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The closed DQ Grill & Chill restaurant at 611 E. Tudor Road in Anchorage on Thursday, July 2. (Bill Roth \/ ADN) <\/p>\nThe closed DQ Grill & Chill restaurant at 611 E. Tudor Road in Anchorage on Thursday, July 2. (Bill Roth \/ ADN) <\/p>\n
Three of the four remaining Dairy Queens in Alaska suddenly closed this week without explanation, leaving just one in Soldotna that\u2019s been locally owned for decades. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe franchise owner of the Anchorage, Wasilla and Palmer locations recently closed them,\u201d an official with the Dairy Queen chain said in an email Thursday, without providing the owner\u2019s name. <\/p>\n
The closures mark a sharp turnaround for those shops from nearly 20 years ago, when the success of the franchise in Alaska was marked by record sales at the opening of the Tudor Road location in Anchorage. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sad to see that they\u2019re closing down,\u201d said Greg Todd, who launched that Tudor Road Dairy Queen and also once owned four others in Alaska, two in Anchorage and the ones in Palmer and Wasilla that just closed. <\/p>\n
Todd said he sold the five Dairy Queens on Valentine\u2019s Day in 2017, to retire and spend time with his wife and co-owner, Kathleen.<\/p>\n
The Tudor store did especially well, he said Thursday. <\/p>\n
\u201cEvery Dairy Queen sales record they had, we broke in the first month\u201d at the Tudor location, he said. \u201cWe flew soft-serve up on Alaska Airlines because we we\u2019re going through it so fast. It was just an amazing success.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Tudor location property is owned by Spirit Realty L P Rego Restaurant Group, Anchorage municipal records show. It\u2019s unclear if the company also owned the franchise, or only the restaurant building itself.<\/p>\n
An official with Rego Restaurant Group<\/a>, which is based in Colorado, could not be reached for comment Thursday. <\/p>\n Todd, who now lives outside Alaska, said he doesn\u2019t know why the three Dairy Queens in Alaska closed. <\/p>\n Pete Ischi, who owns the Soldotna Dairy Queen with his former wife Val Ischi, said the closure of the other Dairy Queens is \u201cshocking.\u201d <\/p>\n It happened Tuesday, he said. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re sorry to hear that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had been approached by corporate about possibly buying one or all three of the stores, but we elected not to do it because it\u2019s just too far away for us to operate effectively,\u201d Pete Ischi said. <\/p>\n The Ischi family independently owns the Dairy Queen in Soldotna and they don\u2019t have business ties to the locations that closed, he said. <\/p>\n The closures appear unrelated to anything happing with the chain internationally, which is doing well, he said. <\/p>\n The chain consists<\/a> of more than 7,800 locations in over 20 countries. It\u2019s owned<\/a> by Berkshire Hathaway and is growing<\/a> globally. <\/p>\n Operating a Dairy Queen in Alaska can be challenging, with the huge costs of transporting food to the state, Pete Ischi said. <\/p>\n \u201cWe pay freight to get stuff up to Alaska, where Oregon, Washington, you know, they\u2019ve got the distributors an hour away,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be really diligent, I think, to survive,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Sales at the Soldotna DQ are going strong and the family has no plans to close it, he said. <\/p>\n They\u2019ve owned it more than 40 years. <\/p>\n Phil Ischi, their son, is the manager there and he\u2019s buying it, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not even have a remote thought of closing the Soldotna Dairy Queen,\u201d Pete Ischi said. <\/p>\n