For The Ostracon—the writing platform I started with Nicole J. Caruth, thanks to an arts writers grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts—I recently profiled Ruhel Islam, the charismatic owner of Gandhi Mahal, a beloved Minneapolis restaurant that was destroyed in the uprising following the murder of George Floyd by local police. Upon hearing news his business had burned to the ground, Islam’s words, overheard by his daughter and posted on Facebook, went viral—“Let my building burn. Justice needs to be served: put those officers in jail.”—sparking more than 33,000 shares, 40,000 reactions, and 3,100 comments, expressing love, thanks, and pledges of support and drawing the attention of media outlets worldwide, from the New York Times, CNN, and the Boston Globe to London’s Daily Mail, The Times of India, and the Dhaka Tribune.
A month later, after the news frenzy had died down, I met with Islam to discuss what’s next for his restaurant and his mission to “bring peace through pleasing the palate.” His dream for the design of his new building: “addressing every single issue we have in our life. One of the main goals I want to achieve is a fully fed community. And everyone means every part of our community: people, plants, trees, bugs, birds, animals.” He aims to incorporate all the elements he did in his old restaurant—from solar panels, an on-site bee colony, and basement aquaponics garden to hiring ex-offenders as staff and sourcing produce from a network of backyard gardens in the neighborhood—while adding new features, including intercultural housing, room for raising chickens and goats on the premises, and a LEED certification.
Ruhel Islam at Bullthistle Gardens, one of the backyard farms that sources produce for his restaurant. Photo: Paul Schmelzer
As David Gray, a friend of Islam’s and an urban farmer who sells produce to Gandhi Mahal, tells me, Islam is driven by his Bangladeshi culture and his Muslim faith, not to mention his memories of home.
“He envisions Bangladesh,” he says. “He wants a village. He wants a true, sustainable way of living. If you could walk to Uptown and there were fruit trees you could pick from, vegetables growing everywhere, raised boxes, people growing things on the rooftops, just a complete free-for-all based around food—that’s what he sees.”
To support to the rebuilding of Gandhi Mahal or the community of Lake Street businesses impacted by the unrest over George Floyd’s killing, check out the Gandhi Mahal GoFundMe site and WeLoveLakeStreet.
READ: In Minneapolis’s Third Precinct, a restauranteur puts justice at the heart of rebuilding plans
A mural from a boarded-up business near the site where Gandhi Mahal once stood. Photo: Paul Schmelzer