Former Tajik Restaurant Mogul Preparing to Open Samovar in Rockville Town Square

The owner was forced to sell off his restaurants in Tajikistan after a civil war tore apart the Asian country, his daughter says

March 29, 2016 5:36 p.m.

An air of mystery has surrounded the soon-to-open Rockville Town Square restaurant Samovar since it was first announced by the mixed-use center’s developer Federal Realty last spring.

The announcement described it as a Russian and Central Asian restaurant owned by a father-daughter team that handles catering at embassies in Washington, D.C.

Since then, there have been signs of activity at the space on North Washington Street—the paper over the windows, construction workers moving about. But attempts by Bethesda Beat to contact the owners over the past six months were unsuccessful, until now.

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Ika Nasimova, who is opening the restaurant with her father Solijon Nasimov, said Tuesday they have been deliberately coy with details as they set up the restaurant. She said they’re preparing to open Samovar in May.

Nasimova also shared her family story and her father’s experience in the restaurant industry during the Tajikistani Civil War.

“My father, he owned big restaurants back in Tajikistan,” Nasimova said.

One restaurant in particular, the Rokhat Tea House in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe, had been in the family for generations when her father took it over from her grandfather. She said during the 1980s and 90s her family managed the restaurant that served around 2,000 diners each day. The tea house is famous in the East Asian country—it’s well-known for wedding celebrations and its elaborate architecture.

But during the civil war, which broke out between Soviet sympathizers and Islamic groups in 1992, Solijon Nasimov began looking elsewhere for business opportunities. At the time he owned Rokhat as well as 20 smaller restaurants in Tajikistan, according to Nasimova

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He first moved the family to Uzebkistan to escape the war. Then In 1994, he opened his first U.S. restaurant—a kosher restaurant in New York City. In 1999, he sold Rokhat and the family moved to the United States, where Solijon had been working for years in Denver and then Portland after leaving New York.

“He was going back and forth [between the U.S. and Tajikistan] and dealing with the effects of the civil war,” Nasimova said. “There was some pressure and stuff and he decided to sell it… he sold everything he had there and then the family moved here to stay.”

Nasimova said it took years to sell all the restaurants in Tajikistan during and after the war, which ended in 1997.

The family came to Maryland around 2005 and together with Nasimova's husband Farkhod Abdulaev opened European Delight Market on Rockville Pike in Rockville. The market sells imported Russian and Central Asian foods. Family members also made Tajik and Russian cuisine for the Russian embassy and the Russian Trade and Cultural Missions as part of their catering business. About a year and a half ago they found and leased the restaurant space in Rockville.

Nasimova said they chose it because it’s in a nice location with high foot traffic and visibility. She said the restaurant will offer Russian staples including infused vodka, pierogis, borscht and beef stroganoff, as well as Tajik dishes including  plov—a rice pilaf dish made with shredded carrots, spices and meat fried together in vegetable oil or mutton fat and typically served with flatbread “non.” The owners are also in talks with local breweries to offer a signature Samovar beer, in the style of a Russian dark beer.

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In addition to the food, Nasimova said they plan to have live Russian music, DJs and possibly events catered to kids on certain days.

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