Amal Al Marri and Deem Al Bassam, two innovative women, one an Emirati and the other a Saudi, revolutionised the food scene in Dubai using the humble yet ever so necessary ingredient that is salt. From saltshakers to an unprecedented food truck and then to being lauded as one of the best burgers in the region! This is the magnificent story of Salt of Dubai.
Saltshakers
The famous Salt started out merely as a campaign. 100 saltshakers were distributed to people and they were instructed to take pictures of it with people, in places or activities that had meaning to their lives. A smart metaphor if you think about it. Without salt food is bland and tasteless, add a bit of salt and it changes the dish completely. It glues everything together and brings out the flavours of literally everything. Now replace salt and food with “person/place/activity” (as salt) and your life (as the food). Deep right? On the flip side one could understand from it that adding too much of salt ruins a thing… but hey let’s stick to the positive metaphor. All about the positive vibes here. So, no traditional marketing and advertising was used. Social media and word of mouth did the trick here. People posted their images online and this got people talking and wondering and wanting to participate. This was their way of conducting market research – they were able to find out what the people liked and what made them happy. Very smart, very very smart. This led to the next step of the story.
Food Truck
Prior to 2014/2015 food trucks were illegal in the UAE and no one had tried to open one either until these ladies decided to risk it all. There was a lot of struggle and back of forth with technicalities, but eventually they were given the permission to open their Salt food truck. They wanted a food truck (to take people out of malls and to simpler settings like the beach) and that is what they got. They persevered and didn’t give in. Fast forward to 2022 and now you’ll find numerous food trucks in Dubai and the UAE generally. All thanks to the innovation and perseverance of Salt!
Initially, Salt was a food truck (technically at the time called kiosk because food trucks aren’t allowed to move around) that moved around the Emirates and they took up different spots at different times (their instagram handle was findsalt!). So, it would be anyone’s guess as to where they were. You’d have to follow their instagram and solve their clues to know where they would set up shop for the weekend. If it was in your city, there would be an instant buzz amongst foodies. There was a novelty about their burgers and being able to try them. The UAE was intrigued!
Best burgers in the region
Eventually, they did set up their first food truck / fixed location in Kite Beach in Dubai. Since then, they’ve opened up numerous branches in Dubai and beyond including internationally too (in Saudi Arabia). The novelty may have worn off due to this, but many still argue this to be the best burger in town if not the region! Whether that is true or not, it is certainly the trendiest and coolest burger joint! The power of social media is evident here – it started out as a mere campaign and now there are punters coming from abroad to sample their burgers.
Our experience
We went to the original Kite Beach branch on December evening for dinner. So, the weather was perfect for dinner on the beach. They still have the original food truck there, but they have seating now that partly looks like it is a restaurant and partly like beach food truck dining area. This beach dining area was lovely – they had benches and tables literally on the beach. This made for a lovely setting I have to say. What they do is sliders. So, we ordered the original which was wagyu beef in a butter bun and their original fries. I read somewhere that they wanted to bring the queuing culture to Dubai and so they encouraged people to queue up – not sure how you would do this, but yeah we had to queue up to order (wouldn’t this be the case for any busy restaurant?).
The food was good. I liked the size of the burgers and the fries were delicious – you can tell the quality of the ingredients were high. Was this the best burger I’ve had? Nope. Even in Dubai alone, I’ve had better burgers. However, when you know the story you appreciate what is in front of you a little more. I would have loved to experience the findsalt movement – I assume this would’ve heightened the experience. But hey it is what it is and you just have to applaud these two Emirati women who have continuously pushed the food scene in Dubai beyond new boundaries and after this success they had an equally impressive hit with Parker’s.
A round of applause for Amal Al Marri and Deem Al Bassam me thinks.
Getting There:
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[…] innovative women, one is an Emirati and the other is a Saudi, and they are the geniuses behind Salt and Parker’s. Absolute monsters and pioneers in the […]