Taha Market turns farmers market success into Upper Kirby brick-and-mortar cafe

A business that started by selling toum and hummus at farmers markets is expanding with its own brick-and-mortar market and cafe in Upper Kirby.

Taha Market opens Friday at 2621 Shepherd Dr. with shelves of olive oil, rose water, nuts and other ingredients found across the Mediterranean. Freezers will hold freshly prepared, ready-to-heat meals. Customers can also dine in and order from a menu of coffee, sandwiches and sweet treats such as baklava and Dubai chocolate.

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The shop and cafe comes from married couple Ziad and Sabrina Taha. They took inspiration from Phoenicia Specialty Foods and the Cottage Grocery. Their idea is for people to stop by, have an Arabic coffee brewed in hot sand, grab some lunch and then leave with a ready-to-heat meal for dinner.

“We’re trying to bring authentic Middle Eastern, or Arabic, food to the area,” Ziad said. “It’s an area that needs a Mediterranean spot.”

The Tahas met while working at a restaurant 18 years ago in Houston, and they had no idea they’d one day run a restaurant of their own. Sabrina was a longtime teacher until the COVID shutdown when she stepped away to take care of their three kids. Ziad ran a janitorial business for offices. She’s a first-generation Colombian-American and he immigrated from Palestine at the age of 15. 

Over the years, he taught her to cook the kind of food he grew up eating. That would lead them to start their business selling toum, a garlic spread found in Middle Eastern cooking.

He was invited to an event at one of the buildings his business cleaned when he heard a chef describe toum as a foreign white dip. It was a lightbulb moment for him to start jarring the garlic spread and selling it, because he said no one was doing it at the time. Sabrina already knew how to make toum. It was one of the first Middle Eastern foods she learned to make because she loved it so much.

By late 2021, they were selling toum at the Urban Harvest Farmers Market and regularly selling out. They quickly started offering more items at the farmers market at the request of their customers. They said their customers encouraged them to open a restaurant.

“We made stews and soups and rice and beans and meats that you don’t find at Mediterranean places; they have Americanized food. We don’t have that. We have stuff that my mom made,” Ziad said.

In 2023, they started selling toum and hummus in Central Market. But their new goal was to open a restaurant.

The menu consists of salads like fattoush made with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, pita chips and a lime vinaigrette. Sandwiches like the chicken shawarma and the grilled cheese n’Za’atar, made with halloumi cheese, are expected to be the bestsellers. There’s also falafel and chicken kebab plates.

On the market side, they wanted to represent the entire Mediterranean region, from Spain to Palestine. The prepared meals will include makloba, an upside-down rice dish layered with meat, rice and fried vegetables; dolma, or stuffed grape leaves; and a Greek-style lasagna.

“I think what we’re bringing is just a different variety of food that’s going to make it easier for those moms, dads or even college students or people in general that just don’t have the time to cook, or don’t want to cook,” Sabrina said.

They take pride in using fresh ingredients and no preservatives in their food. They’re also catering to people who are newly adopting the Mediterranean diet, a healthy style of eating based on foods traditionally eaten in the region.

Taha Market will be open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. 

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This article originally published at Exclusive: Taha Market turns farmers market success into Upper Kirby brick-and-mortar cafe.