A friendly bit of the Middle East

Date published: 8/8/2005

After being inhaled deeply, the smoke dances toward dim lights, as if it's moving to the sound of the sweet Arabic music in this friendly place.

The atmosphere keeps people coming to this piece of another world hidden as a restaurant in one of the familiar strip malls along State Route 3 in Spotsylvania, across the road from Ukrop's Super Market.

During their time inside Nader's, visitors 18 years and older can take refuge from the traffic and hustle-bustle just behind its walls. Here, one experiences Middle East culture enhanced by a Turkish pastime that began during the Ottoman Empire.

Paintings by Iraqi artists adorn the walls. One inside wall is painted to match the exterior of a building from a city street, transforming a room packed with tables into a street-cafe setting. Overhead light is filtered through thin smoke from hookahs onto the faces of friends in conversation.

Inside Nader's, which shares space with an imported-goods grocery store, the tensions of the world are put aside. People come here to appreciate another culture, one that is sometimes looked upon negatively.

Nader and his wife, Kefayah, contradict such haphazard stereotypes. Their hospitality and friendly professionalism are what keep customers like Stafford resident Travis Evans coming.

"Nader's an awesome guy," Evans says of the proprietor Friday night, in between puffs on a fruit-flavored hookah.

Born in Palestine, Nader Abdel Muhsin came to Stafford County in 1983 when he was 10 years old. Before opening his current shop five months ago, he owned Bladna, an imported-foods store in a Fredericksburg shopping center farther east on Route 3.

With his new restaurant and store in the heart of a growing community, Nader says he hopes people will visit to experience a new culture while enjoying themselves.

Nader included argila--more commonly known as hookah in the United States, India and Pakistan--on the restaurant's menu, along with Middle Eastern foods like shawarma (similar to a pita sandwich), mouth-watering gyros and kabobs.

A customer who requests argila smokes moist, flavored tobacco through a hose cooled by water. The hookahs found at Nader's are elegant Egyptian vessels that boast elaborate decorations.

To people from the Mideast, smoking flavored tobacco is equivalent to Americans sipping coffee at a corner shop.

Like Travis Evans, Fredericksburg resident Zade Rider, who came to America 10 years ago from Iraq, enjoys visiting with friends in Nader's relaxing and welcoming environment.

"I got tired of the bar scene," Rider explains. A translator with a U.S. contractor in Iraq, Rider returned to his war-torn country to help with communications nearly a year and a half ago, not long after the allies' provisional government was set up.

As more friends arrived, Rider says the restaurant is a "very inviting place," with a feeling similar to a peaceful street.

While customers and friends sit with one another, their chairs rest on the edge of a Middle Eastern rug left clear for belly dancers. Food is being prepared and charcoals are being lit for the hookahs.

Once a hookah is ready, with the tobacco resting on top inside a perforated clay holder, a hose is fitted into an opening in the 3-foot-tall device. Each hose is different, chosen to fit the customer's appearance.

"There is a girl out there, so she will get the purple one," Nader said, referring to a hose decorated with round purple puffs of material.

Two blonde waitresses, Ashley Green and Mary Kaila, weave through the labyrinth of tables. Nader appears with a hookah, gliding across the rug to personally deliver a tradition from his homeland to a customer.

As night turns to early morning and customers begin to leave, the good feelings of friendship and belonging continue as a card game draws regulars' attention. The thin layer of smoke that remains nearly goes unnoticed, mingling with the aroma of lamb and beef from the grill. Bob Marley tunes punctuate the end of the night.

The regulars appreciate that this place--though foreign to some--is right down the street, welcoming to all who respect and want to enjoy what is uniquely Nader's, and hookah.

Skirts designed strictly as decoration hang from the top of
two hookahs waiting to be used at Nader's.

Mario Biviano (left) and friend Travis Evans, both of
Stafford, are regulars at Nader's. They're often the last customers to leave at night.