Once upon a time there were two types of Dairy Queens. Some were just ice cream, but the ones called "Dairy Queen Braizer" sold hot food too. Eventually they all sold hot food.
I mean, it's not an actual answer. It's just a historic fact.
The actual answer is that diversifying your product offerings gets you more business. People like desserts after eating a meal, so it makes sense to also sell that meal.
And they need to do something with calves. Cows only produce milk after giving birth, and dairy producers are not going to keep a freeloader around. /s
Here's the fun part: while you're all talking about their ice cream, technically it's not legal to call their product that. You won't see it anywhere on the menu. I think it has to do with the milk/cream/egg/sugar amounts? There may not be egg at all, but can't remember for sure.
Anyway, all you'll ever see on the menu is "soft serve"
Funny enough, the milk they use (at least the supplier to the store I managed) is nonfat milk. So the first listed ingedient is nonfat milk, and the second is milk fat, lol.
Oh, for sure. Especially during pumpkin pie blizzard season. Plus they always seem to feed my FOMO with some other flavor so I go twice during that season alone
Yeah, soft serve is just frozen sugar milk, comes in cartons like regular milk and you can totally just drink it, tastes a bit like whole milk but clearly with an unhealthy amount of sugar in it.
One other thing I haven't seen mentioned is selling ice cream is only a sustainable business for a few months out of the year in many places. Whereas you can sell burgers/dogs/etc year-round. But yeah, as far as I know they've always sold fast food - their burgers were a fave of mine when I was a kid in the 70s.
Wow that's neat. There's a Dairy Queen sort of near me, I've driven past it a million times, but I thought they only sold ice cream so I've never gone in.
That is entirely different store to store. The one I managed and our sister store (owned by the same family) used a conveyer belt style flame broiler (automatic broiler). Far more consistent and less labor intensive.
There is a whole section to each DQ for Regional Menu. Some places will have Steak Fries, or... I can't remember what else. In the North West (US) we had Ultimates and Deluxe burgers, which were the smaller patties (want to say 1/6lb), american cheese, and thousand island dressing (Ultimates were doubles and had bacon as well).
When I was at DQ School in Minneapolis, i got to meet store managers and owners from all over, and it was really interesting to learn all the regional fare (and apparently South American DQs, at least then, were purely Treat Centers, which is what I imagine OP was assuming they'd all be).
Once upon a time there were two types of Dairy Queens. Some were just ice cream, but the ones called "Dairy Queen Braizer" sold hot food too. Eventually they all sold hot food.
Thanks for the actual answer!
I mean, it's not an actual answer. It's just a historic fact.
The actual answer is that diversifying your product offerings gets you more business. People like desserts after eating a meal, so it makes sense to also sell that meal.
Historic facts can be an answer.
But it's not the answer to your question. The answer to your question is business/financially related.
Not necessarily. It could be "Why does Dairy Queen sell food (unsaid part: when I expect it to only sell ice cream?")
A: because it used to only sell ice cream in the past.
That's not an answer to why, though. Only selling something in the past doesn't explain why they do it now. Making more money is the real explanation.
Why can just mean explain something that is unexpected. Which you did with the history lesson. It doesn't have to answer causality.
They’ve got to do something with the cows once they’re too old to milk.
And they need to do something with calves. Cows only produce milk after giving birth, and dairy producers are not going to keep a freeloader around. /s
That's the veal industry
That makes too much sense :/
DQ has surprisingly good chili dogs. Their burgers aren't bad, if you omit the ketchup.
Their chicken tenders are some of the best fast food tenders you can get too. Plus they come with sourdough toast
Here's the fun part: while you're all talking about their ice cream, technically it's not legal to call their product that. You won't see it anywhere on the menu. I think it has to do with the milk/cream/egg/sugar amounts? There may not be egg at all, but can't remember for sure.
Anyway, all you'll ever see on the menu is "soft serve"
Ice cream has to be at least 10% butterfat and 20% milk solids according to the FDA.
DQ soft serve is 5% butterfat so would not legally qualify as ice cream, though it would qualify as low fat ice cream.
I do believe that most soft serve is a similar fat percentage, and also has much more air per volume than traditional ice cream.
Also, I must say as an ice cream aficionado, I do love me some soft serve and I would never disparage it by calling it "not real ice cream."
