Restaurateur in thick of Dalton civic soup

DALTON, Ga. — It’s been a long journey from Pakistan for Dalton Depot owner and charity leader T.J. Kaikobad.

Mr. Kaikobad attended Karachi Grammar School, a strict private school in Pakistan, with Bhutto family siblings. He said he knew Benazir Bhutto, who became Pakistan’s prime minister and who was assassinated while running for re-election in 2007, and he was very good friends with one of her younger brothers.

He said he and Benazir Bhutto’s older brother once staged a school walkout to protest some of the strict rules at Karachi, where a former British colonel was principal.

“What’s going on in Pakistan saddens me tremendously,” Mr. Kaikobad said. “One day when the political situation improves, I’ll have to go back and take care of some personal and business things.”

In 1976 Mr. Kaikobad’s family moved to Indiana, where he attended Indiana University of Law. A $50 bet with his college roommate ended his pursuit of a law degree and launched his trek to Dalton, he said.

One day his roommate was complaining about his work at a restaurant in Bloomington, Ind.

“I told him he sounded like a cranky old woman,” Mr. Kaikobad recalled. So the roommate, who was also his cousin, bet Mr. Kaikobad that he couldn’t handle restaurant labor.

Because of his long hair, Mr. Kaikobad was assigned to work with the restaurant’s wine collection and not on the restaurant floor. Food and wine proved fascinating for the college boy, and he eventually cut his hair. By the end of that summer he was promoted to maitre d’.

Like a musician who plays by ear, Mr. Kaikobad said, he also had a natural talent for cooking.

“I could just eat something, and I could tell all the ingredients in it,” he said. “Then I could go home and recreate that dish.”

Mr. Kaikobad worked with a restaurant management group in Atlanta; opened his own restaurant in Rome, Ga., called The Landings; and finally opened the Dalton Depot in 1990.

Sarah Harrison, director of the Downtown Dalton Development Authority, said Mr. Kaikobad and the Depot are anchors in the community.

“He is a business leader and a mentor for kids and other restaurant owners,” she said. “He has also let the restaurant be used for countless charitable events.”

Mr. Kaikobad is involved in a number of charitable efforts in Dalton, but he said helping and protecting children is his primary focus. The Dalton Depot is a partner with Varnell Elementary and Westwood Elementary schools.