• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, Yesterday

A “Seinfeld” episode from long ago about a Pakistani immigrant is remembered as one of the revered show’s best episodes.

But was the show in reality an allegory of our nation’s complicated immigration history hiding just beneath the laughter?

Dating back to November 1991 in the third season of “Seinfeld,” the episode -- titled “The Café" -- centers on Babu Bhatt, a would-be restaurateur pursuing the American dream.

The cheerful, hopeful Babu even named his restaurant the Dream Café. His menu reflected his deep respect and reverence for the diversity of cultures he found in America. 

He saw his new restaurant not just as a business, but as a celebration of that diversity -- a melting pot of cultures that he perhaps had not experienced in his native Pakistan.

On the menu were foods of the world, including tacos, moussaka, franks and beans, rigatoni and a turkey sandwich.

The menu reflected Babu’s aim of bringing New York’s disparate cultures together under one roof to build understanding and friendship.

But alas, the restaurant attracted almost no business. It was chronically empty and Babu was sad. But in came an American who offered advice and Babu became hopeful once again.

The American was Jerry Seinfeld, who lived just across the street. He had been observing that the Dream Café was not attracting any business with its eclectic menu.

This Jerry Seinfeld, a comedian, had no restaurant experience or any knowledge of how to run one. 

And yet, he advised his immigrant neighbor anyway to turn the Dream Café into a restaurant serving only Pakistani cuisine.

To Babu Bhatt, the idea made sense. He was Pakistani, and there were no Pakistani restaurants in the neighborhood. So, he remade his restaurant and the same thing happened. Nobody came.

The American’s help was ill-advised -- perhaps a metaphor for the ways in which Americans with all good intentions try to help people, but often find the wrong ways of doing it.

With his restaurant heading toward failure, Babu admonished the comedian by wagging his index finger from side to side and declaring the American to be “a very bad man!” 

The scene became one of the most famous in the history of “Seinfeld” as this struggling immigrant gave voice to his frustration and the frustration of others like him.

The following season, Babu Bhatt’s immigration story continued in a new episode titled “The Visa.” 

In this show, Seinfeld apparently felt so responsible for Babu’s failure as a restaurant owner that he got him a job at Monk’s, the coffee shop where Jerry and his friends often met.

Seinfeld also got Babu an apartment in his building. And once again, the American, wishing in all sincerity to make amends for his mistakes, gives the struggling immigrant a helping hand and a leg up.

But then, a mix-up over mail results in officers of the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service, later to become ICE) arriving to take Babu into custody because his visa had expired. 

The mail snafu is set in motion by the United States Postal Service when a mail carrier mistakenly places Babu’s visa-renewal application in Seinfeld’s mailbox.

The problem is that Seinfeld is away for several weeks and his mail is being held by a friend, Elaine Benes, who is unaware that this important piece of Babu’s mail is mixed in with Jerry’s.

By the time the mix-up is discovered, Babu has already been deported.

The story symbolizes how America traditionally welcomes immigrants, but when they are here, disorganized bureaucracies, such as the USPS in this case, conspire to derail the hopes and dreams of these well-meaning immigrants who come here seeking a better life in the land of opportunity.

Babu Bhatt likely tried to explain to his captors that he never received his visa-renewal application.

Instead of deporting him, someone at the INS might have reached into his desk and said, “Oh, in that case, here’s one.” Welcome to America.

The character of Babu Bhatt, seen in the above screenshot from “The Café,” was played by Brian George.