Type Restaurant franchise Headquarters Canada Founded 1954 | Industry Food service Website Official Website | |
 | ||
Profiles | ||
Dic Ann's Hamburgers is a fast-food restaurant chain based in the Montreal Metropolitan Area, Canada.
Contents
History
Founded in 1954, Dic Ann's is best known for their extremely thin hamburgers, which are topped with their own hot sauce, and served with a wooden stick, which is used to pick up the burger. Their poutine is also served with mozzarella cheese and Dic Ann's hot sauce and their french fries are cooked in 100% peanut oil. They serve only Pepsi and other brands of soft drinks owned by Pepsico. The walls of Dic Ann's restaurants are adorned by signed photos, caps and hockey sticks from Quebec sports figures and celebrities.
The chain consists of 14 restaurants in the greater Montreal area, Montreal North, Marché Central, Chomedey (Laval), Anjou, Terrebonne, St. Jérôme, Repentigny, Vimont (Laval), Ste-Thérèse, Longueuil, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Joliette and St. Eustache. The location closest to downtown Montreal is located on Ste-Catherine St., between Guy and Atwater.
Dic Ann's restaurants are not listed in local phone directories. Except for the new Marché Central location, Ste-Thérèse, and Ste-Catherine, none of the restaurants are open on Mondays and some are closed on Tuesdays as well.
Founders
The name, Dic Ann, is an amalgam of the founders' names, Dominic "Dic" Potenza (1918–2009) and wife Ann Collecchia. Dominick Potenza was born in Century, West Virginia and was raised in Utica, New York. During the 1940s, he worked as a head-waiter in the supper-club restaurants in the Rochester, New York and Buffalo, New York areas. It was at one of these clubs that he met his future wife, a jazz accordionist who performed using the stage name of Ann Russell. In 1954, they moved back to Ann's home town of Montreal, and opened a burger shack on the corner of Cremazie and Papineau. Two years later, the success of this operation led them to open a larger restaurant in the suburb of Montreal North. This location had a 15-stool counter (outdoors), and was closed during the winter months. In 1960 they enclosed in the customer area, and became a year-round operation. Ann died on July 7, 1988, and "Mr. Dic", as he was known, died on October 28, 2009. Their two children Donnie and Maria, along with their spouses Brigitte and Alex, and now their grandchildren, Delbina, Anthony, Traci, Jessica, Domenick, Anamaria and Joseph, continue the operation and oversee its expansion.