Name

Ok, a lot of people (outside of my 3 followers) asked me where does OZEN come from? It is actually a very short story.

6 years ago my parents started a restaurant on the south shore of Montreal, after 35 years in the restaurant business they were to finally have the chance to experience an "overnight" success, a 35 year overnight success. The restaurant took off. Usually any business takes its time to mature but not this one, within 5 months it drew a crowd of enthusiasts and mavens that would spread the word like wild fire that a new restaurant opened its door in St-Lambert. Thus the birth of Zen Asia Restaurant. The spring rolls were a hit and if you have never tried them, next time you come to Montreal come to one of our 2 restaurants I know you won't be disappointed.

Anywho, a year ago under a tree, Melissa and I were reading at a park near our house with a new puppy, it must have been in July. Suddenly an apple fell off the tree and hit me on the head and I discovered the law of gravity!!!! No, not really, no apple just a tree, seriously, as I was reading E-Myh from Gerber (a fantastic book for anyone who would like to start a business) it dawn on me that I could merge my parent's product with a existing business model. So Melissa and I started to imagine the many possibilities now in front of us and the future seem much brighter than it looked at the time. The idea was met with great enthusiasm by both Alain and my parents.

So the idea was born, but what were we going to call it? I thought of calling it "DUY the BEST Restaurant EVER" but it was too much of a mouthful and I would have to explain how to pronounce my name and yadyayadyada or simply surrender that people would say DOOEY (a very selected few good friends call me that). Anyway, we were still on the hunt for a new name, since Zen Asia already had a based clientele and we wanted to draw on their market power we struggled in finding a suitable name and incorporating the word Zen Asia. So Zen Asia Express was thrown in the mix, Zen Asia II was flung in the conversation. Couldn't settle for one name, we just new Zen Asia was to be included, damn name.

One night Melissa and I were eating at our friends, interestingly enough we were eating take out from my parent's restaurant and shared our vision with our friends about our new venturet. Melissa started to talk about how we wanted to provide a healthy option to the fast food industry and that is when our friend blurted out: "why not call it option zen or zen option". From there the seed was planted. Many weeks later Melissa thought of OZEN and wanted to do a play on word because french people would then say: "On va au OZEN" which would be crudely translated as " We are going TO TOZEN". We thought it was fantastic and we settled on the name, until my parents said we needed toput in Asia because of the existing clientele. If we called OZEN ASIA the existing customers would be able to make the link between the two companies.

So we went ahead and incorporated OZEN ASIA, even though our heart was set on OZEN. Anyway here is where bill 101 in Quebec came into play. If you are not aware of that bill it is there to insure the protection of the french language. Well, the Office de la Langue Francaise, decline our request for OZEN ASIA, saying that it was not compatible with the bill. We said FINE, we will call ourselves, Le Groupe OZEN ASIA. They still decline stating this for a reason: OZEN is a made up word so it is not french and Asia is an english word. To make a story short, thanks to Bill 101, we got back to OZEN and thus was born, Le Groupe OZEN and OZEN Group.

I knew there was some good in all evil! Thank you Bill 101.