Savoring the American Dream

Iranian Finds Niche as 'Bubba'

Timothy Dwyer - Washington Post Staff Writer

Just before 1 pm on a recent weekday, 17 people were standing in line at Bubba’s Bar-B-Q in Falls Church waiting for their turn to stand under the “Please Order Here” sign and declare their barbecue wants and desires.

Stuffed potato with pulled pork was No.1 special on the board, which listed a couple of other features, including an Atkins diet special: pulled pork and either collard greens or green beans (no bread).

Bubba was behind the counter. “Hello, young man, how are you. What can I get you?” he asked.

“Pulled pork, “Bubba and the customer said at the same time.

“How did I know that?” Bubba said. “I must have ESP.” His customers laughed as if they were hearing the joke for the first time, which the regulars certainly were not. Bubba has a shtick to go with his Tennessee-style barbecue. He patted the counter. “This is my stage,” he said. “I feel like Jerry Seinfeld.”

[Bubba], though, has little in common with [Jerry Seinfeld]. He is Hassan Khalili, 58, and was born in Iran. He served for four years as a lieutenant in the Iranian Air Force, where he first got the nickname Bubba as a term of endearment (the word for "father" is "baba" in Farsi).

In 1996, he bought Bubba's with his business partner, Joyce Hoffman, who is at the counter most days and often shoos Khalili away to cut down on the jokes and get the line moving. It may taste like your grandma's barbecue, but this ain't the South. It's Northern Virginia, where strip malls dominate the Main Street-less landscape and diversity means an Iranian serves the pulled-pork-and- slaw sandwiches with a side of one-liners.

Bubba's is full of pigs. Stuffed pigs, bronze pigs, ceramic pigs, pigs with signs such as "Bubba on Board," talking pigs, dancing pigs. Pigs, pigs, pigs, all around the restaurant, 813 when last counted, which was Jan. 1, but a few more have come in since then. Khalili has bought only one, a weather vane pig. His wife gave him a bronze one for his birthday, and the rest have come from customers.

A sign in the front window of Bubba’s summarizes Khalili’s business in 14 words. “Bar-B-Q and Catering. An American Delicacy. A Family Restaurant. Eat in or carry out.”

His barbecue is smoked slow and long. He doesn’t bury in sauce, and any restaurant that slathers its meat in sauce is hiding something, he said: fat – fat that should be trimmed and tossed in the trash instead of served to customers.

So every day, Khalili jokes with customers and walks around the restaurant looking for signs of dissatisfaction – untouched food on the plastic serving plates. “What, you don’t like it?” he ask.

It is not the life he sought. But it is a life he loves. “Leave home, but I don’t go to work. It’s been a nice ride.”