Meet the Deli Owner Whose Chicken Salad Is All Over TikTok

Wael Herbawi can’t keep up with the flood of new customers at East 81st Street Deli in Cleveland, Ohio. As of 7:30 a.m. on October 26, he had only 20 to-go containers left. His retired father has been running grocery errands all week, picking up emergency stock of spring mix and shredded mozzarella. People tell him they’re driving all the way from California and Georgia for a taste of his food. Specifically, they want to try a now-famous chicken salad, of which Herbawi sold about 980 orders yesterday alone. The deluge shows no signs of slowing down—and it’s all thanks to one fifteen second TikTok video the 41-year-old owner posted from his tiny store back in August.

“Y’all better come up here and get one of these,” Tanisha Godfrey, Herbawi’s family friend, says in the TikTok. “It’s a chicken salad,” she continues, leaning back and cocking an eyebrow. “Superior.” The video, which now has close to 11 million views, started going viral earlier this month when various TikTokers obsessed with Godfrey’s no-nonsense salad assessment stitched the clip and made lip-dub skits with the iconic sound. “I think about this video ten times a day,” one user commented on the original video. Then, a week ago, Lizzo used the audio in a TikTok of her own while eating a chicken sandwich. There was no dousing that internet flame.

Herbawi, who’s only been on TikTok for a couple of months, didn’t see any of the attention coming. “It’s crazy,” the deli owner says of his sudden fame. The bingeable video has had real impacts, too: Business has skyrocketed in the past five days at the deli, which Herbawi has been running with his brother since 2005. “I’m making triple the amount of money that I usually make,” he says.

On his morning drive to work—one of the few moments Herbawi has free these days—he tells us about what’s in his viral salad (there’s a secret ingredient), the unexpected aftermath since he first posted the video, and what he thinks sets his Cleveland corner deli apart.

Wael Herbawi and his famous salad.

Have you always enjoyed making food for people?

Oh, I love cooking. I always wanted a restaurant. I’m Palestinian, but I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. My dad used to take us overseas. He wanted us to learn how to speak Arabic and he wanted us to learn our culture. Every summer we would go over there. Then, when I was a teenager, he wanted to move back for longer. So he opened a little sandwich shop next to our house in East Jerusalem and I worked there. I’ve liked to make sandwiches ever since I was a little kid.

We ended up moving back to the US about a year later because of the conflict.

When did you start running the deli?

I took over the business from my dad in 2005. He was running it like a regular convenience store. But I knew people wanted something to eat, so I started selling corned beef sandwiches and gyros in 2006. Every time I learned something new, I added it to the menu.

Why did you start filming customers and posting on TikTok?

I don’t really know too much about Instagram and Facebook and TikTok, but about a month ago I started getting hip to it. Since I took over the store, I wanted to do different advertisements. So I said, “All right, ’Nisha, I’m going to give you the salad [for free]. Can I put you on TikTok?” She was like, “All right, that’s cool.”

Did you know each other already?

Oh, I’ve known ’Nisha since she was little.

What happened after you posted the video?

For the first two months nothing really happened. But then it went crazy this month; 100,000 views and a lot of likes. Then it hit 600,000. I was like, “Man, this is going viral.”

What’s in the salad?

The sauce is what really makes it. And I don’t want to give away the sauce, you know what I mean?

Fair enough. What are the other ingredients?

It’s a spring mix, so lettuce and spinach and kale and all the good stuff. Then, I add cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, green peppers, a mixture of shredded mozzarella and cheddar, croutons, banana peppers, and jalapenos. Obviously there’s grilled chicken. My secret sauce goes on top. My mom taught me the sauce, so only me and her know about it.

Can you tell me anything about the sauce?

Well, the main ingredient is an Arabic spice that’s grown in Palestine. So it’s basically olive oil, lemon juice, and my special seasoning.

Have things changed at the deli since the video went off?

Oh yeah. I’m making triple the amount of money that I usually make. And people are coming from all over: Las Vegas, California, Pennsylvania, Chicago, Atlanta, Portland. Yesterday, somebody came from Alabama. They told me how long it took to come and I’m like, “Are you serious?” The whole local fire department came yesterday. They never came to my store before this. One of them said, “I never even knew there was a deli over here.”

How many chicken salads are you selling?

We’ve been making that salad for about two years. But before the video I was selling maybe 30 a day. Yesterday I sold almost 1,000 chicken salads—about 980.

No wonder you didn’t call me back. (Editor’s note: We called a nearby tire shop several times to get in touch with Herbawi—a very busy man.)

I can’t look at my phone anymore because every time I’m done with an order, my clerk gives me another order. And it’s just me and my brother Mo cooking. I even had to call in the cavalry: my dad. He went shopping for vegetables like five times yesterday. He was like, “I’m retired.” And I was like, “Not anymore. I need you.” The poor guy is filling up his Mercedes with spinach and spring mix and meats.

What do you think sets your food apart from other delis?

Cleveland delis mostly sell corned beef sandwiches. You can’t find a salad anywhere. And then when you say chicken salad, people think it’s the one where you mix chicken with mayonnaise. First of all, that’s nasty. We’ve got real salads, with lettuce and olive oil and lemon juice and cucumbers and tomatoes and real chicken that’s grilled. It’s super fresh.

What’s your TikTok strategy now that you’re famous online?

I just keep taking videos and posting them. Every time a customer likes something, I’ll say, “You want to TikTok?” They’re usually like, “Yeah man, let’s go.”