Satisfied customers lead to successful restaurants. And success for the DQ ® system is as simple today as it was in 1940. Today, the DQ ® system is one of the largest fast food systems in the world, with more than 6,000 restaurants in the United States, Canada and 18 other countries.Īlthough much has changed in the world and in the DQ ® system through the years, one constant has remained: DQ ® restaurants are still, and always have been, the place to find kids' sports teams celebrating a victory, business people on their lunch break and families taking time out to enjoy great food and soft serve treats. DQ.com provides a restaurant locator, menus with nutritional information, franchise details, company history and news. However, shortly after the war, the system took off at a pace virtually unrivaled before or since. When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, there were fewer than 10 Dairy Queen ® stores. Within two hours, he dished out more than 1,600 servings of the new dessert.īack then, food franchising was all but unheard of, but the new product's potential made it a natural for such a system.
CHILL RESTAURANT TRIAL
They contacted Sherb Noble, a good friend and customer, who agreed to run the "all you can eat" trial sale at his walk-in ice cream store. A father and son partnership in Green River, Illinois, had been experimenting with a soft frozen dairy product for some time. Our phenomenal story began with the 10-cent sale of a then unnamed product on August 4, 1938, in Kankakee, Illinois. It's been a combination of hardworking people who own and operate restaurants, and great-tasting food and tempting treats served in our establishments. “We wanted to show people more variety of Korean cuisine.A History of Sweet Success: A Smile And A Story®įor more than 70 years, the DQ ® system's recipe for success has been simple. “I wanted to introduce Korean food, Korean culture to American people,” Kim says. It’s just as common as kimchi, though certainly not as well-known to non-Koreans. In fact, it all starts with the restaurant’s name: “Oiji” refers to Korean pickled cucumbers, a banchan that’s a mainstay of Korean home cooking. What restaurants in Berlin are trendy, hip and cool Where do celebrities and hipsters meet There are restaurants uniting culinary quality with the see. For Kim, this dish is not only a way to introduce diners to Korea’s unique cold noodle culture, but also part of his larger goal of pushing people to think of Korean food as more than just BBQ and bibimbap.
Nothing about these cold noodles is a straight interpretation of familiar naengmyeon in its icy broth, or spicy bibimmyeon or bibimguksu loaded with fresh vegetables and heartily mixed with a gochujang sauce. The menu matches this aesthetic the sense is that the beauty of the restaurant's new home can match Kim's vision for his food which, while Korean at its core, is touched by far-reaching influences. The “mi” in Oiji Mi has a double meaning, literally translating to both “beauty” as well as “flavor.” The restaurant, designed by New York studio AvroKO, is a beautiful space featuring lush interiors recalling classic Manhattan social clubs of the Flatiron area, and colorful wooden accents-a modern architectural nod to traditional Korean houses known as hanok. Crowning Saigon’s AB Tower, Chill Restaurant’s two levels create an illusion of endless space. The ramyun noodles retain their chewy, inviting texture, the lobster parts are cooked separately to prevent overcooking and preserve the meat’s sweetness, and the garnish provides welcome freshness to an otherwise rich dish. As with most memorable dishes, this one is greater than the sum of its parts. Oiji Mi’s lobster ramyun comprises four main parts: fresh, springy ramyun creamy sesame sauce carefully poached lobster bright green garniture. You can trace this recipe’s roots to some of the flavors and techniques found in those traditional chilled noodles, but it’s a wholly unique dish, one that encapsulates a chef’s mission to challenge diners’ perceptions of Korean food.
The dish, available both on a prix fixe menu and a la carte, is a popular holdover from Oiji, the more casual now-closed restaurant of chef-owner Brian Kim.
As a heatwave rolled through New York City last week, a particular version of these noodles haunted my thoughts: a chili lobster ramyun from Oiji Mi in Manhattan. Classic iterations of these chilled, sometimes brothy, noodles include naengmyeon, a tangle of buckwheat noodles in a slushy beef broth and kongguksu, wheat noodles in cold soy milk soup. Cold noodles are a pillar of Korean cuisine, enjoyed year-round but especially when the mercury rises.