05/19/2026
This past weekend, Brandi & I actually did something we haven’t done in years… we took a weekend off & simply enjoyed life together. ❤️
We spent a few days in St. Augustine for a much needed reset from the nonstop grind of everyday life & business. Between relaxing on the beach at Anastasia State Park, seeing JJ Grey & Mofro & WAR at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre, exploring the city by trolley, & ending the weekend with a simple ice cream stop on Sunday, it reminded us how important it is to slow down every once in a while.
Truthfully, we haven’t had a genuinely relaxing weekend together in over 3 years. No work. No rushing. No stress. Just us. And we realized how badly we needed it.
If you’ve followed us since we launched the DBH Hummus Company back in Brevard County, Florida in 2023 (we started DBH in NJ mid-2022 unexpectedly when Ben moved up to work at a studio for a Grammy winning music producer for 2 years), chances are you probably met Brandi at one of our Brevard markets. But if you’ve only known us since our (3rd & hopefully final) move to Marion County in 2024, there’s a good chance you haven’t had the opportunity to meet her yet.
At the end of 2023, Brandi’s health took a major turn. Because of her ongoing battles with Lupus, Fibromyalgia, & other autoimmune-related illnesses, she had to step away from the day-to-day operations of the business. At the same time, we were stuck in the middle of the absolute nightmare of waiting on our food truck build for 9 extra months while bills, stress, & uncertainty piled up around us.
Life hit hard.
As if that wasn’t enough, Brandi also became a caretaker for her mother after she suffered a serious fall & broken hip last summer. Through all of it, Brandi has continued to push forward with a strength that honestly inspires me every single day.
What makes Brandi so special is that her health struggles give her a completely different understanding of movement, nutrition, food quality, & how deeply our health is connected to what we consume & how we live. It’s as if she has a unique superpower by experience. She went back to school & earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Occupational Health & was on her way toward her Master’s Degree before her health forced her to step away. Even then, she never quit trying to help people.
She’s a life coach, nutritionist, movement specialist, personal trainer, & an incredibly talented chef who was even invited onto a Food Network show before we met. She truly has a wealth of knowledge & passion for helping people improve their lives, especially those struggling with chronic pain, autoimmune conditions, inflammation, mobility issues, or simply trying to feel better again. But honestly, she can help anyone, including those that think they don’t need it, because they are unable to see or feel it right now, but it’s only a matter of time before life catches up with us all!
And honestly…all of this is a huge part of WHY we care so much about the food we serve.
We live in a world where everything feels more expensive, more processed, & less genuine by the day. Family businesses are disappearing. Corporations and Private Equity Funds are buying them all up and then immediately cutting corners, changing ingredients, loading food with chemicals & fillers, and prioritizing profits over people’s health. When it becomes even more profitable due to most people not realizing all of the changes and just supporting the brand, they sell it and continue to make a killing on profits. If it fails, they write it off as a much needed loss, so they win either way while the general public suffers financially and health-wise.
12 Companies alone own over 550 consumer brands. Let that sink in for a minute. 12 global companies run the show and control pretty much everything we eat, drink, or buy. Meanwhile, regular people are struggling just to keep up on a day to day basis.
Even with rising fuel costs & operating expenses, we still haven’t raised our prices because we know everyone else is feeling the pressure too. Is it harder on us financially? Absolutely. But we’re trying our best to stay affordable while still serving food we can genuinely stand behind.
At the end of the day, this business has always been bigger than hummus & Not A Gyro’s to us.
This is our life. Our story. Our values.
Brandi & I have been together for over 6 years now, & while life has thrown more obstacles our way than we can count, we continue to show up for each other every single day. We communicate. We fight through hard times. We adapt. We keep moving forward. And most importantly… We keep trying.
That’s what this business is built on too.
We know we’re different, & we’re proud of that. We care deeply about quality, honesty, ingredients, health, & treating people like human beings instead of transactions. What you see with us is exactly what you get — unapologetically genuine people who truly put their heart & soul into this business every single day.
Looking ahead, we’re excited for what’s next. Brandi will be stepping into more behind-the-scenes involvement again, & we’re continuing to grow our reach into new areas like Alachua, Orlando/Ocoee, & Brooksville while also working on expanding our brand with merch, spice rubs, hot sauces, recipes, cookbooks, health-related blogs, sweet treats, & more. And hopefully we’ll get closer to getting our own Production Facility up and running so we can do even more!
We’re not perfect. We have rough days. We get exhausted. We get discouraged sometimes. But we genuinely believe in what we’re building & the community that has supported us along the way.
So from the bottom of our hearts…THANK YOU!.
Thank you for supporting small businesses.
Thank you for supporting REAL people.
Thank you for allowing us to continue chasing this dream together.
We appreciate every single one of you more than you know. ❤️
