Baghdad's embattled residents can finally get their milkshakes,chili-cheese dogs and buckets of crispy fried chicken. Original recipe or extraspicy, of course.
A wave of new American-style restaurants is spreading across the Iraqi capital,enticing customers hungry for alternatives to traditional offerings like lambkebabs and fire-roasted carp.
The fad is a sign that Iraqis, saddled with violence for years and stillexperiencing almost daily bombings and shootings, are prepared to move on andembrace ordinary pleasures — like stuffing their faces with pizza.
Iraqi entrepreneurs and investors from nearby countries, not big multinationalchains, are driving the food craze. They see Iraq as an untapped market ofincreasingly adventurous eaters where competition is low and the potentialreturns are high.
"We're fed up with traditional food," said government employee Osamaal-Ani as he munched on pizza at one of the packed new restaurants last week."We want to try something different."
Among the latest additions is a sit-down restaurant called Chili House. Itsglossy menu touts Caesar salads and hot wing appetizers along with all-Americanentrees like three-way chili, Philly cheesesteaks and a nearly half-pound"Big Mouth Chizzila" burger.
On a recent afternoon, uniformed servers navigated a two-story dining roombustling with extended families and groups of teenagers. Toddlers wandered aroundan indoor play area.
The restaurant, located in the upscale neighborhood of Jadiriyah, is connectedto Baghdad's only branch of Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken, a U.S. chainconcentrated in a handful of Midwestern and Southern states.
Azad al-Hadad, managing director of a company called Kurdistan Bridge thatbrought the restaurants to Iraq, said he and his fellow investors decided toopen them because they couldn't find decent fried chicken and burgers in Iraq.He called the restaurants a safe investment for companies like his that aregetting in early. He already has plans to open several more branches in thenext six months.
"Everybody likes to eat and dress up. This is something that brings peopletogether," he explained. "People tell us: 'We feel like we're out ofBaghdad. And that makes us feel satisfied.'"
Baghdad's Green Zone and nearby U.S. military bases once sported outposts ofbig American chains, including Pizza Hut, Burger King and Subway, but they shutdown as American troops left last year. Because they were hidden behindcheckpoint-controlled fortifications, most ordinary Iraqis never had a chanceto get close to them, anyway.
Yum Brands Inc., owner of the Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC chains, has no plansto return to Iraq for now, spokesman Christopher Fuller said. Burger Kingdeclined to comment on its Iraq plans, and Subway did not respond.
Dining out in Iraq is not without risk. Ice cream parlors, restaurants andcafes were among the targets of a brutal string of attacks that tore throughIraq on Aug. 16, leaving more than 90 people dead.
Iraqis say the chance to relax in clean surroundings over a meal out is worththe gamble. For them, the restaurants are a symbol of progress.
"This gives you a feeling the country's on the right track," saidWameed Fawzi, a chemical engineer enjoying Lee's fried chicken strips with hiswife Samara.
Baghdad's Mansour district is the heart of the fast-food scene.
At the height of sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, it was tough to findshops open along the neighborhood's main drag. Militants targeted shop ownersin a campaign to undermine government efforts to restore normality.
These days, roads are packed with cars. The traditional Arabic restaurants longpopular here now find themselves competing against foreign-sounding rivals suchas Florida Fried Chicken, Mr. Potato, Pizza Boat and Burger Friends.
There is even a blatant KFC knockoff called KFG, which owner Zaid Sadiq insistsstands for Kentucky Family Group. He said he picked the name because he wantedsomething similar to the world-famous fried chicken chain. And he believes hischicken is just as good.
"In the future my restaurant will be as famous as KFC. Why not?" hesaid.
One of Mansour's newest additions is Burger Joint, a slick shop serving uprespectable burgers and milkshakes to a soundtrack that includes Frank Sinatra.It is the creation of VQ Investment Group, a firm with operations in Iraq andthe United Arab Emirates.
Its Mansour store is outfitted with stylish stone walls and flat-screentelevisions. Another branch just opened across town in the commercial districtof Karradah.
The group also runs the Iraq franchises of Pizza Pizza, a Turkish chain, and isplanning to launch a new hot submarine sandwich brand called Subz.
Mohammed Sahib, VQ's executive manager in Iraq, said business has been good sofar.
Even so, running a restaurant in Iraq is not without its challenges.
Burger Joint's servers had to give up the iPads they originally used to takeorders because the Internet kept cutting out, he said. Finding foreigningredients such as Heinz ketchup and year-round supplies of lettuce is alsotricky, and many customers need help understanding foreign menu items like milkshakesand cookies.
Health experts are predictably not thrilled about the new arrivals.
"The opening of these American-style restaurants ... will make Iraqis,especially children, fatter," said Dr. Sarmad Hamid, a physician at aBaghdad government hospital. But even he acknowledged that the new eateriesaren't all bad.
"People might benefit psychologically by sitting down in a quiet, cleanand relatively fancy place with their families, away from the usual chaos inIraqi cities," he said.
Purveyors of traditional Iraqi specialties, who might be expected to oppose theforeign-looking imports, don't seem to mind at all.
Ali Issa is the owner of fish restaurant al-Mahar, which specializes inmasgouf, the famous Iraqi roasted carp dish. He said every country in the worldhas burger and fried chicken restaurants, so why shouldn't Iraq?
Besides, he said, he and his family are fans of "Kentucky," the nameIraqis use for fried chicken, regardless of where it's made.
"Sometimes we need Kentucky. Not just fish, fish, fish," he said.