Bob Koch
Madistan restaurant.
The owners of Madistan, a Pakistani restaurant on the ground floor of the Aberdeen apartment building, never thought they would lose their lease. The restaurant, popular with UW-Madison students and faculty, has been at 317 N. Bassett St. for more than a decade.
But in June, owner Nasreen Saleem and her husband Mohammed Qureshi received a letter from the building’s management company saying they would need to vacate the premises when their current lease ends in September.
“I was really shocked,” says Qureshi, who has run the restaurant along with his wife since 2017.
Now the family is scrambling to transition to catering and meal preparation service and figuring out how to disassemble an entire restaurant on short notice. Moving large equipment takes time and money, notes Qureshi. They have repeatedly tried to contact the building’s new owners, seeking more time to move, but have received no response.
The building is owned by Altitude Capital Partners, a real estate investment company based in Chicago. The company bought the building two years ago, after the previous owner, Wayne Dishaw, died. “He was a really nice man. He used to come by and eat,” says the couple’s son, Khizer Saleem.
The building’s new owners have communicated with the family only through the management company, which sent the letter stating the lease would not be renewed. Qureshi’s requests to talk to the new owners have gone unanswered. Altitude Capital Partners also did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Isthmus.
Courtesy Khizer Saleem
“This is my parents’ livelihood,” says Saleem, who is managing the transition as the family looks for a new location. The family had planned to invest in a full renovation of the space to make a more uniform operation, he says. His mother cooks the food that makes up much of the current menu, explains Saleem, but his goal is to allow his parents, who are in their upper 60s, to cut back to working one or two days a week.
The couple emigrated from Pakistan with their five children in 2004. Saleem says that his father saved up money working long hours at a gas station and his mother sold her gold so that they could buy the restaurant, serving a taste of the food they grew up with.
With the unexpected move, the family will shift away from the menu of south Asian, Mediterranean and American favorites. Instead, Saleem says they are looking for a location downtown to open a late night cafe, serving pastries, cakes, coffee, and tea to provide a non-alcoholic, Halal option for Muslim students and locals — as well as a place for others to sober up.
Daughter Mazia Saleem owns HIME Treats, based in Sun Prairie, specializing in homemade chiffon cakes. She brought her parents’ situation to the attention of Madison’s food scene with a post on the Madison Foodie Facebook page.
Fans of veggie biryani, butter chicken, and other Madistan favorites will still be able to order these dishes via a meal plan menu or for catering, says Khizer Saleem. For updates on these options and the planned cafe, people can follow Madistan on Facebook or Instagram (@madistan.wi).
