Following the Fast: How Restaurants Handle the Ramadan Rush Hour

The traffic is stop-and-go. The line stretches on for what seems like miles. Everyone is trying to get to the same place at the same time. Eventually, they all get where they're going, and everyone is satisfied. For now, it's like rush hour. But for restaurants.

Ramadan is a holy month in which Muslims fast, not eating, drinking or smoking, from sunrise to sunset every day. This year in the Chicago area, that’s 17 hours per day. 

Come sunset things change. 

Many Middle Eastern restaurants serving traditional Ramadan dishes see a huge influx of guests, filling their restaurants with family and friends. Two such restaurants are Al Bawadi Grill, 7216 W. 87th St., in Bridgeview and Fattoush, 10700 S. Harlem Ave., in Worth.

For more on Ramadan, read Patch's "5 Things Everyone Should Know About Ramadan 2013."

Both restaurants serve buffets with dishes that Fattoush's manager Hazem Muhisen describes as just like what his mother would cook for Ramadan. Popular dishes include a lamb dish served with rice called mansaf, grape leaves stuffed with meat, rice and spices, and maklouba - upside-down rice with meat, potatoes, cauliflower and eggplant. 

Many of these dishes are reserved for the month of Ramadan, according to Naseim Baste, co-owner of Al Bawadi Grill.

"It’s kind of like, when you think of Christmas and people drink eggnog, you wouldn’t drink eggnog now," Baste says, "And for us, it’s the same way. It’s a tradition within that month."

Waiting That Extra Hour

With all this delicious food being prepared, Muhisen points out an interesting dilemma for Middle Eastern restaurants during Ramadan: employees who observe Ramadan are serving guests at sunset when they would normally be able to sit down to a meal themselves.

"The pressure comes in within those two hours of people eating," Muhisen says. "So all the employees are fasting, and the customers come in to eat at that same time so we have to serve them first, then we eat."

Muhisen also says that employees who work under pressure or in hot conditions in any profession often get thirstier than those who do not. This presents an interesting challenge for cooks who observe Ramadan because they are often in a hot kitchen.

But Muhisen says working for long hours while fasting is one of the main concepts of Ramadan. Fasting teaches willpower, he says, and that is an incredibly valuable thing.

"You get to feel 17 hours or less or more of being hungry, being thirsty, and not being able to have what you want when you want it," Muhisen says. "They say, you don’t appreciate something until you lose it; well in this month, you have 30 days to realize what you have in your life."

Enduring for Good Deeds

According to Baste, when the month of Ramadan falls during summer, it is more challenging both because of the heat and because at the current time, fasting lasts 17 hours per day. But, he says, the greater the challenge, the greater the reward.

“The more hours you spend fasting, the more good deeds that you’ll receive from God," Baste says. "So we may complain a little bit more about it being longer days but the reward is much greater.”

Baste says that, as unbelievable as it may seem, children and adults alike really love fasting during Ramadan. Indeed, the month is one full of celebration, which he makes clear when he shows on his calendar how many people have invited him to dinner (at least one friend or relative every day for the rest of the month).

But aside from celebration, Baste says Ramadan is a month devoted to patience, mercy and worship.

"A lot of people take it for the wrong things," Baste says. "They think, 'Oh, these people have to starve themselves.' They don’t understand the whole meaning behind it."

Muhisen explains that the purpose of Ramadan is to show those who observe it what life is like for those who are homeless or hungry to help them realize all that they have. He hopes those who do not observe Ramadan will be open-minded and curious about the tradition and want to learn more.

"There’s a lot of things people would love if only they acknowledged themselves about it, if they read more about it, if they discovered more about it," he says.

"When you open your eyes, you have more horizons to look at."