The way I would describe Nishan is Pakistani-American street food.
Unreal.
It's taking American classics and adding Pakistani flavors into it.
Chopped cheese!
Good, right?
This is banging.
I'm Zeeshan, founder of Nishan, home of the Pakistani chopped cheese.
My whole goal in life is to feed people.
I'm an American kid with a Pakistani background.
It's all the flavors I grew up with from both cultures, American and Pakistani, and I'm just combining them into my menu at Nishan.
So I grew up in Chicago.
I grew up in Devon, which is a neighborhood of like Pakistanis, Indians.
My dad was a taxi driver in the beginning and then now he's been working for American Airlines as like a baggage handler for the last 25 years.
And my mom has just been a homemaker.
But all throughout our lives she's done something to like help support the family, from like catering to teaching, like tutoring kids working at a warehouse.
Seeing her, the way she cooked, there was never any rules for her.
We'd eat, like, lentil, like, dollar sandwiches with cheese in it.
Like, just pass it out to my cousins, and they're like, oh, this is delicious.
And, like, nobody ever said, like, oh, this is weird, don't do this.
I never grew up with that attitude.
It was always just like, hey, make stuff that tastes good.
My menu does not exist anywhere else in the world.
At Nishan, we sell the Pakistani chopped cheese.
We take a classic chapati kebab.
Some of the spices from there mix into a ground beef patty, top it with pepper jack and American cheese and finish it off with our lime cilantro sauce, our tamarind chutney, and wrap it in a toasted gyro.
It's delicious.
You saw our Bihari barbacoa tacos, which is spicy smoky buffalo, tandoori chicken sandwich, which is a kind of classic imagined buffalo chicken meets tandoori masalas.
Crazy good sandwich.
So many layers of flavor.
It is just unbelievable.
Unbelievable.
New York City is just a place for food like this.
The people are here that will taste it.
It's delicious.
And it makes you level up to a place where it has to be good.
You can't miss.
If you miss in New York, you're going to find out fast.
Before all this came, I kind of went down the standard path went to college, got a degree, got a job, mainly worked in finance companies.
I was at JP Morgan for a little bit.
And when I got laid off, I couldn't find a job.
And I was like, I know how to cook, and I think I can sell food.
At that point I signed up for Smorgasburg, which is a food festival in New York City and we sell out in like two hours.
I get a message like four days after it ends like hey, do you want to be on the Great Food Truck Race?
We're casting for it.
We had our ups, we had our downs, we were almost out of the competition, but at the end, we won.
So it really gave me this confidence of like, I have to open a restaurant now.
I had a budget of $70,000, like my life savings.
I've been fasting all day, the sun is down.
It's time for my first bite.
Of course, it's gonna be a chopped cheese.
You know, I don't eat that many anymore, but every time I do, $30,000 was just in the deposit.
There's about $10,000 in electrical work.
I'm making my hot chicken spice mix for today.
$15,000 in equipment.
Just like $10,000 on remodel.
Hello.
What's up?
You coming down?
Nothing.
I'm about to go chop some cheeses.
We've been open for around seven months now.
In September, we made $75,000.
In October, we made $100,000.
November, which is our biggest month, was $140,000.
In December, we did $120,000.
In January, we did $114,000.
In February, we did $113,000.
We got 23, 23.
Make sure you have your tickets, 23.
My rent is 6,100 a month.
I think I spend like 15,000 just on meat.
Employee cost is about like 25, $30,000 a month.
We are profitable, but I'm just kind of investing it back in the business to make sure we have a rain day fund.
I'm surviving off of like laid off severance money right now.
So I don't need the income from the business.
I think for any restaurant to be successful, you have to have people in the door.
And the best way nowadays is to use social media to get people into the doors.
Oh, I saw a video on TikTok, and it was definitely worth the hype.
Like, I saw it on TikTok and stuff.
Moan Appetit was the one, she blew my, she blew my, like, restaurant up.
And she does this, it's a hilarious concept where she erases things by moan.
Oh, yeah.
Pratha, homemade, banging.
In the inside, look at all of that bacon.
It's got aioli, it's got onion, which brings the freshness.
I rate Nishan... 9.1.
Big, dumb number one.
32.
The community aspect of Nishan has been a big, huge boost in the sales itself.
You'll be able to survive if your community shows up for you.
I like supporting local small businesses, especially businesses that are owned by South Asians.
So whenever there's a South Asian business, we have to come and represent.
I say like, we're 1% of America.
99% is everybody else.
If I can capture 1% of 99%, I can survive.
I need to check off every order that's been sent out.
I used to work four hours a day, now I work 14 hours a day.
I wouldn't say I'm overwhelmed, I'm tired.
I would say I'm tired.
My brain is getting fried, bro.
My brain's getting fried.
Standard for everybody, like, that opens up a class casual spot is expand, open up more locations.
That'd be awesome to do.
But I also look at it from an aspect of, like, do the work and the results will come as they are.
And I'm just gonna continue working on that same path, the same attitude that I've had.
And I'm just gonna see what happens.
Garam Masala hot chicken.
Garam Masala hot chicken.
Fifty.
Forty-seven.
The forty-seven come back?
Forty-seven.
I don't want to take these inside.
Everyday, packed house.
It's actually a crazy feeling.
You want me to toss it?
