Fouad portrait
Fouad فؤاد
Founder & Baker
Learned the oven as a boy in a Baalbek pizza shop. Thirty-some years and two countries later, Arz is the first one that's his.
About · The Bakery
Thirty years of mornings, Baalbek to Bandera.
من بعلبك · إلى سان أنطونيو
Fouad learned to bake as a boy in Baalbek - first sweeping a pizza shop for lunch, then on the payroll with his hands in the dough. He carried the trade to Houston, then San Antonio, working thirty years at other people's ovens. Arz is the first one that's his.
Fouad, behind the oven
archival sepia portrait
archival sepia portrait
Fouad · at the ovenفؤاد
30+
Years at the oven
سنة
18
Manakish fillings
حشوة
7 am
Oven turns on
الفجر
1
Recipe, unchanged
وصفة
01 ⁂ The Story
Thirty years at other people's ovens. This one is his.
Fouad was thirteen when he took a job sweeping the floor of a pizza shop in بعلبك, somewhere between the ruins and the long road north. They paid him in lunch at first - a pizza for a day's work - and he stayed late to watch the oven. When they finally put him on the payroll, they handed him the dough. He has been at an oven, in one form or another, every morning since.
The bread he makes is not new. It is the manqousha his mother made, the way her mother made it - pressed thin, spread heavy, blistered fast in a half-dome stone oven. The za'atar is the wild thyme that grows on Lebanon's hillsides, dried in the sun, pounded with sumac and toasted sesame. The dough rests overnight. The oven fires before dawn.
"When the oven is right, you can hear the dough sing. That is the only timer I have ever owned."- Fouad
He crossed to America in his thirties and went straight back to the oven - a Houston kitchen first, long nights pressing other people's dough, then years in San Antonio doing the same. He was the one they trusted with the heat, first in and last out, and for three decades the name over the door was never his. He saved anyway.
Arz means أرز - cedar, the tree on Lebanon's flag and the one that has stood on the mountains above Baalbek for a thousand years. It is the oldest thing we know how to name, and it is what this bread has always felt like to him: something rooted, slow-growing, made to outlast you. He waited thirty years for a door with his own name on it. We hope the morning runs slow for you. The tea is bottomless. The oven is on.
02 ⁂ From a pizza shop to his own door
A timeline of the oven.الفرن
1991
Baalbek, LB
Paid in pizza. بعلبك
At thirteen he takes a job sweeping the floor of a neighborhood pizza shop. They pay him in lunch. He stays after close to watch the oven do its work.
· Age 13· Wage: one pizza
1994
Baalbek, LB
On the payroll. على المعاش
The owner starts paying him real wages and hands him the dough. He presses, spreads, and bakes before school and long after it.
· First wage· Hands in the dough
2004
Houston, TX
Across the water. هيوستن
He comes to America with a suitcase and the trade in his hands. The first job is a Houston kitchen - long nights at someone else's oven.
· New country· Same heat
2007
Houston, TX
Running the oven. الفرن
Years deep in Houston kitchens, he becomes the one they trust with the oven - first in, last out, every loaf his to answer for.
· First in· Last out
2016
San Antonio, TX
South to San Antonio. سفر
The family moves west. More kitchens, more mornings - still building other people's bakeries, still saving for one with his own name on it.
· New city· Saving up
2026
NW San Antonio
His own name on the door. أرز
Thirty-some years at other people's ovens, and the first one that's his fires on a Tuesday morning. Arz opens on the 1604 Corridor in Northwest San Antonio, on Bandera Road - minutes from La Cantera and UTSA.
· 30+ years· Finally his
03 ⁂ The Oven
Half-dome, never a saj.الفرن
The oven, mid-morning
side elevation, hot
side elevation, hot
1.6 mdiameter
425°Cface temperature
Gassteady flame
All dayheld hot
01
Half-dome قبة
Stone, hand-built, 1.6m across. A gas burner under the deck holds it steady from before dawn to close.
02
Floor أرضية
Refractory brick. Smooth enough that dough never sticks. Replaced once, in 2008.
03
Mouth فم
Wide enough for two manakish side by side, low enough that Fouad can reach in without a peel.
04
Flue مدخنة
Off-center, the Baalbek way - pulls the heat across the dome before letting it out.
04 ⁂ The Morning Shift
Two people, one oven.
العائلة
Ali portrait
Ali علي
Son · Everything Else
Fouad's son. Runs the front, the books, the orders, and whatever else the morning needs. Grew up around the oven.
What we hold to
Three things, kept simple.
01
Slow Doughعجين بطيء
Every batch rests overnight, cold, and is made without dairy. No quick-rise, no shortcuts. The flavor is in the wait.
02
Open Handsأيدي مفتوحة
The oven is in the room with you. Watch us press, spread, and pull. No screen between us.
03
One Recipeوصفة واحدة
Thirty years of learning, pressed into one dough. The same za'atar grind, the same heat, every single morning.
صحتين
Come in. The oven is on.
We do not take reservations. We do not have a quiet hour. The morning is what it is. Walk in, sit down, point at what looks good. The tea is bottomless.