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Photos: Inside Manhattan's First Dairy Queen
By
Gothamist Staff
Published May 20, 2014
Modified May 29, 2014
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Photo by Lee Towndrow/Gothamist
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By
Gothamist Staff
Published May 20, 2014
Modified May 29, 2014
Share
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While Manhattan's first Dairy Queen won't open to the public until May 29th, a small press preview was held this afternoon at the new 54 West 14th Street storefront. While it doesn't look like the perfectly-aged mid-century ice cream cottages you'll find along the roadside in a quainter town, it does have the essentials. Amber Scorah—Dairy Queen Superfan—headed over today and reported back with some notes:
THE MENU seems upgraded from my youth: Shakes are called "handspun beverages," burgers have taken a step up to "mushroom swiss burger," there are chicken sandwiches, and chicken fingers (with buttered toast!). They also have salads—though the look of them reminds me why I only ever wax poetic about the ice cream.
THE FOOD:
- There's a limited-edition "Big Apple Blizzard" that's exclusive to Manhattan, and it tastes like apple pie on crack.
- They've brought back the S'mores flavored Blizzard.
- Did you know the Blizzard is a 1.8 billion dollar brand for DQ?
- And someone please get me one of their DQ cakes for my birthday, there's a layer of chocolate, vanilla, and cookie crumbs inside.
THE RESTAURANT itself has an upstairs seating area with ice cream-proof sofas. It's pretty airy, a bit of exposed brick to make it feel a little less formica, with DQ nostalgia paraphernalia on the wall. They're saying it's in Union Square but it's actually nearer to 6th Avenue. [Editor's note: Well, Dairy Queen doesn't really know NYC, as we've learned.]
So why did they take so long to come to Manhattan? They didn't really say, but they have plans to expand to more stores in Manhattan and eventually the other boroughs. We've created a monster.
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Gothamist Staff
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