The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Mehdi Rahbar, Chelokababi's manager, says customers 'all say our rice is
very good.'

Home of the 17-hour rice

By Eric Drudis

Persian food isn't too hot, too cold, too spicy or too mild, says Mehdi Rahbar, the manager of Chelokababi restaurant.

"Compared to other [foreign] foods, it is very normal," Rahbar says. "It is something everyone would like."

But despite the mass appeal of lamb, chicken or beef kabobs, a specialty of the 19-year-old restaurant, it still maintains some unconventional flair.

"We have homemade yogurt mixed with cucumbers or garlic," Rahbar says. "It is different than the one we can get in conventional stores."

According to Rahbar, Persian people enjoy mixing cucumbers in yogurts and salads because they add a unique flavor to an otherwise ordinary meal.

Chelokababi is a combination of two Persian words--chelo is a type of steam-cooked rice that involves a 17-hour cooking process, and kabab refers to barbecued meat.

The restaurant opened in 1979 after a friend in Seattle, where Rahbar's family lived, told the family a steakhouse in Sunnyvale was for sale. They moved to the area and began the restaurant, which tripled in size within 10 years. In 1986, several glowing reviews from local newspapers brought lots of business to the restaurant.

"Those were very good years," Rahbar recalls. "Our business is great, and as we get closer to the weekend, the restaurant gets busier."

Current customers come mainly from local businesses, and the restaurant has attracted patrons of many nationalities. Rahbar says the restaurant receives compliments from many patrons for its food.

"We have customers from nationalities where rice is very common, and they all say our rice is very good," Rahbar said.

Rahbar recommends an eggplant appetizer known as kashiko bademjan, a shirozi salad with a Persian dressing made of lemon juice, oil and vinegar, and a barbecue chicken kabob.

"These are the best-selling, most popular foods we have," Rahbar explains.

Rahbar says the restaurant is "full of life" on weekends. "It is always exciting; sometimes too exciting," he explains.

Chelokababi is located at 1236 S. Wolfe Road in Sunnyvale. It is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. For more information, call 737-1222.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, September 2, 1998.
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