PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Faisal Obeidi spent most of his childhood in Jordan. Now 20, the Portland State University student with a double major opened up his own business in the middle of the PSU campus.
His food cart, Sheesh Shawarma, serves what he claims is the city’s best shawarma.
“Shawarma is the number one food back where I’m from,” Obeidi told KOIN 6 News. Shawarmas are Middle Eastern with a spicier and more complex flavor than a gyro.
Sheesh Shawarma is across the street from Stott Community Field on the PSU campus. He began planning for the food truck last year.
“Finally after months and months of approval and licenses and permits I finally opened up about a month ago,” he said.
He left Jordan just before he began high school in Sherwood. Now a junior at PSU — majoring in both data science and supply chain and logistics — he said he was drawn to opening his own business.
“I was like, ‘I have to open something. I can’t just sit here. I’m in America, you know?” he said. “I thought, ‘I have to have something in my name,’ so I thought the food truck has to happen.”
He said he learned everything from his dad — how to cook and how to live.
Business has been booming since he opened.
“A lot of the students come back daily,” he said.
Though he’s unsure what is next for him, he guarantees one thing in the short term: “You’re going to get the best food, the best customer service (at Sheesh Shawarma.) I can’t say anything more.”
