, which are plant-based eateries.

Why plant-based? Omari was preparing plant-based meals at home for him and his wife and liked the positive effects it had on him. “Your mind is sharper, you sleep better, you feel better, and the ingredients are better,” he exuded. He is 41-years-old, born in Israel and raised on Long Island.

The original Happea’s in Brickell offers fast-casual dining and derives about 35% of its business from off premises delivery. The second Happea’s is a ghost kitchen, where it’s strictly pick-up and delivery.

A serial entrepreneur has opened Happea’s, two plant-based restaurants in the Miami area, and hopes the trend continues so he can expand to New York and Los Angeles.

To Omari, plant-based eating is the future. “When you go into Whole Foods, the dairy section is being taken over by more plant-based items,” he noted, proving that the awareness of it is ascending.

Unlike most entrepreneurs that rely on angel investors and private equity money, Omari, and partner Ben-Ishay at Baked By Melissa, depended mostly on self-financing. That offered them more control.

Since its first Baked by Melissa opened in a window of Café Bari, which his family owned, with preparation at its downstairs kitchen, it didn’t need to pay rent at the outset. He added that there were five partners at the beginning, each with particular skills, and that was their “secret sauce.”

“We rolled the profits back into the company and opened a second store. Then when two stores were profitable, we rolled the profits back in and then we had three stores, and so on,” he said. He concludes that he and his partners were fortunate that the “business boomed and we were able to sustain our own growth, from the first Soho window to 14 stores.”

At Happea’s, Omari turned into the recipe developer. He created its menu, which specializes in dishes such as broccoli burgers, shredded beef, which is really jackfruit, and a buffalo “chicken” wrap, which is really soybean. It also offers smoothies, salads, fresh pressed juice, hummus and “bacon,” which consists of radishes.

Its target audience, he said, are people of all ages who are “looking for a healthy meal but want to keep it craveable.”

He sees a line that connects his new eatery to one of his first concepts. “Baked By Melissa offers a line of vegan products and Happea’s serves oat-based ice cream so both places can take care of your sustainable sweet tooth,” he noted.

To please its customers, Happea’s offer burgers, but not of the meat variety. Its burgers come in two variations: one a blend of the Impossible burger, and the other consisting of kale, navy bean, and broccoli blended into a patty.

Yelp feedback from its guests was mostly positive. India from Miami wrote that she tried something different every time she dined at Happea’s, and “the bowls are amazing, the wraps are phenomenal, and the sakes are great after a workout. Everything is fresh and tastes healthy.”

Ashley, also from Miami, added “this is a very casual spot. Good for lunch and meeting friends, with lots of seating inside.”

Next up, Omari is looking to open a third Happea’s in the Wynwood section of Miami, which he compares to SoHo in New York City in the early 1990’s. And then he’d love to open one in New York City and then Los Angeles.

As long as “the economy continues to grow, and consumers continue to be educated about plant-based food,” he said, that growth should continue.