HOLYOKE – John Grossman grew up in Eastern Massachusetts where he was surrounded by a diverse range of foods and flavors.

When he moved to Holyoke, he said he found himself craving the food he was missing. This, he said, was when he decided to open the Holyoke Hummus Company in 2014 with his wife Dawn.

“We started as a part-time business, I was living here in Holyoke for probably 10 years at that point and I grew up with plenty of Middle Eastern restaurants around me,” he said. “There wasn’t anyone doing it here in Holyoke, and was really interested in doing something in Holyoke. It was home to me, and like many transplants I couldn’t bring my house with me or my community, but I could bring my food.”

Holyoke Hummus began as a part-time venture for Grossman and his wife. He said he began with their food truck. He said at that time, food trucks started to become popular in the Pioneer Valley and the truck was a way for them to attend fun events around the valley. “There were loads of fun events going on in Holyoke, and obviously the entire valley that could use food trucks,” he said. “There were a couple that were starting in the Valley at that time, and that was how I started.”

Grossman said growing up Jewish helped him be familiar with Middle Eastern food and flavors. “I’m Eastern European Jewish, so it’s pretty common for Jews to grow up with a connection to Israel and Israeli food,” he said.

In addition to the food influences he experienced growing up, he said the food at Holyoke Hummus also features influences from Syria. “We had a great chef from Syria when we opened. He brought a lot to the venue as well, so it’s Middle Eastern with some Israeli flavors and some Syrian influence,” he said.

The Holyoke Hummus Company cafe, since its opening, has been located at 285 High St. in Holyoke. However, when COVID-19 hit the area, Grossman said they were forced to close their doors and change their model. While they continued to serve and deliver food to those who ordered it, they had to furlough their staff and focus on curbside service.

“I furloughed my staff, and was handling the business myself with my family. Nobody was in school, nobody was working, so all my kids were helping me as well and then after a couple of weeks we figured out how to switch our model to curbside and delivery,” he said.

He said they had just figured out this model when the cities and towns across the valley “started to permit food trucks again.” Once the food truck was back on the road, he said, “it was always doing way more business than we had on High Street.”

Following the lockdown, he said foot traffic was slow to return to the cafe. This, he said, made him evaluate some aspects of his business during the difficult times and they made the decision to temporarily close the doors to the High Street cafe. While they will maintain the space, he said they will not be accepting walk-in business and will be primarily focused on selling food out of their food truck.

“High Street was always something we wanted to be doing, we’re proud to be serving there, but it was always a modest market,” he said. “After the lockdown rules changed, the foot traffic just never came back and I’m a tiny, tiny business. I don’t have any money to lose, so I put it into our truck.”

The food truck, he said, will be parked at 236 Pleasant St. in Northampton Wednesday through Saturday from 12 to 7 p.m. This, he said, will allow customers to have the same experience, with the same safety protocols in place, but allow him to keep his business alive.

“It’s curbside service with the flexibility of being on wheels. We can still serve safely and still give people the experience they want. It’s part survival, part going back to our roots,” he said. He said while they will be a little bit further from their Holyoke customers, they’re also expanding their customer base by taking the truck to Northampton.

“We’ve always had a big audience in Northampton, so we’re moving closer to the people who were already our crowd, but also [it’s] just a more dense daytime working crowd,” he said. Additionally, the food truck will be parked off of an exit I-91. This, he said, will allow them to be easily accessible to people in the Hilltowns or coming home.

“They’re all passing by on their way home, they’re doing delivery there, so it gives us a delivery radius of density of people too,” he said.

He said recently, they had participated in a food truck rally on Race Street in Holyoke. He said while it won’t likely be a regular event, he plans to participate in local events whenever possible. “It was good to be serving in Holyoke, getting people that are missing us there,” he said.

While they will be primarily serving food out of the truck, they will maintain the High Street location. There, they will prepare food and run catering. Additionally, he said they are in the process of securing a wholesale license for the High Street location for the sale of hummus. He said the process of getting a wholesale license entails officials coming to inspect the facility to ensure it’s up to code and then providing a detailed list of suggestions.

“Basically they come and they look at your facility, make sure it’s up to code. Then they look at your process, which includes safe handling, processing of food,” he said. “If we’re cracking a lot of chickpeas that went into a particular batch of hummus, all that needs to be documented.”

Grossman said they were in the process of implementing all the suggestions that had been given. “We had our first inspection, then they come back with a list of recommendations. We’re working on those now and once we can finish those, we should be good to go,” he said.

After their wholesale license is approved, Grossman said he will begin work to get Holyoke Hummus on the shelves of local supermarkets, in local farmers markets and other area businesses. Additionally, he said they will also be distributing the hummus themselves.

In addition to establishing their wholesale license at the High Street location, they’re also welcoming some new faces to the cafe: the Crave food truck. This, Grossman said, is a partnership he’s really excited about. “Once we get some equipment stuff sorted out, they’re going to come in and bunk with us,” he said. “I’m really excited about that, to have another Holyoke-based food truck that’s doing great handcrafted food.”

While the cafe is not open at this time, customers can still order Holyoke Hummus food through DoorDash and online at https://holyokehummuscompany.com.