Formerly: Doumar's Cones
Norfolk, Virginia · Founded 1904 · Building: 1948; occupied by Doumar's in 1949
Doumar's links a disputed 1904 waffle-cone origin story to a Norfolk carhop restaurant operating at its Monticello Avenue site since 1934.
Doumar's Cones & Barbeque traces its family business story to Abe Doumar's rolled-waffle ice-cream cones at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Abe and George Doumar opened a stand at Norfolk's Ocean View Amusement Park in 1907, and George opened a year-round restaurant at 1919 Monticello Avenue in 1934 after a hurricane damaged Ocean View Park. The current building at the Monticello Avenue property was constructed in 1948 and occupied by the business in 1949.
According to the Doumar family story, Abe Doumar began selling ice cream in rolled waffles at the St. Louis World's Fair. The fair's waffle-cone origin story has multiple competing claimants.
Source: Doumar's Cones & Barbeque, History page; Virginian-Pilot, 'How Abe Doumar made ice cream history: The waffle cone's origin story,' September 5, 2026.
Abe Doumar had a custom four-iron cone machine fabricated after the St. Louis fair; later reporting places its first use around 1905.
Source: Virginian-Pilot, 'How Abe Doumar made ice cream history: The waffle cone's origin story,' September 5, 2026; Doumar's Cones & Barbeque, History page.
Abe and George Doumar opened a cone stand at Ocean View Amusement Park in Norfolk during the Jamestown Exposition.
Source: Doumar's Cones & Barbeque, History page; CoVaBIZ Magazine, 'Norfolk's Doumar's is Three Generations Strong and Still Going,' June 20, 2018.
A hurricane damaged Ocean View Park, prompting George Doumar to pursue a year-round restaurant operation away from the seasonal amusement-park setting.
Source: Doumar's Cones & Barbeque, History page; CoVaBIZ Magazine, 'Norfolk's Doumar's is Three Generations Strong and Still Going,' June 20, 2018.
George Doumar opened a year-round restaurant at the current 1919 Monticello Avenue property, adding barbecue sandwiches and curb service to reduce dependence on seasonal cone sales.
Source: Doumar's Cones & Barbeque, History page; Virginian-Pilot, 'How Abe Doumar made ice cream history: The waffle cone's origin story,' September 5, 2026.
Construction began on the current Doumar's building at 1919 Monticello Avenue.
Source: Doumar's Cones & Barbeque, Our Scrapbook page.
Doumar's moved into the current building at 1919 Monticello Avenue.
Source: Doumar's Cones & Barbeque, Our Scrapbook page.
Doumar's received the James Beard Foundation America's Classics Award.
Source: James Beard Foundation America’s Classics recognition, reported by Grub Street, May 15, 2014.
Doumar's was featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. A later return appearance was announced in 2019.
Source: Doumar's Cones and BBQ historical summary; 13News Now, October 15, 2019; WSET, October 15, 2019.
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The Doumar family has long credited Abe with rolling a waffle into a cone and filling it with ice cream at the 1904 fair. The wider history is disputed: several vendors have claimed cone origins, and a 2026 Virginian-Pilot account describes Abe's role as part of a collaborative fair-era episode involving ice-cream vendor Charles Menches and waffle seller Ernest Hamwi. Abe Doumar remains an important claimant, but sole invention is not established.
The business, local journalism, and a 2018 profile agree that the Norfolk restaurant still uses a four-iron machine associated with Abe Doumar. The machine was fabricated after the 1904 fair and entered service around 1905, not at the fair itself. Original fabrication or ownership records were not reviewed, so the claim is strongly supported but not rated documented.
The family's current history and recent local reporting say George Doumar opened a year-round restaurant at the current 1919 Monticello Avenue property in 1934 after the 1933 hurricane. The current building was constructed later, in 1948, and occupied in 1949, so the claim applies to the restaurant's site history rather than the extant building.
The reviewed sources establish the 1934 year-round restaurant opening at the property and the 1949 move into the current building, but they do not supply a complete year-by-year business, licensing, or closure record. The business should not be described as uninterrupted since 1934 without further documentary research.
Multiple independent retrospective accounts identify Doumar's as a 1999 James Beard Foundation America's Classics honoree, a designation awarded to longstanding regional restaurants.
