After six years of patiently waiting out their dream to open a restaurant in Mahomet, Ali and Mide Sulejmani will open the doors to the Mahomet Family Restaurant Monday morning at 6 a.m.
The couple was approved for a loan on the building located at 1002 Commercial Drive in 2008, a day after Chef Benjamin finalized the papers to purchase the space.
“I have been waiting for this space to become available again,” Ali said. “It was my dream to get back to Mahomet for this opportunity.”
Ali and Mide purchased Village Gardens in Fisher while they raised their children in Mahomet. Their oldest daughter, Ibadete, graduated from the University of Illinois, and is now a kidney transplant specialist at Columbia Hospital.
Their sons, Ilir and Musa, both graduated from Mahomet-Seymour High School. Ilir now studies sociology at the University of Illinois, and Musa plans to transfer from Parkland to the University of Illinois to study business.
Growing up in Albania under the control of a communist regime, Ali and Mide dreamed of these opportunities for their children.
Mide’s father fled the communist Albania to the United States after WWII.
“Her dad had a very strong heart against communism,” Ali said. “He was unqualified to do a job (in the United States) so he was a dishwasher. But he was very happy about what he was doing.”
Mide followed her father to the United States, while her husband played professional soccer in Albania. In a poor country, Ali did not make much money playing in the professional league.
Although Ali finished high school and college, he was limited on what he could do.
“You can’t do anything,” he said. “You just do what you are told to do. I was a good student, but I didn’t have the opportunity to continue because of the money and because you have to have a connection in knowing people. That’s what bothered me.”
Although he could not share his dream, Ali wanted to escape Albania to come to the United States.
“I had a dream to come to the United States,” he said. “But that was only on my heart because you cannot speak it because you will go into jail. That’s why I kept it on my heart.”
“My mom had a dream that one day I would leave,” he said. “I said, ‘How do you know this?’ because I didn’t even tell my mom. She said she had a dream that I was going to leave one day, but it was a good thing because I’d be leaving for good.”
After the communist regime broke down in the late 1980’s, Ali escaped Albania in 1990 to be with his wife in the United States.
“Sometimes it is hard to escape your homeland,” Ali said. “But when you see something wrong, you need to see a vision on where is the right place to be. I wanted to give my kids an opportunity I didn’t have.”
“I landed in Chicago with my hands in my pocket,” he said. “I was just looking around. I didn’t speak English or know anyone.”
Mide’s uncle picked Ali up from the airport. Ali said he was scared when he arrived to his new home in Amboy, IL.
At age 26, Ali could not join a professional soccer league in the United States, so he started washing dishes at his in-laws’ restaurant. He worked his way up the restaurant chain, and then opened his own restaurant, The Lincolnway Cafe, in 1996.
“That was a very difficult transition for me,” he said. “I never thought I’d become a cook or a chef. Now I am a very good cook and chef. After I entered the restaurant business, I fell in love with it.”
Now, after 18 years in the restaurant business, the Sulejmani’s open their third restaurant business.
The Mahomet Family Restaurant will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner alongside daily specials such as homemade sauces, gravies, soups and pies.
“When I came here, I found freedom,” Ali said. “And that was my goal. Now, here, I have everything I dreamed. I succeeded.”
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