Ghulam Bombaywala

Ghulam Mohammed "Bombay" Bombaywala is a Pakistani-American restaurateur in Houston. In 1999, Magaret L. Briggs of the Houston Press wrote that Bombaywala was "well-known" and "perhaps most famous for sharing his rags-to-riches tale with Oprah's audience". In 2006 Edward Hegstrom of the Houston Chronicle wrote "Bombaywala's rise to success is practically legend in Houston."

Early life Bombaywala was born and raised in Karachi. He is a Halai Memon, and his family migrated to Pakistan from India during the Partition of 1947.

Career 1970s and 1980s

At age 17, After arriving, he began working as a busboy. At first he had started a chain of convenience stores after saving enough funds to do so. He ultimately earned an associate degree from the University of Houston–Downtown College.

With his saved funds, he bought an Italian restaurant in Montrose, Michelangelo's. In 1989 he, Katz, and Irvin Kaplan, opened Guggenheim's Delicatessen, a New York-style deli located at the intersection of San Felipe and Post Oak Boulevard.

Ernst and Young called Bombaywala the retail entrepreneur of Houston of the year in 1991.

In July 1994 Bombaywala merged Marco's Mexican Restaurants and Billy Blues Food Co., a San Antonio, Texas, chain. The remaining Billy Blues Bar & Grill location on Richmond Avenue in Houston closed in January 2001 . he married a half-Spanish, half-Irish woman. He was married to her for six years and had three children with her. In 1987 he remarried, and as of 2007 he remains married to his second wife.

As of 2004 Bombaywala was a Republican. He planned to vote for George W. Bush as president of the United States in the 2004 presidential election.