On May 25, 2026, Hamid Kerim posted a short notice on Facebook: "Dolan Uyghur Restaurant is excited to announce the opening of our fifth location in Arlington! We are currently hiring waiters and waitresses to join our growing team." Four days later, What Now DC — the site that tracks restaurant openings and closings across the region — turned it into a story.
"A small but mighty DMV chain is continuing its admirable mission of spreading the authentic and delicious cuisine of central Asia across the region," wrote Kelly Mintzer. She quoted the line from our website that still guides the kitchen — we are "committed to preserving a wide variety of dishes that capture the Uyghur people's unique flavors and culture" — and summed up the group as it stood that spring: two restaurants in Virginia, in Chantilly and Falls Church, one in Rockville, Maryland, and the original in Washington, D.C.
Mintzer noted, fairly, that the announcement was light on details — no address, no opening date — and that What Now DC had reached out for more. The address was no secret to longtime readers of ARLnow, which had reported our Crystal City lease in 2024; the restaurant was taking shape at 320 23rd Street S, on the ground floor of the Quimby on 23rd. But the hiring post was the first public sign that the long-planned Arlington Dolan was finally close.
"While an opening timeline is not publicly available," Mintzer wrote, "the fact that the restaurant is hiring bodes well for Dolan Uyghur to be customer ready relatively soon." She was right. Dolan Arlington soft-opened on July 17, 2026 — seven weeks after the post — with sixty seats, the full Dolan menu and a handful of Turkish and Mediterranean additions.
The article closed with the description of our cooking that has followed us from site to site: "On our menu, you'll find hand-pulled noodles, chicken stew, handmade dumplings, and many more delicious dishes. Our chef prepares each dish with fresh ingredients, authentic recipes, and pride for our culture." We could not have put it better, because we did.
This article is our own account of the coverage; short quotations are attributed to What Now DC, which holds the copyright to the original piece.
