A bubbly, charismatic and affable restauranteur, Imad Alarnab was the man about town in Damascus, Syria. Through his monopoly of restaurants, juice bars and cafés, Imad drew in ravenous families and friends, satiating them with traditional fare from kibbeh to fattoush, kebabs to baklava. But when the Syrian war broke in 2011, reaching the capital of Damascus in 2012, Imad lost the empire he had spent a decade building in just a week. All of his businesses and his home and car were fatalities to the stream of relentless bombings that had burnt chunks of his city to ashes.