They’re not the kinds of restaurants you’re likely to find in the Michelin or Zagat guides — or even in the Tribune’s own dining guide, for that matter.
But who needs a guide when just about any cabbie in the city can take you right to their doors?
These are Chicago’s taxi eateries, fragrant, smoky, stark rooms where the city’s cab drivers gather at all hours to unwind from what they call Chicago’s most stressful job.
“These places are successful because after working for eight hours in a taxi, drivers need a place to do four things: They need to eat, make a phone call, go to the bathroom and pray,” explained former driver Shoib Hasan.
And in these cafeteria/social clubs, drivers find facilities for each of those activities, amenities that were virtually nonexistent 20 years ago, much to the chagrin of some of the city’s first South Asian drivers.
“The biggest problem for (those of) us who grew up (in Pakistan) and then migrated was that it was really hard to settle down with American food,” said Hasan, who drove a taxi for 15 years and now serves as general manager at Checker Cab. “I don’t care how many hamburgers I will eat, I will still be hungry. Most cab drivers are Muslim so they want halal (the Muslim equivalent of kosher) food. For me, I really don’t care, but still I can’t eat food without spices.”
That isn’t a problem for Hasan today, but it was 20 years ago, when most drivers were American-born. Most cabbies at that time ate with their families, packed their meals or snacked on the diner fare still popular at Mike’s Rainbow Room on Clark and Huron Streets. But with a taxi-driver population that Yellow Cab officials estimate at 38 percent South Asian, 38 percent African and 4 percent Korean, bland food eaters have become the definite minority.
“I remember I used to drive a cab back in 1976-77,” recalled Arif Thali, Chicago’s first Indo-Pak cab restaurant owner. “And I used to have such a craving for tea and biryani (a traditional pilaf dish). I mean, how long can you look at a hamburger?”
Finally, in 1980, Thali decided to take matters into his own hands and opened the city’s first Pakistani cabbie restaurant at Argyle Street and Broadway. Faster than you can make a U-turn on Michigan Avenue, Thali’s restaurant was attracting a regular flock of hungry drivers.
“The crowd was mostly cab drivers, and they weren’t asking too many questions about the food. Whatever was ready, they said load it in,” Thali said.
When Thali realized that many of his clients were breaking from their work downtown to eat in Uptown, he decided it was time to move closer to his customers.
“In 1982, we decided to open up next to Medinah Temple in the Cass Hotel,” Thali explained. “It was an itsy-bitsy restaurant, (and) in evening time, if you had a place just to put your feet, you were lucky.”
It was also at this Cass Hotel location that the restaurant started to take on the kind of social club function that it carries out today, with Thali serving as maitre d’ and social worker.
“In those days, there was no organization to look after (the drivers),” Thali said. “And so back in 1982, when Immigration started catching the cab drivers, everybody got me into (immigration concerns). So I used to take their bond money to release them, and Immigration thought I had some Sicilian connection.
“After that, a few drivers died and nobody knew what to do. So people would call me and I would make the arrangements. . . . People contributed and we sent a couple of people’s bodies (back) to Pakistan.”
Although today Thali has switched to the “family restaurant” business on Devon Avenue, his legacy rings the Loop and stretches to Rogers Park in the form of five spots where cab drivers — as well as adventurous diners — can find respite from the road, plenty of parking, a bathroom, often a prayer room, several public phones and a huge meal for about $6.
And while eating out every day may seem like a luxury, drivers claim that, with their busy schedule, it’s really a necessity.
“Mostly cab drivers don’t have a family,” said one driver who declined to give his name. “They are bachelors and students and they have no one to cook for them and no time to cook. By the time they are finished with 12 hours of work, they are falling down and they can’t get up and they want their own food. Just like if I feed you biryani for three days, you will say, `I need a bologna sandwich.’ “
“We are like their wife,” said Farid Quader, who owns Blue Ribbon Restaurant in Rogers Park. Its peak hits near 4 a.m. “Around my restaurant, there are six cab drivers who live in one apartment. When they get up, they call from their house for us to make their breakfast, so that by the time they take a shower, they can come down and eat their breakfast and then they go to work.”
But for many of Chicago’s cab drivers, these urban versions of truck stops are much more than just a club or a convenient restaurant. For the hundreds of bachelors and students in the business, these diners have become a home away from home, even a family.
