Ali’s Roti Restaurant has been serving Indian-Caribbean dishes in Mattapan for 35 years while Boulevard Cleaners has been providing laundry services in the neighborhood for 60 years.

Now the two businesses, each started and run by immigrants, are among 30 honored this year with Boston Legacy Business Awards that Mayor Wu announced in late May. They were presented on Tuesday evening (June 3) at a reception in partnership with The Dorchester Reporter.

In addition to plaques that they can hang in their shops, the businesses will receive technical assistance with focuses on succession planning and employee ownership as well as free legal consultation and advice for dealing with commercial leases.

ALI’s ROTI

Standing and greeting almost every customer who comes into his restaurant, Nazir Ali, the owner and founder of Ali’s Roti, has worked for more than three decades to make his dream come to life.

He migrated from Trinidad and Tobago after living there with his wife, who was born and raised in Dorchester and wanted to return home, and children for a couple of years.

“I followed love,” said Ali, who arrived in the United States with almost nothing. Back home, he had worked as a painting contractor, but when he converted his earnings to US dollars, it amounted to very little.

“I’ve never worked so hard for so little in my life,” said Ali, remembering those early days.

Initially, he planned to move to Florida and start a taxi business there, but his wife insisted on Boston. Although he had been a painting contractor for over 20 years in Trinidad and Tobago, that business thrived on networking, he said. Because he didn’t know anybody in Boston, he said, he pivoted to his second idea: a restaurant.

Ali’s Roti began with him, his wife, and his in-laws, and with his children helping on weekends and during summers while they were growing up.

Although none of his current employees are immediate family now, he says they are all “like children, brothers and sisters.” Some have been working there for more than 25 years.

The restaurant’s signature dish, roti, is an Indian-Caribbean flatbread filled with different curry fillings such as curry potato, chicken, shrimp, and vegetables. The menu also includes chicken curry, beef curry, goat curry, and steamed cabbage.

“I have a policy that I implemented: If a customer is wrong, we make them right,” he said. “If it costs us a meal, we’ll take the loss. We don’t want to lose a customer.”

City Councillor Brian Worrell says he often eats there with his colleagues, craving not only the rotis but also the restaurant’s ambience.

“It’s like a reunion, like you’re running into family, friends from school, people from work,” he said. “It’s just a special place.” From their seats in the restaurant’s red booths, diners have a direct view into the kitchen where they can watch the cooks make the rotis.

Winning a Legacy Business award feels unnatural, Ali said. “I was an award giver,” he said, not the other way around, referring to the various times the restaurant has donated awards for church, clubs and carnivals in the neighborhood.
His restaurant means everything to him, said Ali. “I do get emotional when I talk about it.”

BOULEVARD CLEANERS

Above, Peter Papadogiannis, co-owner of Boulevard Cleaners, is shown in the Blue Hill Avenue business last month. “I look at them as family,” he says of his longtime customers. Hannah Roderick photo

Brothers Peter and Dimitrios Papadogiannis are the essence of Boulevard Cleaners & Tailors, a laundry service that has served customers from all over Massachusetts since the 1960s.

“I look at them as family,” said Peter, the owner. “We love everybody here,” said Dimitrios, Peter’s right hand man.

The moment you step inside Boulevard Cleaners, your eyes fix on a wall filled with photos that tell of the family’s odyssey to Mattapan. They start with scenic landscapes of Greece, including Athens, Santorini, and Ioannina, and end with images of the Boston skyline.

The brothers’ late uncle opened Boulevard Cleaners after migrating from Greece during the political turmoil of the 1960s, seeking a better life in America. The brothers and their mother followed in 1977, and their father joined them two years later

When they first arrived, Dimitrios, who was 19, worked at a bakery in the Fenway to help pay the bills, while Peter, then 14, attended high school. After graduation, Peter started working in the laundry business with his uncle. Dimitrios joined later – he had opened his own business, but shut it down after the 9/11 attacks.

Together, they’ve continued their uncle’s legacy, which has earned them a Legacy Business Award.

“It’s an honor,” Dimitrios said. “It’s not just for us. The award is for everybody.” 

Peter said he has avoided the temptation to raise prices in difficult times because he wants to keep his customers. “I’d rather work a little harder instead of raising my prices.” 

Some customers keep bringing their laundry to Boulevard even after moving out of town, the brothers said. Customers come from as far as Brockton, Framingham, and Martha’s Vineyard, they said.

The brothers’ fun-filled ways and easygoing personalities have helped build long-lasting relationships with customers. “We joke all the time,” Peter said.

That’s especially true on April Fool’s Day, when they have made a habit of pulling pranks on customers. This year, they said, a customer pulled up early in the morning and parked next to the curb. He stepped in to pick up his clothes and was faced with worrisome looks.

“Did you notice you have a flat tire on the rear?” Peter recalled telling him. The customer turned around to check out his car and was greeted by laughter from behind the counter.

“April Fools,” the brothers said.

This story is part of a partnership between the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston University Department of Journalism.