Moorhead, Minn. Dairy Queen Is Not Bound by Dairy Queen’s Chain

Part of the deal with chain restaurants is that you can eat the exact same meal — and get the exact same experience — no matter where you are. It is one of the reasons why I nearly always pick Starbucks as a writing hole when I’m on travel; I know I can get a pleasantly bland ham sandwich and a cup of coffee and the Wi-Fi will work.

But a Moorhead, Minnesota Dairy Queen has been going against the chain for the past 66 years. As the New York Post writes:

While newer contracts stipulate adherence to strict corporate guidelines, messaging and menus, the Moorhead shop still operates mostly under the terms of a contract signed in 1949. And that allows owners Troy and Diane DeLeon the freedom to dish out what might be considered rogue menu items.

What kind of rogue menu items?

There’s the Mr. Maltie, a chocolate malt on the stick; the Monkey Tail, a chocolate-covered frozen banana; and of course the Chipper Sandwich, which is vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two chocolate chip cookies and dipped in chocolate.

YES I WOULD LIKE THIS ICE CREAM SANDWICH DIPPED IN CHOCOLATE PLEASE.

It gets better. The Moorhead Dairy Queen has no drive-thru, no indoor seating, and is only open during the warmer months of the year. “Warmer,” however, is a relative term in Minnesota. As Serious Eats writes:

The Moorhead Dairy Queen has never been a year-round thing: it opens each spring on March 1. Even though the temp was -11 on opening day last year, over 1,200 customers still stopped by.

Serious Eats notes that this 1949 contract allows the Moorhead Dairy Queen to be more profitable than its chain-bound competitors:

Thanks to their old-school contract, the Moorhead DQ still pays the original 1949 royalties rate on Dairy Queen treats that they order from the corporate warehouse. Perhaps most importantly, DeLeon is able to source ingredients from outside providers and still make many desserts in-house.

“We pay a percentage of whatever the item costs back to corporate and the only thing we pay royalties on are the novelties we buy and our (ice cream) mix. For every gallon we use we pay 32 cents,” notes DeLeon, a figure that’s roughly 1 percent of cost, compared to current DQ standards of 4 to 5 percent.

That’s Troy DeLeon, the current owner of the Moorhead DQ, who told Serious Eats that “corporate would love for us to disappear.” The New York Post has the corporate response:

DeLeon has said that corporate would like for his store to melt away, which drew a chuckle and a “no comment” from company spokesman Dean Peters. The Minneapolis-based chain — which launched in 1940 — values all of its more than 6,500 locations, Peters said, and it “understands and appreciates” the heritage and popularity of the downtown Moorhead Dairy Queen.

However, Peters said the company cannot promote the store “as a brand and a system,” and added that most DQ lovers are looking for uniformity and the indoor dining experience provided by the company’s newer DQ Grill and Chill restaurants.

I don’t know about you, but the very words “DQ Grill and Chill” sound unappetizing. Give me a Chipper Sandwich any day of the week — but only during the spring and summer, when the Moorhead Dairy Queen is open.

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