A 2018 local business profile identifies Thad Doumar, Abe Doumar's great-nephew, as the current owner and says he runs the restaurant with his brother-in-law and business partner Randy. A current Virginia business or licensing record was not reviewed in this pass, so the present-tense ownership claim remains plausible rather than fully documented.
Doumar's has a long Virginia carhop-restaurant history, but the project categorizes it as a restaurant rather than a drive-in movie theater. No statewide inventory of earlier surviving carhop restaurants, their opening dates, or their continuity records was reviewed, so the register does not certify this superlative.
The current Doumar's building on Monticello Avenue was built in 1934.
The restaurant began operating at the 1919 Monticello Avenue property in 1934, but construction of the current building began in 1948 and Doumar's moved into that building in 1949.
Source: Doumar's Cones & Barbeque, History page; Doumar's Cones & Barbeque, Our Scrapbook page.
Doumar's historic four-iron waffle machine dates from the 1904 World's Fair.
The machine was designed and fabricated after the 1904 fair, with later reporting placing it in service around 1905.
Source: Virginian-Pilot, 'How Abe Doumar made ice cream history: The waffle cone's origin story,' September 5, 2026; Doumar's Cones & Barbeque, History page.
Abe Doumar is conclusively proven to have invented the world's first waffle ice-cream cone.
Abe Doumar is a major claimant in the disputed 1904 World's Fair waffle-cone origin story, but multiple vendors have made competing claims and no single inventor is conclusively established by the evidence reviewed.
Source: Virginian-Pilot, 'How Abe Doumar made ice cream history: The waffle cone's origin story,' September 5, 2026; Doumar's Cones & Barbeque, History page.
Ocean View operations ended completely after the 1933 hurricane.
The family history says the 1933 hurricane spurred George Doumar to open a year-round Monticello Avenue restaurant in 1934, but the business's scrapbook also says the Doumars held the Ocean View cone concession from 1907 until 1942. The exact overlap and transition between the two operations need further documentary research.
Source: Doumar's Cones & Barbeque, History page; Doumar's Cones & Barbeque, Our Scrapbook page.
Doumar's survived by preserving the unusually tangible parts of its family history while remaining a practical neighborhood carhop restaurant. Its menu combines barbecue, hamburgers, limeades, and fresh ice cream with cones made on an early four-iron machine associated with Abe Doumar. Thad Doumar, Abe's great-nephew, has been identified in local business reporting as the current owner, continuing a family link that makes the place both a Norfolk institution and a working restaurant rather than a museum piece.
Doumar's traces its family waffle-cone story to Abe Doumar at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, though the fair's cone origin is disputed among several claimants. Abe and George Doumar opened a Norfolk stand at Ocean View in 1907, and George opened a year-round restaurant at 1919 Monticello Avenue in 1934. The present building at that address was constructed in 1948 and occupied by Doumar's in 1949.
The available evidence does not establish Doumar's as Virginia's oldest drive-in-style or carhop restaurant. Doumar's has a Norfolk business lineage tied to 1904, an Ocean View stand from 1907, and a year-round Monticello Avenue restaurant operation from 1934, but no statewide comparison of comparable surviving restaurants and their operating continuity has been completed for this register.
The present Doumar's building at 1919 Monticello Avenue was constructed in 1948, and the business moved into it in 1949. The restaurant had already begun operating at the Monticello Avenue property in 1934, so the 1934 date refers to the restaurant site and business, not the current building.
Abe Doumar is one of the best-known claimants to the waffle cone story at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. His family says he rolled a waffle into a cone and served ice cream in it, but other vendors also made origin claims and a recent local account describes the episode as collaborative. The evidence supports Doumar's central role in the legend, not a settled sole-inventor finding.
Yes, Doumar's still uses a four-iron waffle machine associated with Abe Doumar to make cones at the Norfolk restaurant. The machine was fabricated after the 1904 World's Fair and reportedly entered service around 1905, so it should not be described as a machine used at the fair itself.
1919 Monticello Ave, Norfolk, VA 23517
(757) 627-4163
The official site lists Monday through Saturday hours of 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., with Sunday closure; confirm current hours, carhop availability, and group-tour arrangements directly before visiting.