Historic Roseville Dairy Queen has a new owner, but it won’t be a DQ

It looks like the state’s oldest Dairy Queen will turn the lights back on, but under a new name and different recipes.

Restaurateur Tim Hughes, who was born and raised in Roseville, said he’s inked a deal to take over the small 1947 structure with a walk-up window, outdoor seating and neon lights along Lexington Avenue, north of Larpenteur Avenue.

With that comes both good news and perhaps bad news for fans of the longstanding spot: It will be an ice cream shop, but not a Dairy Queen as Hughes had hoped.

“I reached out to DQ and they’re uninterested” in reopening it as a Dairy Queen, he said. “I know people are going to be heartbroken that it’s not going to be a DQ anymore, but if you talk to my staff and customers, we care and we treat customers right and I want to do it for the community.”

Fans had been holding out hope that the Roseville location, one of the first Minnesota Dairy Queens built by the Illinois-based chain, would be resurrected under new owners since learning that the 2024 season was its last.

But Hughes said that if it can’t be a Dairy Queen, he’s setting his sights on the next best thing — an independently run operation called Dairy Cream with a menu that’s an ode to the space’s greatest hits.

“I’d like to do a soft serve just like they had — cups and cones, malts and shakes. We’re going to do hot dogs and chili dogs,” Hughes said. “I want it to be a vintage ice cream shop. I want it to feel like you’re stepping back in time when you go in and visit.”

Hughes is aiming for a June 1 rollout. In the meantime, he hopes to join forces with local and state historical societies to update the bones while preserving the traits that landed the iconic building — with retro fittings that include old-school signage and sloped windows — on the Minnesota Preservation Alliance’s most endangered buildings list in 2010.

“It needs major work, there’s major issues. It’s a very old building but it’s nothing that we can’t figure out to get it to open this summer,” he said.

The Roseville Reader first reported that the owners of the Lexington Plaza strip mall, where the building sits on an outlot, were looking for a new franchise owner to take over the lease. It’s long been debated whether the Roseville Dairy Queen was the state’s first, but after a Rochester location that also opened in 1947 was shuttered in March 2024, the Roseville spot was the longest-standing one remaining.

Hughes seems to be making a habit of keeping beloved Roseville dining institutions and buildings in play. He’s also behind the resurrected Maverick’s Real Roast Beef nearby. After the sandwich shop with a loyal following closed at the start of 2018 following a nearly 20-year run, Hughes reached out to the original owners, the Hazlett family, for their blessing and reopened Maverick’s the following spring.

The Roseville native has a long restaurant resume. His first restaurant job was as a dishwasher at the nearby Snuffy’s Malt Shop; he then went on to work in various managerial roles in the industry. He said the thought of continuing to keep the Dairy Queen a place where generations of families can continue to get swirl cones and more pulled at his heartstrings.

“I just know how much my community really loves that space,” he said. “It’s fun to get ice cream outside and I want to do it for my community.”