Jamjar is a from scratch approach food & beverage purveyor focused predominantly on providing healthy Lebanese food in fast casual settings. Adopting a neighbourhood approach, it also extends to select retailers and partners a hand-picked list of finished products in the form of salads, dips & condiments.
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When Jamjar broke ground, breaking bread over shared meals/tapas was not the norm it is today. Our aim was to bring people together and offer food as a means to connect using Lebanese culture as a backdrop. Communal tables broke the ice as strangers having a meal on the same table eventually more often than not, became friends. Our founder recalls having to sell all his possessions with only rent money to spare, to fund our first location. A hole-in-the-wall in the multi-faceted neighbourhood
of Commercial Drive soon became the talk of the town. Since 2014 we’ve opened four locations all sharing the same mantra but speaking a different dialect through our unique service concepts and settings. We promoted ourselves by offering jars of hummus in parks, on beaches, on the streets and replicated a simple Lebanese gesture of showing affection through offering food.
The food business is hardly an innovative one. Our take is creative in the way we presented the food and translated the Lebanese restaurant authentic experience. We did away with dated settings and offered diners the opportunity to make it personal. We were the first in the city and the province to offer traditional Lebanese food in a fast-casual setting. Our university location in 2017 was a breath of fresh air for students accustomed to frozen pizza slices and highly processed meals who enjoyed home style nutritious food at a similar price.
On the onset of the recent pandemic we pivoted our business and delivered safe food at homes to consumers that were wary of leaving their homes and risking unnecessary exposure. We also dived into the retail market and partnered up with a local grocer to offer select menu items in elegantly designed containers.
In essence what we’ve done in BC can be replicated all across the country and would accomplish similar results. We are excited about the future and what it holds. As we currently introduce processes to scale our business, we are looking to add more locations and increase our product offering and utilize the surge in digitally driven business demand that’s taking us into the future.