“When they walk in the door, they feel like they are in their home country,” said Mohammed Khan, owner of Pakiza restaurant and former pastry cook at the John Hancock Center’s 95th-floor restaurant. “They don’t feel like they are in America. They are with family, at home.”
While most agree that these diners are a good thing, some argue that they make the drivers a little too comfortable and a lot less ambitious.
“Back in my day, we used to make a lot more money because we worked straight through or ate in our car,” Hasan said. “But now these guys can waste two or three hours in here eating, playing pool, talking with friends.”
This underscores one of the main differences between the Indo-Pak cab facilities and the Nigerian cab eateries on South Michigan Avenue that serve a much more traditional function.
“The Pakistanis, from my observations, go to the restaurants and sit hours on end, playing games and chewing the tobacco,” one Nigerian cab driver said before diving into a bowl of vegetable stew at the Authentic African Restaurant. “We just want to eat and go. That is why we don’t have games here, because they wouldn’t make much money.”
But what about all the Nigerian Muslims? Don’t they need some place to pray?
“The Muslim religion allows you to combine all the prayers into one prayer that we can do at the end of the day,” explained driver Alade Malaika, who drives by day and leads a Nigerian pop band by night. “But the Pakistanis are more passionate about their religion. The Nigerian restaurants do not have (prayer rooms) because we do not ask for them.”
Although the Indo-Pak cab cafes have existed in the city for almost 20 years — and in New York City for just as long — they operate largely without the notice or patronage of outsiders. And between the restaurants’ grim dingy interiors and the rarity of English menus, most non-cabbies who enter are likely to turn on their heels and skedaddle anyway.
Still, those intrepid enough to ignore the stares and tolerate the grubbiness of the places will be rewarded with some of the city’s cheaper and tastier chow.
On a recent rainy evening at Daavat on West Walton Street, drivers gathered to discuss the days events while the counterman ladled out fiery bowls of mutton and okra stew next to crisp loaves of fresh clay oven bread called naan. Earlier that day, Pakiza customers welcomed each other with warm hugs and the traditional Muslim asalaam aleikum greeting before sitting down to cilantro-topped chicken stew and rice. A few days later, drivers enjoyed tender chunks of stewed lamb nesting with tangy apricots in basmati rice when Baba’s Place on West Hubbard Street featured its lamb biryani.
Each meal comes with a big jug of water and cups of thick black tea mixed with milk and sugar. This strong tea is part of South Asian culture, but also a necessity in a job that often involves 70 to 100 hours of driving a week — a hardship Hasan thinks few non-immigrants are willing to endure.
“A big number of Americans want everything, meaning eight-hour days, two days off, medical benefits, everything,” Hasan said. “Foreigners, they don’t care, because first of all it is their goal when they come here to do this, that and that. And second, they have no choice. We do it because it is survival. Basically, this is the worst business in the whole world.”
Thanks to pioneers like Arif Thali, the world’s worst business may have gotten just a little better.
WHERE THE CABBIES DINE
Zaiqa, 858 N. Orleans St., 312-280-6807. Pool table, prayer room, panmaker and medium-sized parking lot on the side. Popular with Memon Pakistanis.
Pakiza, 1009 N. Orleans St., 312-266-7936. Large screen TV, video games, pool table, prayer room, panmaker, very big parking lot. Popular with Memon Pakistanis and others.
Daavat, 211 W. Walton St., 312-335-8185. Large screen TV, video games, pool tables, cafeteria-style, large parking lot in the back. Popular with Punjabis.
Baba’s Place 223 W. Hubbard St., 312-329-9499. Big adjacent parking lot, prayer room, pool tables, video games, big screen TV and sundries stand. Popular with Hyderbadi Indians and Nigerians.
Blue Ribbon Restaurant, 6301 N. Ridge Ave., 773-973-4825. Plenty of parking in the back next to train tracks, large screen TV, pool table and grill. Popular with Pakistanis, especially those who live in the Rogers Park area.
Eko, 13th Street and Michigan Avenue., 312-986-1915. Friendly, homey atmosphere with many non-cabbie customers.
African Soul Food, 2333 S. Michigan Ave. Sunny with functional furniture.
Authentic African Restaurant, 130 E. Cermak Rd., 312-842-1086. Clean and cheery with lace tablecloths and a Selena guitar clock.
Vee Vees Truck at the Hyatt Regency, 151 E. Wacker Drive. Great for Nigerian dining on the run.
