Just a few steps from the Cleveland Park Metro, wrote Jackson Lanzer of The GW Hatchet in February 2022, "sits Dolan Uyghur Restaurant, a gateway to Uyghur culture, history and cuisine." He had come to talk with Hamid Kerim, and he was greeted the way every guest is: by tapestries and art depicting everyday Uyghur life, the herbal scent of freshly steeped tea, and a plate of our most popular dish — Korma Chop, hand-pulled noodles fried with seared beef, grilled vegetables and spice.
The conversation went back to the beginning. Before America, Hamid studied pharmacy at East Turkistan Medical University and started a company while still in college. By his mid-thirties he had fifteen businesses and a hundred employees, trading between China, Turkey and several Central Asian countries. "I had a very beautiful life in my country before," he told Lanzer. "But now everything has changed."
He left in April 2017 with his wife and two children, speaking no English. "I always pray to God, pray to Allah, give me this new life in this free country." He spoke carefully about the family he left behind — a brother sentenced to twenty years, a sister-in-law to seven, their three children raised by his mother — and about why he rarely calls home: he has spoken to the press, and he does not want to make trouble for the people he loves.
The restaurant, he explained, is how he speaks instead. "So I do this business not just for money. I want to change my voice for Uyghur voice. I want American people to know what's Uyghur culture, what's Uyghur food culture." Lanzer noted that Hamid has also hired Uyghurs newly arrived in the United States, giving them work while they finish school or look for jobs in their own fields.
By 2022 the formula was working. Media attention, growing curiosity about Uyghur culture and a menu of fresh, healthy dishes had carried Dolan to a second restaurant in Chantilly. Hamid's dream, he told the Hatchet, was bigger: Uyghur restaurants in all fifty states, introducing the culture to Americans everywhere.
"I am not a politician — I am a businessman," he said. "So from this point, if I can help Uyghurs keep Uyghur culture, keep Uyghur food culture, this is my job and this is my dream."
Four years on, the count stands at five restaurants in three jurisdictions. The Korma Chop is still on the table when a reporter sits down, and the dream is still fifty states.
This article is our own account of the coverage; short quotations are attributed to The GW Hatchet, which holds the copyright to the original piece.
