In 1954, a shiny new Dairy Queen was built at 349 N. Railroad Ave. in Paxton \u2014 a little less than 15 years after the 1940 opening of the chain\u2019s first location in Joliet, per the company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
The Paxton location, a small shop that just sells ice cream, drinks and desserts, \u201creally has pretty much stayed the same\u201d since the 1950s, said co-owner Ray Umble.<\/p>\n
Until now, that is. As of today, Umble and his wife\u2019s restaurant is now officially Dairy Dream, something locals realized a day or two before the menu changed, thanks to a fresh paint job by local artist Nate Grice.<\/p>\n
Umble told The News-Gazette that Dairy Queen had determined that his location and others did not meet its \u201cmodern standards\u201d and would have to make renovations to reflect the brand\u2019s current look.<\/p>\n
Rather than shell out about $200,000 or more to make the required changes \u2014 which Umble said were mostly cosmetic \u2014 he decided to cut ties with the company.<\/p>\n
Across the Ford-Iroquois County line, a Dairy Queen in Cissna Park is also rebranding, with plans to become Thomas Grill & Creamery.<\/p>\n
Co-owner Ashleigh Verkler said the store faced the same modernization issue as the Paxton location. The Verklers are also stepping away from the business due to their daughter\u2019s health and are handing the reins to Brandon and Rhonda Thomas, who will take over Aug. 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have complete confidence that they will continue serving this community with kindness, integrity, and a genuine love for people,\u201d the Verkler family wrote in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n
Aug. 14 will be the location\u2019s last day as a Dairy Queen, and former employees are invited to stop by at 6 p.m. Aug. 6 for a reunion.<\/p>\n
Umble said the newly dubbed Dairy Dream has a menu similar to what his customers are used to, but not identical.<\/p>\n
Leaving the chain means leaving behind Dairy Queen\u2019s proprietary products and getting different ingredients, but he thinks the ice cream mix from his new supplier will be \u201ca little bit of a richer flavor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re actually going to expand the flavors for our mixers and our sundaes and shakes and all that, and our frozen coffee beverages,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we think it\u2019s going to be a good thing overall.\u201d<\/p>\n
There have been some rumors on social media that the newly rebranded business might face competition from a new Dairy Queen off Interstate 57.<\/p>\n
Dairy Queen\u2019s corporate communications team provided the following statement from an individual simply identified as a DQ franchise owner with the franchise rights for the Paxton area:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe franchise owner of the DQ restaurant at 349 Railroad Avenue in Paxton signed a contract with another existing franchise owner to relinquish their DQ franchise rights in Paxton. This agreement was between the two franchise owners, and American Dairy Queen Corporation was not involved. It is premature to share details about any proposed location in this area at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI will not confirm or deny the possibility of a Dairy Queen going into the new gas station\/convenience store\u201d being developed at 580 S. Cherry St., said Paxton Mayor Bill Ingold.<\/p>\n
The Cherry Street site is about a mile away from Dairy Dream.<\/p>\n
Umble also could not address the rumor.<\/p>\n
As for the corporate changes Umble mentioned, the American Dairy Queen Corp. told The News-Gazette that the company strives \u201cto maintain the highest standards at DQ restaurants to meet and exceed fan expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect that franchise owners will, at minimum, meet our operational standards in restaurant appearance, food and treat quality, and fan experience,\u201d it said. \u201cAs with many franchisors, contract renewal often requires improvements or upgrades to existing locations, and the locations in Paxton and Cissna Park remain DQ restaurants at this time. Additionally, there is no strategy to convert all iconic DQ restaurants to our latest design standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company provided the statement just after 5 p.m. Friday, which was before either rebrand would officially go into effect.<\/p>\n
Umble said that the chain\u2019s requirements for his shop would\u2019ve meant getting rid of \u201call the nostalgic feel of this Dairy Queen that we had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apart from spending $30,000 on a new ice cream machine, which the business did end up buying, the other mandated changes were largely \u201ccosmetic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we\u2019d be looking at like $170,000 in cosmetic changes, and we just couldn\u2019t \u2014 we would never recoup that money,\u201d Umble said.<\/p>\n
Verkler likewise said her restaurant, which is larger than the Paxton location, would\u2019ve had to spend \u201ca massive amount of money\u201d to meet the chain\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a food store, and our dining room seats like 75 people,\u201d she said. \u201cSo we were going to have to get rid of our tables, our chairs, our decor, our grill, our warmers, like everything. They wanted everything changed over to the new and improved \u2014 which, I mean, there\u2019s nothing wrong with that. It was just not financially feasible for us in a town of 800 people.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also said that being an independent franchise owner can be challenging because it means filling out monthly reports and undergoing certain inspections on top of what\u2019s already required by the local health department.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, there\u2019s nothing wrong with that,\u201d Verkler said. \u201cBut it just requires us to be here every time they would come for an inspection. You don\u2019t get a phone call when that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that she has a sick child and has \u201cto be a mom first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verkler told The News-Gazette that the stipulations coming down from corporate are a relatively recent change for area franchisees.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just becomes easier to just beat your own drum, change your name and do your own thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1954, a shiny new Dairy Queen was built at 349 N. Railroad Ave. in Paxton \u2014 a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[29747,4843,117819,9524,36432,9,24,63,122,124,123,1302,821],"class_list":["post-311486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-dairy","tag-dairy-queen","tag-food-companies","tag-food-industry","tag-franchising","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-restaurant","tag-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}