24 Reader’s Choice Sunday, June 13, 2021
An advertising supplement of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
BEST CHICKEN
BEST MUSEUM
JUAN POLLO
HISTORIC MCDONALDS MUSEUM
Multiple locations throughout the Inland Empire (909) 885-6234 www.JuanPolloOriginal.com
1398 N E Street San Bernardino, CA 92405 909.885.6324 Open Daily 10 AM – 5 PM
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reat chicken and catering go hand-in-hand at Juan Pollo, where succulent rotisseried chicken is a carefully honed art form of perfect timing and seasoning, and the price of a catered meal of chicken, beans, rice, salsa and tortillas is only about $5.50 per guest! Since Juan Pollo debuted in Ontario in 1984 after founder Albert Okura spent several years “working in the shadows of the Inland Empire” to learn the secret to unleashing the power of chicken, it’s grown to include more than two dozen locations in Southern California. Okura is as demanding about the owners of franchised stores as he is about the proper roasting of chicken (“It looks simple, but it’s not,” he insists. Cooking for three hours after marinating overnight is his recipe for a tender, tasty chicken cooked the Chihuahua, Mexican-way. Every franchise (except for Okura’s two stores) is owned by a former Juan Pollo employee, many of whom first worked for Okura in their teens, when they learned the detailed process that makes Juan Pollo chicken so consistently delectable. Thanks to Okura’s entrepreneurial genius as well as cooking and training skills, customers get great chicken (70,000 birds a week) every time and even though those former employees and now successful franchise owners didn’t have the opportunity for a higher education, “their kids are graduating college,” Okura says proudly.
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ast food, especially McDonald’s, is paradoxically personal – that must be why this “unofficial” museum in a humble San Bernardino neighborhood draws up to 200 visitors per day, many from around the world. They hear about the tribute to the original McDonald’s on social media and through the Internet. ! It is located on the site of Dick and Maurice McDonald’s first restaurant (opened Dec. 12, 1948, demolished in 1972) to use McDonalds’ assembly-line “Speedee” system for delivering lots of consistently good hamburgers, fries, and shakes, very quickly. When milkshake machine salesman Ray Kroc saw why the place needed so many of his multi-mixers – well, the rest is history.
The museum’s owner, Juan Pollo founder Albert Okura, might call it destiny. He grew up eating McDonald’s and it changed his life by finding him a home in the fast food business. A huge admirer of Kroc, the McDonalds, and their model of providing affordable food to all and business opportunities to anyone with determination, in 1998 Okura bought the property almost on a fluke and launched its Grand Opening on Dec. 12, McDonalds’ 50th anniversary. Twenty-two years later, it’s an international tourist hot-spot!