Funny enough, the milk they use (at least the supplier to the store I managed) is nonfat milk. So the first listed ingedient is nonfat milk, and the second is milk fat, lol.
Oh, for sure. Especially during pumpkin pie blizzard season. Plus they always seem to feed my FOMO with some other flavor so I go twice during that season alone
Yeah, soft serve is just frozen sugar milk, comes in cartons like regular milk and you can totally just drink it, tastes a bit like whole milk but clearly with an unhealthy amount of sugar in it.
If you have n icecream shops in highly sought after retail locations where people are buying food, it would be kinda crazy not to sell food.
Is ice cream not food?
As a solid? Yes.
As a liquid? Maybe.
As a gas? No.
Well now I want to see the next evolution of Dippin Dots: Air-Scream.
Coming to a vape near you
Can someone from England ask her?
Ask who?
The Queen of Dairy I presume
The queen of England IS the Dairy Queen. C.R.E.A.M.
Maybe she lives in Jersey with the cows there?
Same reason you can get ice cream from other fast food places.
At least the other fast food places don't have names like "Ben &Jerry" or "Baskin Robbins"
Burger King sells stuff that isn't burgers, taco bell sells more than tacos.
They aren't ice cream stores though...
They're certainly not ice cream/soft serve stores, but here we are.
Define "food."
Hot eats cool treats. That was the slogan 20 years ago. Get some chicken strips and a blizzard.
Dairy Queen has been selling food since 1958. They are not "an ice cream store" any more than McDonalds is
Well only because the machine is always broken at McDonald's.
mcbroken.com
Also ymmv because my local McDonald's always has a functioning ice cream machine!
This is insane to me, for some reason I thought they were an ice cream store.
The market bears what the market bears 🤷
One other thing I haven't seen mentioned is selling ice cream is only a sustainable business for a few months out of the year in many places. Whereas you can sell burgers/dogs/etc year-round. But yeah, as far as I know they've always sold fast food - their burgers were a fave of mine when I was a kid in the 70s.
Wow that's neat. There's a Dairy Queen sort of near me, I've driven past it a million times, but I thought they only sold ice cream so I've never gone in.
Salty and sweet, man! Clearly you've never dipped fries into a milkshake. Your lack of life experience is concerning.
Maybe they're English. Nobody there thinks that they should dip their chippies in a frozen creamydoodle.
Because no one should do that. It seems super gross (and I'm American)
I would never do that to a French Fry.
So you can get dinner and dessert at the same place.
This makes a lot of sense actually.
Dude, their burgers are awesome. It's one of the few, if only fast food joints that still cook burgers on an actual flat top.
I just wish they hadn't switched to the soggy as fuck steak cut fries.
Which fast food places are not using a flat top for burgers? Just Burger King?
McDonald's definitely doesn't
They most definitely do, they use a clamshell flat top that cooks both sides at once.
https://youtu.be/IVRlYugm69Y
That is entirely different store to store. The one I managed and our sister store (owned by the same family) used a conveyer belt style flame broiler (automatic broiler). Far more consistent and less labor intensive.
How long have they been a fast food store? I thought they were an ice cream shop
They first started selling hamburgers in 1958.
The wiki has all the info you need.
Decades and decades ago. Not remotely new. Your question was outdated 25 years ago.
This is a Berenstain Bears moment for me...
lol
1990's? At least in Canada.
Like 30 years at least. They're famous for their ice cream, but their burgers are great too.
There's also the fact that DQs outside of Texas are slightly different than other states. Or at least that was true 15 years ago in Louisiana.
There is a whole section to each DQ for Regional Menu. Some places will have Steak Fries, or... I can't remember what else. In the North West (US) we had Ultimates and Deluxe burgers, which were the smaller patties (want to say 1/6lb), american cheese, and thousand island dressing (Ultimates were doubles and had bacon as well).
When I was at DQ School in Minneapolis, i got to meet store managers and owners from all over, and it was really interesting to learn all the regional fare (and apparently South American DQs, at least then, were purely Treat Centers, which is what I imagine OP was assuming they'd all be).
Wow
Yeah, I definitely remember eating DQ burgers in the 90s.
But like I said, it's definitely possible that if you've only seen DQs outside of Texas, your experience might be different.
french fries and a blizzard is fucking fire