Where's The Largest Dairy Queen In The US Located?

Some may recall a time when Dairy Queen only sold ice cream and had smaller stores, with some locations only featuring an outdoor ordering window and little else. Some of these locations are still around today, even in my own neighborhood. One Redditor commented that their local shop is "old school, [has] no indoor seating, closes for the winter, [and the] building [is] shaped like a barn." But one franchisee decided to turn this old image on its head by opening the country's largest Dairy Queen in Bloomington, Illinois. At 5,000 square feet, the Bloomington location is nearly twice as big as the ice cream chain's largest new franchise options.

While this may seem like a huge and sudden departure from what many of us grew up with, Dairy Queen has been taking incremental steps for decades to transform itself from a mere ice cream shop into something more. In 1961, the chain introduced its Brazier program to offer hot food, and it debuted a value menu in 1992. In 2001, Dairy Queen launched its DQ Grill & Chill concept, which replaced the Brazier concept and is intended to make new locations feel more like competing fast food restaurants. The jumbo Bloomington store feels like a natural progression.

DQ Grill & Chill is now the only format the company has available for new franchisees, requiring a free-standing building and between 1,745 and 2,207 square feet to operate. This new model also needs to include separate hot food and ice cream prep areas and feature booths, large dining tables, a drive-thru, and outdoor patios. The Bloomington franchisee was able to negotiate for more space and include even more amenities, and Dairy Queen seemed happy to oblige and use the largest U.S. location to showcase its new concept's potential.

Opened in the Spring of 2010, the nation's largest Dairy Queen has two drive-thru lanes offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner options. It can seat 140 diners – compare that to 46 seats of the chain's largest standard-format restaurant. This new location also provides diners with an indoor fireplace, a flat screen TV, and fireplaces and heaters in the outside area, which means you can comfortably enjoy your dilly bar outside in the winter. It even includes Orange Julius, a chain producing creamy, frozen orange beverages that Dairy Queen purchased in 1987.

One YouTuber paid the location a visit and noted these amenities but also commented that this location doesn't feel that large compared to other fast food restaurants. But it does offer "big, cozy booths," according to one Trip Advisor reviewer who added that this particular DQ Grill & Chill also has clean, spacious bathrooms, which can sometimes be missing from DQ's more spartan outlets. Both also noted the photographs on the walls, which the reviewer added "are from the olden days [and] are really neat." 

Other reviewers on Trip Advisor commented that the experience is a notch above other locations, and one reviewer speculated that "since it's a showpiece, the service and cleanliness [are] better than average." However, not all customers agreed, with some noting that the quality of the food is subpar compared to other Dairy Queen stores in the area. Some even complained that the soft-serve ice cream here is runnier than what the ice cream chain usually serves. Nevertheless, the same reviewer above added that "it's worth it just for the novelty factor."