Hummus for the Masses

Majdi Wadi was distraught in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks eight years ago. Most people were. But to understand Wadi’s particular grief and worry, you’d have to know where he’s come from, how he’s grown a $10 million business selling Middle Eastern foods, and the future he saw hanging in the balance.

Wadi’s business, Holy Land, was a small but popular restaurant, deli, grocery, and bakery on Central Avenue and Lowry Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis. It still operates there, in bigger quarters now. Holy Land catered to the city’s growing Muslim population, but it had a healthy following among Twin Citians generally. Would they turn on the Arab-owned business?

“I cried because I thought we might have to pay the price for the ignorant actions of the terrorists,” Wadi says. Holy Land did get a bomb threat the day after the attacks, and he wondered whether to open for business. He gave his managers the option of staying home and still getting paid. “But I decided to show up with my kids and my wife and my parents, because if we didn’t open the store, that means that we allowed those cowards to achieve their goals.”

What awaited Wadi the next morning brought more tears, this time of relief and gratitude. “It was amazing, the amount of flowers and cards that people had placed in front of the store,” Wadi says. “That day, September 13, was and still is the busiest day in the history of Holy Land. People came from all over Minnesota to show their support for us, not just Arab Americans but all Minnesotans.”

Not exactly conventional market research. But the experience did reinforce for Wadi the idea that Holy Land’s market is a broad one, and that its potential for growth is far reaching. Eight years later, he’s finding more ways to tap that potential.

Attitude of Gratitude

Majdi Wadi was something of a latecomer to the business, which his older brother, Wajdi Wadi, started in 1987. A recent graduate of Minnesota State University–Moorhead, Wajdi bought a small corner store called Ali Baba that served Middle Eastern food, and at the same time bought mobility for his family.

He renamed the business Holy Land to honor a grandfather who’d had a bakery in Jerusalem. Three years later, in 1990, Wajdi was able to bring his parents over from Kuwait, and his mother helped him develop recipes. Four years after that, Wajdi called his brother, Majdi, who was running a similar business in Jordan, and asked him to come to Minnesota: The building two doors down from Holy Land was for sale; Wajdi was ready to buy it and expand.