''Doumar's Cones and BBQ'' is a

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

. Historically, the business operated at the Ocean View Amusement Park. At that location Abe Doumar, the business' creator, is credited with creating the world's first

ice cream cone An ice cream cone, poke (Ireland/Scotland) or cornet (England) is a brittle, cone-shaped pastry, usually made of a wafer similar in texture to a waffle, made so ice cream can be carried and eaten without a bowl or spoon, for example, the Hong Kon ...

Restaurant

Doumar is said to have created the first ice cream cone in 1904 at the St. Louis Exposition. In 1913, Doumar opened a vending location on the

boardwalk A boardwalk (alternatively board walk, boarded path, or promenade) is an elevated footpath, walkway, or causeway built with wooden planks that enables pedestrians to cross wet, fragile, or marshy land. They are also in effect a low type of bridge ...

of the

Virginia Beach Oceanfront Virginia Beach Oceanfront refers to the three mile (4.8 km) long (27 feet wide) boardwalk area in South East Virginia Beach on the Atlantic Coast. It is located North of the Rudee Inlet Bridge and includes the boardwalk itself, Atlantic Avenu ...

in that popular

resort city A resort town, often called a resort city or resort destination, is an urban area where tourism or vacationing is the primary component of the local culture and economy. A typical resort town has one or more actual resorts in the surrounding ...

. Later, he opened another restaurant at Ocean View Amusement Park. After a hurricane destroyed the stands in 1933, Abe's brother George opened the new restaurant at its location on Monticello Avenue in 1934. Doumar's Cones and BBQ is known for its

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke t ...

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...

and curb service with

carhop A carhop is a waiter or waitress who brings fast food to people in their cars at drive-in restaurants. Carhops usually work on foot but sometimes use roller skates, as depicted in movies such as ''American Graffiti'' and television shows such as ...

waitresses who take orders at customer cars. Doumar's Cones and BBQ never offered curb service on skates. Although a curb once separated the restaurant and the service parking area, it has since been paved over. Doumar's Cones and BBQ is usually confused with a similar nearby drive-in, called Schoes, which went out of business. Their curb service girls wore skates and hot pants.

The Doumar Family

Abe Doumar was born in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

in 1881 and moved to the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

around 1895. He brought his mother, father and three brothers (Charlie, George, and John) to the United States prior to his death in 1947. George Doumar, born in 1892, re-built Doumar's and worked at the restaurant until he died in 1974. His son, Albert Doumar, born in 1922 in Norfolk, worked at the restaurant until August 2013, making daily ice cream cones with a cone making machine that dates from 1905. Albert Doumar died after battling bladder cancer on May 14, 2014. A son of George Doumar,

Robert G. Doumar Robert George Doumar (born February 17, 1930) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Early life, education, and career Doumar's father, George Doumar, was from Syria and ...

, is a federal judge. In May 1999, the restaurant was awarded a

James Beard Foundation Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media award ...

in the "America's Classics" category which honors legendary family-owned restaurants around the country. In July 2002, they received the ''

Gourmet Magazine ''Gourmet'' magazine was a monthly publication of Condé Nast and the first U.S. magazine devoted to food and wine. The New York Times noted that "''Gourmet'' was to food what ''Vogue'' is to fashion." Founded by Earle R. MacAusland (1890–1980) ...

'' Award for the best ice cream cones in the US. In August 2008, the restaurant was featured on

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ...

's hit series ''

Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives ''Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives'' (often nicknamed ''Triple D'' and stylized as ''Diners, Drive-Ins, Dives'') is an American food reality television series that premiered on April 23, 2007, on the Food Network. It is hosted by Guy Fieri. The show o ...

''. In 2011, director

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983. He made his directorial debut ...

used Doumar's for a series of promos for the

Ed Schultz Edward Andrew Schultz (January 27, 1954 – July 5, 2018) was an American television and radio host, political commentator, news anchor and sports broadcaster. He was the host of ''The Ed Show'', a weekday news talk program on MSNBC from ...

show as part of

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

's "Lean Forward" campaign. In one episode, Schultz is seen sitting at Doumar's lunch counter when he delivers the line "I need two shows."

Ice cream cone

Legend holds that Abe, at 16, began to sell

paperweights A paperweight is a small solid object heavy enough, when placed on top of papers, to keep them from blowing away in a breeze or from moving under the strokes of a painting brush (as with Chinese calligraphy). While any object, such as a stone, ...

and other items while dressed in

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

robes. One night, he bought a

waffle A waffle is a dish made from leavened batter or dough that is cooked between two plates that are patterned to give a characteristic size, shape, and surface impression. There are many variations based on the type of waffle iron and recipe used ...

from another vendor. Leonidas Kestekidès was a fellow Greek Ottoman who came from Ghent in Belgium with the Fritz waffle machine invented by his cousin Georges Krieger-Zacharidès (Fritz) in 1855 in Brussels. Abe rolled the waffle up and placed a scoop of

on top. He then began selling the cones at the St. Louis Exposition. His cones were such a success that he designed a four-iron baking machine and had a

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

make it for him. At the

Jamestown Exposition The Jamestown Exposition was one of the many world's fairs and expositions that were popular in the United States in the early part of the 20th century. Commemorating the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in the Virginia Colony, it w ...

in 1907, his outlet sold nearly twenty-three thousand cones. After that, Abe bought a semiautomatic 36-iron machine which produced 20 cones per minute.The Ocean View Nickel Tour - Part VII
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References

{{Reflist Restaurants in Virginia Companies based in Norfolk, Virginia Buildings and structures in Norfolk, Virginia Restaurants established in 1934 1934 establishments in Virginia James Beard Foundation Award winners