My wife sold her Cartier watch: Salata CEO reveals how salad bar was funded in its initial days

Since its foundation, Salata has grown beyond its modest beginnings.

The origins of Salata, the salad-focused restaurant brand founded in Beirut in 2018, were linked to a decision made within the household of its founder and chief executive, Georges Bandar. In a LinkedIn post, Bandar disclosed that the business almost failed to start after he and his wife, Yara Abi Jaoude, realised only days before launch that they had overlooked budgeting for food supplies.

At the time, the couple had no investors, no reserve funds, and no external financial support. Bandar wrote: “I had nothing to sell. Yara had one thing: her Cartier watch. She sold it for $2,500. That money bought us the first week of supplies. That watch built Salata. Without it, nothing would’ve started.”

Years later, Bandar replaced the watch with the same model. However, he said the replacement represented something very different. “The first one wasn’t jewellery. It was sacrifice. It was survival. Success isn’t about what you own. It’s about what you’re willing to give up,” he reflected.

His wife, Yara, responded directly to the widely shared post, supporting the decision. “That was the best decision ever… look where we are,” she said.

Since its foundation, Salata has grown beyond its modest beginnings. In an interview with Forbes Middle East, Bandar described the business not merely as a restaurant but as a “lifestyle movement” centred on healthy eating. The company built its identity around salads, fresh seasonal produce, and superfoods, gaining traction in Beirut and beyond.

Looking back at the challenges of the early period, Bandar pointed to his own professional training as an influence on how he managed the process. “Financing the business with low capital from personal savings was the very first challenge we faced. We had to be efficient and do everything ourselves. As we grew, we started hiring the best talent we could afford,” he explained to Forbes.

He also described setbacks as part of the entrepreneurial process rather than failures. “Failure,” he said, “was not an end but a natural step towards growth.”

For Bandar, the Cartier watch remained symbolic of the risks that lay behind ventures that may otherwise appear purely commercial. As he wrote in his post: “What would you sacrifice to build your dream?”