Alex Paul
No more crinkle cut fries!
That was the bad news delivered last week by Tom Frentress, while announcing the sale of the Dairy Queen his family has owned and operated in Sweet Home for the last 31 years.
“The franchise won’t allow them on the official menu list,” Frentress said. “They’re going to continue with the special salt though.”
The news wasn’t received well at our office or by customers who were within earshot.
Frentress, 75, said the time had come to sell the shop where he and his wife, Edie, and their four children, all served thousands of ice cream cones, peanut buster parfaits, grilled cheeseburgers and whirled malts.
For the last nine years, their daughter, Cindy, has managed the shop, working 60-70 hour weeks and keeping the family tradition humming.
For Frentress, ownership of a Dairy Queen came after a successful career in retailing with The Bon.
“I was senior merchandising manager when Seattle ownership took over the store and things changed,” Frentress said.
A Portland high school graduate, Frentress said that at the age of 44, a health problem caused him to begin searching for a business his family could operate if something were to happen to him.
“I had heard about Dairy Queen from a friend,” Frentress said. “We decided it was a fit.”
That was 1972 when the family’s children were 18 (twins), 15 and 10.
The early years weren’t easy ones as owners, Frentress admits.
“The business was good but about that time there was the national gasoline shortage and people weren’t traveling,” he explained.
So, to make ends meet, he went to work at the Safeway Store for then manager Elmer Riemer.
“I had worked at Fred Meyer while in high school, so Elmer was glad to have me,” Frentress said.
Frentress would work at Safeway during the day and then the DQ at night. He did that for five years.
“We didn’t get much training at all. We were really like babes in the woods and were flying blind,” Frentress aid. “The previous owner said he would train us but that didn’t happen.”
Now, Dairy Queen International provides a complete training program for all owners. “There’s a very tough inspection program and guidelines,” Frentress said.
In the early years, Dilly Bars were made each night by hand.
“We had 10 aluminum trays that we filled with soft serve at night, freeze them and the next morning, we would dip them,” Frentress said. “They sold for 11 for jut $1.”
One year, Frentress said, local schools ordered 1,000 Dilly Bars for Christmas parties.
“We worked really hard to get them done and finished the last round of them before the end of the school day,” Frentress said.
Hundreds of Sweet Home teenagers got their first job training experience at the DQ.
“It’s a great place to learn how to work,” Frentress said. “You learn to deal with people and to budget your time. For us, it was great because we like people.”
For Cindy Frentress, the road to managing the family’s business traversed through Southern Oregon University, where she earned a degree in elementary education.
“When I graduated, there were few teaching jobs open, so I moved to Colorado for a year,” she explained. “When I returned to Oregon, budget cuts started.”
Cindy said she has enjoyed serving customers and has learned their special orders and when they will arrive each day.
In general customer favorites include peanut buster parfaits and the crinkle cut French fries.
Tom Frentress served on the board of directors of Northwest DQ owners for many years. He said there are about 5,000 Dairy Queens nationwide and about 150-160 in Oregon.
“Most of the franchises are family- or semi-family-owned,” Tom said of the DQ operation. “They are interested in what’s being sold and to their relationships with customers.”
Cindy says she plans to find other work but for her father, the sale of the business, while positive, “is like when one of your kids moves away from home…you miss it but you know it’s for the best.
New owners are Myong and Tae Lee of Lincoln City. The family previously owned a DQ in Sheridan. Their daughter Debbie, is operating the business on-site.