“We’re here and we’re willing to work to start our own businesses,” she said. “And not everyone is doing that here.”
Makhmudova’s father, Sabirzhon, is the owner of Dayton Village Pizza Restaurant. Customers can find Gulnaz flitting from the kitchen to their tables, sometimes sporting a pair of strawberry-covered Crocs.
Dayton Village Pizza’s menu is a marriage of cultures — calzones, hoagies, pizzas and classic appetizers are available, as are traditional Turkish and Mediterranean recipes like savory kebabs and pilaf, Makhmudova said.
Her family loves to share good food with the community, Makhmudova said, regardless of a person’s background. And the business sees a diversity of customers: some are Turkish, others are native Daytonians. Still more are truck drivers traveling on I-75.
“People come here with their families,” she said. “Some want something traditional. Others want to try something new. And we welcome all of them.”
Several of its specialty pizzas — Greek, Philly steak, meat lovers and vegetable pies — are more popular among Dayton Village Pizza customers.
But customers wanting a more traditional Turkish meal can try a platter of chicken sashlik (skewered chicken) and Adana kebab (a long strip of minced meat), served with sides like carrot slaw and other traditional salads, rice pilaf and Turkish bread.
Gulnaz said cooking is a way to share a part of her life story with loved ones and strangers alike. Ahiska Turks were deported from the region above the Georgia-Turkey border in the 1940s by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. From there, many fled to Uzbekistan. This is where Gulnaz Makhmudova was born.
But thousands of Ahiska Turks were forced to flee from Uzbekistan in the late 1980s due to extreme violence. This second displacement saw many Ahiska Turks retreating back into parts of Russia. The Makhmudovas themselves spent part of their lives in Russia — an extremely difficult time for her family, where they toiled away in labor-intensive jobs with little support, Gulnaz Makhmudova recalls.
But when they came to the United States more than 20 years ago as refugees, Gulnaz Makhmudova (a teenager at the time) says America was “just like the movies” to her.
“Watching Columbia Pictures, that’s the America we learned about,” Gulnaz Makhmudova said.
And through the refugee resettlement program, the Makhumodovas were connected to housing, transportation, and an intensive series of English classes in Connecticut, their first taste of life in the U.S.
Gulnaz learned much of the language in just four months and often translates on behalf of friends who speak Russian or Turkish.
“We were able to be successful this way,” she said. “We met new people in a new culture and made friends. We felt supported.”
Gulnaz said that it was in Connecticut that her father learned the ins and outs of working in a pizzeria, but his dream of opening his own business came to reality in Dayton a few years ago.
Achieving that dream wasn’t without challenge. Sabirzhon Makhmudova purchased the Harrison Twp. building, which previously housed a Denny’s restaurant, in 2018. The next year, the restaurant was damaged by the Memorial Day tornadoes that significantly impacted its Northridge neighborhood.
The family had to repair parts of the building before it could officially open in 2021. But since then, the small crew that runs the pizza shop has been busy.
Gulnaz views the restaurant as a space for the community. Parts of the restaurant are set up with decor for birthday parties and baby showers, as celebrations are often booked at the pizzeria.
“We want people to feel at home here,” she said.
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