Meet Mary Brindley | Restaurant Owner and Hummus Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mary Brindley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mary, what do you want your legacy to be?
What I want people to remember about me is that I was someone that you could count on and someone who genuinely cared. I’m the person that strangers stop at the DFW airport to ask questions to, whether it be in English or another language they think I speak, because I look approachable. I’m the person at the store who made you smile and said hello unintentionally because I made eye contact and gave you a friendly look to gesture back. I’m the person who you tell your goals to, no matter how big or small, and I’ll connect with you randomly to see how you are doing to attain those goals. I’m the parent other parents can count on when they can’t make school functions so I send them pictures and updates on how their child is doing. I want to be remembered as a good role model for my kids in all ways that count including showing them all the hard work it takes to be successful and that whatever life they dream about is achievable. In the end, I just want to be remembered as a genuinely good person.

What should our readers know about your business?
So I (my family) actually owns a mom and pop style diner in Tucson, Arizona. My parents started it back in 1984. It is in the same location as the first day the doors opened. I was raised in that restaurant. I learned to cook my first egg there, wash dishes and watch it evolve. I started consistently working there in the 7th grade when I would be the buss girl on the weekends. Then at 15 and a half, my parents let me become a server. I still remember my first table I served by myself. It was table 6. I was so nervous that I told them my name twice. I earned a $3 tip and thought that was the best thing ever! No one taught me how to be a good server, I had to make mistakes and learn. Learned appropriate responses, descriptions and how to efficiently run my section.
I earned my bachelors in Hotel and Restaurant Management from Northern Arizona University. I had only found out that hospitality was a major because one of my customers was a professor and informed me.
Fast forward to 2021 when we found out we needed to move to Dallas for my husbands career. I had to learn to run a restaurant remotely, who knew that was a thing right? Luckily everything I had to do for the restaurant was already online, I just had to do it online in Dallas. I had to learn the best way to communicate priority issues to my co-workers, how to handle hiccups, what pictures and information I needed when a product arrived below its standard and so on. I also made sure I didn’t go more than four weeks without flying back to work and do things I can’t do from a computer.
So January of 2024 I decided to start making hummus to fill in “free time” I had. I was annoyed that the hummus you get from the store doesn’t taste good and is filled with ingredients that do not need to be there. My dad is a Lebanese chef and I always watched him when he cooked. Moving here I realized I needed to start cooking for myself since he isn’t here to cook for me.
I told myself I was not going to make any other flavor that original because that is not authentic. Everyone who has tried my hummus loved it, but started requesting flavors. I understand flexibility, change and more importantly demand. So I started with roasted red bell pepper hummus and the crowd went wild. Then I did a roasted jalapeño and cilantro one and the crowd kept cheering. I ended up signing up for the 2024 City of Lucas Farmers Market. Every market I did I made what I called the Farmers Flavor. I created a new flavor that could only be bought at the specific market or when I had it available on the order sheet. We had a great time doing the market. The kids loved going, helping and earning a few bucks to go shop. I enjoyed selling and interacting with the market patrons because it filled that void I was missing with my customers at the restaurant. We will see what 2025 has in store for my hummus. As of now, I just focus on getting orders done when my availability allows and making a delicious, clean, flavor filled product.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would love for my besties to come visit, I miss them!
So we typically always go to Buccees, no explanation needed. We go out to eat at Babe’s. If the Allen Americans are playing, we are definitely going. It’s so fun to have a semi pro team to go watch while not being worried about dropping a mortgage payment between tickets, parking and concessions. We are definitely going to Texas Steakhouse in Richardson, not to be confused with Texas Roadhouse. We will journey over to the Ft. Worth side to shop at the Lululemon outlets and go see the Longhorns walk. Still haven’t done a concert at Billy Bob’s so hopefully someone neat is playing so we can go. We will most likely end up at Andretti’s because we need to see who’s faster at racing. But the main thing we will do is stay in and play Mexican Train Dominos. I will make a spread, hummus included, we will put all our kids to bed who won’t sleep because they are so excited to see each other, and we will get down to business. We do most of our life venting while we are trying to gang up on someone to end up with the most points at the end.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shoutout to my parents. They are immigrants from Lebanon and showed us our whole life what hard work looks like. They did their very best to send us to the best schools and provide for us when they couldn’t provide for themselves. They stressed the importance of education on us as well since both of them could not go to school pass the 2nd grade (dad) and 8th grade (mom) due to having to work to help support their families and at the same time, the war breaking out with only one goal on their mind, survive.

Shoutout to my husband. He always is my biggest supporter with whatever idea I come at him with and he’s always there willing to help.

Shoutout to my daughters who love hearing about what we are doing next when it comes to hummus. They are so pure in the love they have for supporting me, it’s melt worthy.

Website: https://www.hummadetx.com/

Instagram: @HummadeTX

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/15fh2KtJh1/?mibextid=wwXIfr