Stepping into a restaurant with a name like Rajun Cajun, you would probably expect nothing but authentic Southern cuisine. But from the moment you enter this 53rd Street restaurant, your senses are enticed by a wholly Indian experience. The sweet, rich aroma of butter paneer and the smoky smell of tandoori chicken fill the air, and Indian music fights for control with sizzling samosas. And behind the counter: a family who has been bringing Indian food to the South Side for the past 30 years.
After over a decade being a long-term supervisor of three McDonald’s franchises in the North Side of Chicago, Trushar Patel planned to purchase a McDonald’s franchise and rise through the ranks of the corporation. But his goals changed when a fire shut down the main store he managed.
“That’s when I went for India for one month, and I learned how to cook over those three months,” Mr. Patel said. “I went for one of those Punjabi cookbooks, it was Balbir Singh or something. It was really interesting, and that’s when I learned how to cook proper Indian food.”
When Mr. Patel’s store had been rebuilt, his plans had changed.
“If it’s a chain then there’s a lot of legal issues involved. They take a percentage and basically they own you,” Mr. Patel said. “And I didn’t want that.”
In 1993, Mr. Patel and his family purchased a fast food cajun cafeteria in disrepair, and transformed it into Rajun Cajun, serving freshly prepared Indian specialties alongside the previous owner’s Southern comfort foods.
The restaurant, run by Mr. Patel, his wife Anila Patel and their son Nishil Patel, has stood strong for 30 years, even as their motivations, community and the restaurant itself have transformed.
As early as his love for his restaurant took form, his dedication to giving manifested through an orphanage in Chanod, India. Soon after learning about the orphanage, the family gave their cow Nandani to them and committed to donating $2 to them every day.
“It’s not only us donating — there are of course other people donating as well… They even have a nice building, facilities for the kids to study and all that so that’s good,” Mr. Patel said. “I’ve actually been there once. I was pretty impressed.”
When the University of Chicago became their building’s landlords, the family was able to not only add customer tips to their daily donation, but also to renovate their restaurant and create community.
Along with turning a once-plain window into a colorful collage of Indian culture, this renovation provided the opportunity to turn a small board of letters sitting by the register into a wall of memories.
“The letters just started coming. Students were sending postcards, and we never used to think of posting them properly. Then my nephew came here from London, and said, ‘Uncle, you should put these on the wall,’ so we decided to put the letters on the wall,” Mr. Patel said. “We used to hang real post cards in a small area by the cash register. When we remodeled the store we scanned the postcards and we made a wallpaper out of it.”
But the university provided more than just the opportunity to renovate, it provided the opportunity to create community.
“We had a group of students from the University of Chicago. We used to love the four years they were here,” Mr. Patel said. “They came every single Saturday no matter what happens or what kind of weather it is and we used to call them the JJ group. Everybody’s name was with a J: boys, girls, everybody’s names was with a J, so we called them the JJ group. That was really fun.”
Those students are long gone, but change and consistency are both fundamental to Rajun Cajun’s community. One that can eat the same food, made with the same dedication, even generations apart.
“Right now one student came from London. His father actually went to the University of Chicago. He did his Ph.D. in economics, and we became very good friends with four of them,” Mr. Patel said. “Now his son is here, and he is coming here three times a week, and we can also talk about things.”
Because of his unbending dedication to offering a consistent experience, Mr. Patel and his family have felt trapped in Chicago. Having spent 30 years sacrificing his life for his restaurant, Mr. Patel now hopes to retire, revisit his birthplace in Africa, and go to India for the first time with his son.
“We haven’t had a vacation as a family all together in, god knows, 20 years. Since it’s a specialty restaurant, it’s very hard to get out of here,” Mr. Patel said. “I’ve even told my son I don’t want him to go forward with this, and he doesn’t want to anyway, he wants to go to his own field.”
Change has always been a part of Mr. Patel’s life, and as Rajun Cajun comes to a close, he welcomes its return.
“Change is always present and change is an absolute good,” he said. “Without it we would never get anywhere.”
