Sandra Daher wanted to fit in. Yet, the middle schooler was different than most of her classmates. Daher’s first language was Arabic. She was raised in Kuwait and is of Lebanese descent. Hummus filled her lunchbox instead of Lunchables. Family vacations were trips back to Lebanon to visit family — trips that eventually changed her outlook.
“I realized that was part of me,” says Daher. “The memories I have of growing up are eating our food around the table with my family, speaking the language, all the traditions we had. I started to value it as I grew up.”
Today, Daher is vice president of brand strategy for Seasoned Brands, which oversees more than 30 Aladdin’s locations and additional concepts such as Forage Public House and Taza, A Lebanese Grill. She began as a 15-year-old dishwasher when her father, owner Fady Chamoun, opened the restaurant in 1994.
This year, the eatery celebrates 30 years. Despite its growth, Aladdin’s still operates as a family business.
It’s unsurprising that Daher, or at least her cuisine, didn’t quite fit in the mid-1990s. Chamoun came to the United States in 1972 from a mountain town of no more than 2,000 people just east of Beirut. He studied engineering at the University of Michigan, but working at Little Caesars in Detroit, first as a dishwasher, moved him closer to hospitality. Eventually, he opened about 50 franchises of the pizza chain across Northeast Ohio. He credits founder Mike Ilitch, a former door-to-door salesman turned billionaire, as a mentor. “It was great to grow up in an entrepreneurship environment,” says Chamoun.
Wanting to bring the food of his culture to his new home, Chamoun purchased a deli in 1993 and slowly transitioned from corned beef to chicken shawarma.
Despite his business experience, there were challenges to launching a Middle Eastern restaurant back then. Tahini, pita and garbanzo beans were tough to source. Chamoun made weekly trips to Detroit or Chicago. In 1997, the company launched Jasmine Distributing, a 50,000-square-foot production facility that now makes 15,000 pitas a day.
Plus, the public needed education. Hummus wasn’t yet a staple of grocery shelves. Tabouleh? Forget about it. “I remember him walking around to tables, teaching people how to eat this and about our heritage,” says Daher.
One bite of hummus — scratch-made over a two-day process — at a time, Clevelanders became hooked.
Thirty years later, they still are.
“The people of Cleveland have been loyal to us,” says Chamoun. “Hopefully, that continues for another 30 years.”
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