The story
Amal Al Marri is an Emirati creative designer and event planner who discovered a love of food after graduating from Zayed University in 2013. She had worked with her friend Deem Al Bassam in art and design, and the two launched SALT in 2014 as a food truck on Dubai's Kite Beach. According to the Founding MENA short, they had been told a restaurant needed a prestigious mall location, so they chose beaches and parks instead, and had to make repeated visits to regulators before a trailer was allowed. They then kept the truck's location secret, handing out salt shakers and asking customers to post under one hashtag. The #FindSalt campaign turned fans into self-styled Salters and created queues for a restaurant with no fixed address. The pair built the Independent Food Company around SALT, adding brands including Parker's, Somewhere and Public. In December 2024 Somewhere opened at Harrods in London, the first Arab-founded restaurant there.
By the numbers
Appearances
On Founding MENA
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