You have to wait in line to see Ghafoor Zafari.
On one particular Monday, the 54-year-old Afghan scheduled two interviews, attended several meetings, chatted with his State Street neighbors and went wine-tasting.
Oh, and he also runs Kabul Restaurant, 541 State St.
\I always do things nobody else does,"" says Zafari of his business strategy.
For instance, his was the first restaurant on State Street to open outdoor seating for customers. At the time, he says, ""nobody believed me. And then after a couple years we were making a lot of money, a lot of business.""
And this year, Zafari plans to keep his restaurant open until 3:30 a.m. all three nights of Halloween weekend. He's had problems with Halloweens past, especially with urination around his restaurant.
""People don't even care. Men, women ... they just take their drawers off and start using it,"" he said.
""They cannot go to the bars because they're full, and the restaurants close early. So this year, we're going to be brave enough to open the door.""
An enterprising business policy has helped transform Kabul from a small second-story operation at 508 State St. (the current site of Nadia's Restaurant) in 1983 to a successful operation at its current location. The restaurant has increased its profit margin every year since its inception and now provides area businesses-including Woodman's Grocery-with bread baked in the Kabul kitchens.
Another of Zafari's business goals is to keep the Kabul he remembers alive in his restaurant.
In the Kabul Zafari remembers, Muslims, Jews and Hindus gathered together to watch basketball in 1971.
""I saw my first cheerleaders with short skirts in their blue-and-gold uniforms-in Kabul!"" he says.
After Zafari left to pursue a business degree in the United States in 1974, the Russian invasion and the rise of the Taliban-which Zafari says ""imposed another culture"" on the people of Afghanistan-transformed Kabul for the worse.
The attacks on Sept. 11 became personal for Zafari as well.
""Sept. 11 was a totally big experience for me,"" said Zafari, who once lived in New York City. ""All of a sudden one morning you wake up and there's a place called Afghanistan-not only that, but Kabul, Afghanistan.
""Some of these people doing this harm [in the Taliban], I knew,"" he said. ""I mean, when you live in Afghanistan you know their names or the way they do things.""
Zafari visited his native Kabul for the first time in 20 years last year to find a peaceful, but changed, city.
""It was a 500,000 population,"" he said, but because of U.S.-backed immigration from Pakistan, ""all of a sudden 2 million people came. There weren't a lot of places to live.""
Zafari's restaurant, then, is an effort to keep the earlier cosmopolitan culture of Kabul alive. As he says, ""Food is a part of culture. That's how it's defined.""
Kabul Restaurant attempts to re-create Afghan and Mediterranean food through authentic family recipes and all-natural ingredients.
Zafari is incredibly proud of his ingredients. He buys all the spices he uses whole, then grinds them in the kitchen. ""That's the reason the food smells really good when you enter the restaurant,"" he explained.
He uses no MSG, only olive or vegetable oil. No flour is added to thicken sauces. He orders his lamb from New Zealand and gets his fish fresh three times a week, keeping them chilled by submerging them in a unique icebox.
""We have never, in 15 years, lost a pound of fish using this method,"" he declared proudly.
His one beef with using New Zealand lamb is that their tails are not fatty. In Afghanistan, the tail fat of a sheep is a delicacy that imparts a quality ""so soft and flavorful"" to meals it is cooked in.
Tail fat or no tail fat, the food at Kabul should make you swoon.
Must-haves include ashak ($9.25), a spread of beef- and scallion-filled ""dumplings"" accompanied by a delectable mint-yogurt sauce. The vegetarian version ($8.75) is just as good.
The superb Kabul kabob ($11.50) consists of two skewers of meat-one chicken, one salmon-served over saffron rice with grilled vegetables. Both the chicken and salmon are so tender they almost melt off your fork. On a busy night, the rice may be a bit undercooked, but it's forgivable. The Kabul kabob (like most other dishes at Kabul) also comes with that delicious mint-yogurt sauce.
If it's appetizers you seek, a unique choice is bulani ($3.75), large wedges of thick potato stew in a crispy shell. It comes with mint-yogurt sauce.
If you'd rather just stick with the complementary soup or salad with every entr??e, choose the salad. Though the Mashawa soup is heart-warming (and absolutely authentic, says Zafari), the curry-cucumber dressing is too tantalizing to ignore.
Homemade bread also comes free with every meal. Don't worry about the dipping sauces; they're harmless and not as hot as they look. One is a cilantro chutney and the other is pepper.
Before Kabul came to town, said Zafari, ""Chutneys were not known to Madison. We basically introduced them.""
Skip the standard restaurant drinks on the menu and order the Afghan tea ($1). In a mug that, with your first sip, you realize is far too small, the tea is a hearthy blend of black leaves and cardamom. Taken with a meal, it creates an incredibly warm feeling inside. The tea cools very quickly, so drink up-and order another.
The atmosphere is unique, as well. At any given moment, foreigners in business suits and drunk alumni in Badger sweaters will sit at neighboring tables to enjoy the food.
""Football game or no football game, we're pretty busy on a Saturday and Friday night,"" Zafari said.
Despite the customer crunch, service is on time and professional (and if it's not exactly perfect, you'll hear Zafari yelling at the waiters from the kitchen).
Kabul has survived the dangerous State Street market for over 20 years because, Zafari says, a consistent turnout year-round has made his business thrive. Kabul's independence and notoriety have also been factors in its ability to survive ever-increasing rent and taxes.
""A lot of chain restaurants come and go, but people don't appreciate them. They don't survive. Pizza Hut, Burger King, they're gone,"" Zafari said.
But being independent comes with a caveat: ""It's not like automatically, if you're independent, you're going to make it. But the possibility of 'making it' is a lot higher because every one [business] on State Street has some kind of attraction,"" he said.
Zafari gets along well with his State Street neighbors. He asked them to open outdoor caf??s because it would be better for business.
""We all work together,"" Zafari said. ""That's how competition is very healthy.""
However, Zafari said it has become increasingly difficult for Kabul and other restaurants on the campus side of State Street to survive, thanks to the Overture Center. Lost tax revenue from the businesses displaced by Overture has added to the taxes and rent costs of businesses downwind.
Despite this, Zafari said he will forge ahead, trying new and innovative ways to promote his business and bring the culture of his home to this part of Madison.
""The only way you can justify [having a business on State Street],"" Zafari says, ""is to sell more. Our sales have been up since the first year. We have never done anything less.""
