WATERTOWN RESTAURANT MANAGER A FINALIST FOR AMERICAN DREAM AWARD
By Edward B. Colby
Daily News Tribune
May 7 2009
MA
Arvik Babakhanlou, general manager of Dedham’s Uno Chicago Grill,
is a finalist for the National Restaurant Association’s American
Dream Award.
DEDHAM — Arvik Babakhanlou Ozcan, the general manager of Uno Chicago
Grill in Dedham, is a national finalist for the National Restaurant
Association’s American Dream Award. Before joining Uno’s in 2008, she
worked in financial and management positions for Chuck E. Cheese’s,
Applebee’s, and Chili’s.
Babakhanlou Ozcan, 48, lives in Watertown with her husband, Zeki.
Q: Were you surprised to learn you’d been named a finalist for this
national restaurant award?
A: I was pleasantly surprised. I never thought my little story would
go that far, so absolutely. I’m overwhelmed.
Q: Can you tell me about your story? It’s quite a story.
A: It is. Anything that humans can cause … I’ve seen in my life. I
was just 2 years old when an earthquake forced my parents to move
from their birth land to Tehran. I lived in Tehran as an Armenian –
a Christian minority in an Islamic country. I was 17 years old when the
revolution began in Iran (in 1979). A year later, the second revolution
started, Islamic power took over – the real revolution. I was there
during the war that started with Iraq. I was supposed to start a life
for myself, and I went to private colleges, I started working.
Then one day when they were bombing Tehran, we took off … we used
to run away from town and take refuge (in a villa) until the bombing
would stop. We were there, it was Ramadan month, and I had some cousins
with me. … We started hiking, and sure enough this Hezbollah group
marching on the road spotted us and tried to attack us. We tried to
run away. I jumped from a cliff, and I broke my back.
Babakhanlou Ozcan explains that after activist friends were killed in
prison and her house was searched three times, she moved to Switzerland
with her two younger sisters at age 23. Nearly three years later,
in 1989, she and one sister came to the United States, settling in
Boston. She immediately started working full-time, and took classes
at Bentley.
Q: How did you get into the restaurant business?
A: My relative used to have a restaurant, a grill. I worked for him for
seven years. Unfortunately he died from cancer, so the sons were forced
to close the restaurant. I couldn’t find any job anywhere because that
was my only experience, and I couldn’t prove to anyone that I was a
general manager (the last four years). … My first opportunity was
Chuck E. Cheese. I took the job, and after going through training,
the week later they promoted me as a general manager. They gave me a
GM position right away, seeing the capacity, experience, and leadership
strength that I had in me.
Q: What are your secret tips for running a restaurant?
A: You have to be firm, number one, very disciplined, passionate,
dedicated, and like to deal with diverse problems.
Q: What is your favorite kind of pizza?
A: I love Farmer’s Market – spinach, eggplant, tomatoes, feta,
mozzarella cheese, caramelized onions, sun-dried tomatoes – any garden
food that you can get into your pizza, you can get it in that. It’s
healthy, delicious, and exquisite.