{"id":17565,"date":"2017-05-11T22:46:21","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T04:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=17565"},"modified":"2017-05-12T08:00:10","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T14:00:10","slug":"name-aside-new-food-truck-and-its-owner-worth-a-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/05\/name-aside-new-food-truck-and-its-owner-worth-a-look\/","title":{"rendered":"Name aside, new food truck, and its owner, worth a look"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Doner\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Ruslan Saifullin, with his wife, Zulfira, and 9-month-old daughter, Latifa, in front of his food truck, D\u00f6ner Trump.<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the newest food trucks in town has generated a lot of discussion, and it hasn’t been about the food.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about the name of the business, D\u00f6ner Trump.<\/p>\n

When owner Ruslan Saifullin put his first post up on the Billings Food Truck Tracker Facebook page<\/a> Sunday, he was met by an unusually heavy outpouring of comments\u2014most of them about that name. Some people said they\u2019d never eat at a truck bearing the name of Trump, while others defended Saifullin.<\/p>\n

Our advice to you, having met Saifullin, is: relax. \u201cD\u00f6ner,\u201d he said, is simply a Turkish word for a kebab sandwich similar to the Greek gyros, and \u201ctrump,\u201d in Australian slang, is another word for \u201cboss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump means boss, like we are the gyros bosses here,\u201d Saifullin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you asked what is D\u00f6ner Trump like, I would say really friendly customer service, natural and healthy food,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd quantity and price is fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, it seems he did have an\u00a0inkling that the name might raise some eyebrows. \u201cGood or bad,” he said, “it would still be advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>He said he likes \u201cshaking people up,\u201d and he enjoys conversation about virtually anything, controversial or not. Which might be the best reason to give D\u00f6ner Trump a try. Saifullin is smart, intense and knowledgeable, and chances are that you\u2019ve never met anyone like him.<\/p>\n

He is 28, a Tatar born in Russia and raised in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Dubai and India. He speaks Kazak, Hindi, English, Turkish and Russian, he said, and his father is Jewish, his mother Muslim.<\/p>\n

Saifullin said he and his wife, Zulfira, a Kazak, both earned college degrees in Kazakhstan, he a bachelor\u2019s in foreign language translation and she a bachelor\u2019s in business and a master\u2019s degree in tourism. They met while working for an American company in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n

He described his wife, a Muslim, as \u201cvery positive, very close to God.\u201d For his own part, he said, raised in a mixed-religion family and then having lived in so many countries, where he visited churches, temples, mosques and shrines, \u201cI decided religion is not for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He believes in God, he said, just not in any particular religion. \u201cIf I\u2019m honest, that\u2019s better,\u201d he said. \u201cGod wants people to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Truck\"<\/a>

Ruslan Saifullin<\/p>

Ruslan Saifullin, with Zulfira behind him, inside the food truck.<\/p><\/div>\n

Their first daughter, now 3, was born in Kazakhstan, Saifullin said, and their lives there were pretty good, but they were fed up with widespread corruption and the lack of opportunity. They had both worked in the United States while they were students, he in New York City and she in Sheridan, Wyo.<\/p>\n

Zulfira had been to Billings many times to shop, Saifullin said, so she was familiar with the town, and Billings topped their list when they thought of leaving for the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing was the people,\u201d Saifullin said. \u201cThe people and the nature and the cost of living.\u201d<\/p>\n

They moved here in the fall of 2015 after Zulfira was awarded a visa under the Diversity Visa Program. A State Department website<\/a> said a limited number of such visas are set aside for immigrants \u201cfrom countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

They hope to gain citizenship eventually, but meanwhile they are here under permanent residency status. That means they can\u2019t vote but have all the other rights and obligations of American citizens. Their second daughter, now 9 months old, was born in Billings.<\/p>\n

Saifullin said he worked as a server in restaurants through his college years, and when he came to Billings he worked for several restaurants, including Dos Machos and the Bull Mountain Grill. And he and his wife have both always loved to cook.<\/p>\n

Saifullin said he acquired a taste for Turkish cuisine while attending a Kazak-Turkish high school, and after researching the food market in Billings he thought people would be receptive to a food truck selling Turkish d\u00f6ners, which are made with beef cooked on a vertical rotisserie, served inside a lavash, similar to a flour tortilla or nan bread, and garnished\u00a0with lettuce, tomato, cucumbers and pickles, and with either a red or white sauce.<\/p>\n

He makes them with chicken, too, he said, and serves them on a baguette for those who don\u2019t want the lavash. He also serves gyros and ice cream and hopes to expand his menu.<\/p>\n

His food truck is actually a 1970s travel trailer, which was in pretty bad shape before he renovated it himself. Since opening for business on May 1, he has usually been parked near the Shipton\u2019s Big R at 216 N. 14th St. He was taking Thursday off, when we caught up with him, because he’s awaiting the arrival of some big colorful banners.<\/p>\n

He said the truck, despite its provocative name, doesn’t catch the eye of passers-by. With or without the banners, though, he\u2019ll be parked at the Department of Veterans Affairs Clinic at 1775 Spring Creek Lane on Friday, starting at 11 a.m.\u00a0The clinic invited him to set up there, Saifullin said, and he was happy to oblige, if it meant serving veterans and giving them easy access to his food truck.<\/p>\n

For the record, he is not a fan of Donald Trump, he but loves the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is really easy and comfortable here for people,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd everyone gets treated the same. I\u2019m always trying to remind people, hey, God bless America.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can also keep up with\u00a0D\u00f6ner Trump on the Facebook page<\/a> Saifullin created for the business.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the newest food trucks in town has generated a lot of discussion, and it hasn’t been about the food. It\u2019s about the name of the business, D\u00f6ner Trump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,18],"tags":[5841,5840,5843,5842],"class_list":["post-17565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","category-diversions","tag-billings-food-truck-tracker","tag-doner-trump","tag-kazakhstan","tag-ruslan-and-zulfira-saifullin","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17565"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17574,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17565\/revisions\/17574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}