A Home Away from Home

Smells of Lebanese meat dishes fill the air: lamb kebab, chicken and ground beef mixed with spices. Colorful side dishes fill the tables: falafel, hummus, and eggplant salad. Pomegranate seeds, coriander and hot peppers are waiting in the kitchen. Menus are either in Arabic or German and English. Keeping the restaurant and workspace meticulously clean, the all-male Lebanese staff takes pride in showing traditional Middle Eastern hospitality. They are kind, full of smiles and eager to serve.

Ronald Abou Slaiman serves dishes from his beloved country, Lebanon, in the heart of Interlaken, Switzerland. He buys and mixes his spices himself, to get the true authentic flavor he loves. After escaping the Civil War in Lebanon, he came to Switzerland.

His restaurant, Layaly Beirut, fills up with Arab tourists from the Gulf Countries in the summer and locals in the winter. “Without the locals, I would go bankrupt,” Ronald says. Muhammed and Aisha from Oman are on their second visit. "The food is delicious.” The former glory of Lebanon is all around: black and white pictures of Beirut decorate the windows, colorfully patterned cushions lay on the benches, groups of graceful copper lanterns with mosaic patterns hang from the ceiling.

Slaiman, muscular, stocky and with a friendly smile, was born in 1978, during the Civil War in Lebanon. He named his restaurant Layaly Beirut, Beirut nights. His eyes light up: “The city never sleeps, the party goes on from dusk to dawn.” He arrived in Switzerland in 2003, and married a Swiss woman; their two daughters have dual citizenship. He started his restaurant in 2014 with just 30 seats. Now he has two terraces, two large seating areas with a big open kitchen in the middle and a spacious room for washing dishes. Sadness fills his eyes as he remembers the woes that have befallen Lebanon. On October 17, 2019 protests took place. Hope for a change filled the country, but after the fateful explosion in Beirut’s harbor on August 4 in 2020, its downfall was complete. Downtown Beirut, the heart of the country, with its banks, legislature, and government buildings, was destroyed.

It was hard on his family in Lebanon when he first left. He visits four, five times a year. The current Israel-Lebanon conflict affects his private and business life. It weighs heavily on his heart, but he does not want to talk about it. It costs him more and takes him longer to import his ingredients and specialized machinery from Lebanon. But rather than bringing them in from Cyprus or Greece, he will not compromise. He works hard.

On his arms he has tattoos with his girls’ names, Amy and Kiara. “They are more Swiss than I am,” he says with a smile. “But they love visiting Lebanon too.”

Photo: Stock Photo from Canva

Esther Arnusch is from Jerusalem, Israel. She attended WJI Europe 2024.