A humble restaurant owner’s extraordinary generosity remembered

Mohammed Ansari, who opened one of Dubai’s iconic restaurants, Special Ostadi, and was known by his customers for his generosity and humbleness, died last week in Shiraz, Iran. He was 83.

Mohammed Ansari, owner of Special Ostadi, with two of his four sons, Taleb Ansari, left, and Majeed Ansari. The 83-year-old, who came to Dubai after being displaced by the Second World War, died last Show more

DUBAI // Mohammed Ansari, who opened one of Dubai’s most well-known restaurants, Special Ostadi, and was known by his customers for his generosity and humbleness, died last week in Shiraz, Iran. He was 83.

The cause was kidney failure, his son Abbas said.

“His last will was ‘eat little, eat always’. It’s a very different world for him, and many people are coming back to this again, to be humble and simple and good in what you do,” said Abbas.

“My father came here during the Second World War as a child. He came looking for food. They were hungry in Iran and it took eight to nine days on-board a dhow. After he came, he worked in a store. In 1978 he opened Special Ostadi,” he said.

Abbas, said his father spent more time in the restaurant than anywhere else, including his home.

“My first memory of the restaurant, my father used to bring me after school to the old shop. He would sit me down behind the fridge on a cinder block and make me study there,” said Abbas, 37.

“We are the new generation, he came from the past generation and he wanted to keep it in the old way – no delivery, no credit cards. If you don’t have money, you can pay the next time,“ his son said.

One customer recalled a day, several years ago, when he came to have lunch at Ostadi only to realise that his card was blocked and could not withdraw at a nearby cash machine to pay.

“He told me pay next time, and he even gave me Dh500 and told me ‘for the groceries and your family maybe you need to buy something on the way home’,” the customer, who wanted to remain unnamed, said.

Abbas said that since the restaurant reopened after the mourning period, a constant stream of customers were coming in to pay their respects and tell him stories about his father.

“He used to tell us never be greedy for money – he never was, but the stories I heard this last week make it even more clear,” he said.

One of the stories recalled was how almost 10 years ago his father and his best friend were on the 400-kilometre trip from Mohammed’s hometown of Gerash to Shiraz, and found a farmer selling watermelons in the heat on the side of the road. He bought all of them.

“His friend asked him ‘are you crazy, what are you going to do with all this?’ My father told him ‘I don’t want him to be sitting in the sun. I want him to go home and sit with his family,” Abbas said – recalling the story that he had just heard from one of his father’s friends.

Among the many traits he has instilled in his sons, was simple attributes such as waking up early, leaving the house for prayer and conserving resources.

“I wash my hands frequently and he used to tell me to keep the used tissue for reuse,” Abbas said, as he held up a completely used piece of tissue from behind the counter in the restaurant.

Mohammed Ansari is survived by his wife, three daughters, and four sons, the youngest of whom is Abbas – who said that his father was one of the few businessmen who did not care about money.

The restaurant opened in Al Mussallah road in 1978 and has since become one of the most well-known old restaurants in Dubai.