A Seat at the Table: The Making of Busboys and Poets

This concise debut memoir chronicles Shallal’s experiences as an immigrant, restaurateur, political activist, and founder of the Washington, D.C., restaurant and bookstore Busboys and Poets. The narrative explores Shallal’s education in matters both political and culinary, beginning in 1966, when his family immigrated to the U.S. from Iraq and 11-year-old Shallal first became painfully aware of the racial prejudices that would plague him in his new home. As a young man, he began working in D.C.-area eateries, eventually learning enough to open his own spot. Alongside captivating portraits of the city’s restaurant industry, Shallal documents his immersion in the world of progressive politics—crossing paths with the likes of Howard Zinn and Ralph Nader—and his occasional forays into producing plays, including a D.C. staging of David Hare’s Via Dolorosa, an autobiographical work about Israel and Palestine. Shallal writes movingly about confronting anti-Arab bigotry in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, his anti-war beliefs and frustration at his adopted country’s going to war with the country of his birth, and his deep-rooted idealism (“I would take my oath seriously and hold my new adopted country to the values it claimed to defend”). Shallal’s is a singular story, told here with the focus on big ideas and love of community that have propelled him over the years. (Sept.)