The first time I went to Uzbegim Halal Restaurant, I got nervous. I’d read in a Facebook group that there was an Uzbek place hidden in the back of a pizza parlor, located within walking distance of my home in midtown Nashville. I was ready for a bit of sleuthing, but I still assumed there’d be a sign out front to let me know I’d found the right building.
Nope. Michelangelo’s Pizza, which sits across from an optometrist’s office and down the street from a diner, only advertises itself. There’s a mural on the front of the building that recreates the bit of the Sistine Chapel where Adam reaches for God’s hand. There’s a sign that promises, “Every pizza is a masterpiece.” There is not, however, the slightest indication that people inside are preparing Uzbek dishes in tandoor ovens and on charcoal grills.
Even when you walk into Michaelangelo’s, you don’t immediately see evidence of another business. That’s why I was antsy. I had a vision of myself asking about kebabs and getting a dumbfounded look from the guy selling slices. But I couldn’t abandon my self-imposed quest. Ignoring the tension in my chest, I walked past the pizza counter and up a short flight of stairs.
On the landing, I saw an Uzbek flag and an American flag hanging on a side wall, catty-corner from a cash register and a menu written on a dry erase board. That felt promising.
I poked my head around a corner and saw a sack of charcoal briquettes on the floor. I spied a shelf of plastic baskets heaped with artfully sculpted bread. Then I made eye contact with a friendly looking young man who was heading my way.
He was Bobur Akbarov, who recently came to the United States from Uzbekistan, a Central Asian nation bordered by several other “stans,” including Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. Akbarov works at Uzbegim almost every day. He confirmed that, yes, I was in the right place, and yes, he would answer my questions about the menu.
I was all questions. This was a Wednesday, and two days before, I had never once thought about Uzbek food.
Now I think about it all the time. That’s partly because the cuisine itself is so delicious. On my first visit, Bobur pointed me to the plov — rice pilaf served with lamb, carrots, and garlic. Also known as osh, it’s a signature Uzbek dish, and having now eaten it three times, I can see why. The lamb is so tender that it’s essentially liquid. The garlic is potent but not overwhelming. The rice is pillow-soft.
I’m equally invested in the tandoor-baked lamb samosas, featuring a thick pastry that’s crunchy on top and tender on the bottom. And the bread in those baskets – called obi non – comes out hot, ready to be torn apart with your hands. I only hesitate to dig in because it’s so beautiful. The circular loaves are about eight inches across, braided on the outside edge, with a reservoir of poppy and sesame seeds in the middle. It can take over six hours to make a batch, but who said beauty was easy?
That’s the other reason I keep mulling these meals: The team at Uzbegim is doing all this work, and they don’t even have a sign on the door. They’re making their delicious pilaf and their elegant bread with the assumption they will be found. They’re counting on their community to understand what they’re doing.
So far, so good. Nashville’s Uzbek community is active on Facebook and on messaging apps like Telegram, which has been crucial to Uzbegim’s early days. When he opened the restaurant last November, owner Ulugbek Fayziev tapped this network to find the chef who is now in charge of making the plov. “He used to post some ads on the community Telegram channel,” Fayziev told me. “He said, ‘O.K., guys. If you have any birthdays or weddings, I can take the catering orders or you can call me to your house.’ So I got his contact and said, ‘Come over, and let’s talk.’”
Similarly, Fayziev found his way to the back of Michaelangelo’s because it’s owned by Uzbeks who also immigated to Nashville. “They say, ‘We have some spare kitchen area,’” he explained. “And you know, pizza places – usually they work for pickup and deliveries. So the dining area is empty most of the time, but still they would like to be taking advantage of it. We share the location.”
That communal spirit also keeps customers coming in the door. “In the beginning, when we started, most of them were from our community, from Uzbekistan,” Fayziev said. “And then it was people from similar places. The Russian people come. And the Uighurs, from China. Our food is similar to their style. They come because it reminds them of food in their area.”
Even when they don’t live in town, people are spreading the news. Fayziev told me, “Customers come to us and say, like, ‘My friend from California texted me that there is a restaurant I have to try! ‘ Or they’ll say, ‘You’re so famous in China!’ Or they tell me, ‘I got your address from my mom or my friend who is living in Uzbekistan.’ People who live in Nashville 20 years will hear from people very far away that they should come in and try the food.”
This grassroots support is meaningful because Nashville already has a “famous” Uzbek spot. Located in Woodbine, OSH Restaurant and Grill opened in late 2020, and by 2022 Yelp named it one of the 10 best restaurants in the entire United States. (Fayziev told me he hasn’t met the owners.) I recently went for dinner, and I was impressed by the plov, which is served with a quail egg, and the lightly fried meat dumplings called chuchvara. And while I typically don’t opt for soup, I was glad I had a bowl of mastava. It’s a sumptuous beef stew that my server insisted I should try for “real Uzbekistan flavor.”
With OSH getting all this attention, it’s heartening that people are also supporting Uzbegim, despite its incredibly modest trappings. If Nashville can support one Uzbek spot, then surely it can support two, especially when the food is so good at both. It’s really only the ambience that separates them: Judging by the dishes that I tried, their cuisine is equally satisfying.
Fayziev is confident the quality of his kitchen will keep people walking up those pizza parlor steps. “I think our customers know that people who make the food think of it like a piece of art,” he said. “I try to explain that there are years of experience and hard work behind this menu. I think that’s why they support us.”
So even without a top 10 list, Uzbegim has already been embraced by people who build their networks on Telegram, not to mention people who post in that Facebook group I follow. Anyone who goes on an adventure to find the restaurant might feel like I do: That they’ve discovered something special in their own backyard. That’s what makes a place seem local, even if it’s rooted in a country that’s thousands of miles away.
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