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Our story
Two traditions, one fire
My name is Jordan El‑Qasem, and I run HaBBQ with my fiancée, Mercedes.
In Arabic, habibi means my love. HaBBQ is a blend of my Middle Eastern roots and my deep love for barbecue. What started as a simple passion, serving top quality barbecue, has become a way of life.
It started five years ago with a smoker in the backyard and no real idea what I was doing. A backyard pitmaster wannabe with a dream and a whole lot to learn. I spent years practicing, tweaking, chasing that perfect cook, and somewhere in there I stopped calling it a hobby.
Chasing something like that is frightening when people are counting on you. We had our first child when I was 27, our second at 29. Then a week before Christmas in 2023 I was laid off. That shook me, and it made one thing very clear. I did not want anyone else deciding whether my family had a paycheck. In October 2024 my younger brother passed away, and that loss became the final push. Life is short. It was time to make this real.
HaBBQ opened in May 2025. Traditional barbecue through and through, with the flavors I grew up on running through it. Nothing borrowed for the sake of it, just my Palestinian roots finding their way onto the plate.
HaBBQ is more than barbecue. It is grit, love, loss, and hope, all of it cooked over a fire. If you have a dream sitting in the back of your mind, take this as your sign. You never know how far it can carry you.
For the love of barbecue,
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