Dairy Queen replacing Sonic in Lake Zurich
Limeades are out and Blizzards soon will be in at what is now a vacant restaurant building on Rand Road across from Paulus Park in Lake Zurich.
Known for its Blizzard ice cream treats and other menu items, Dairy Queen will move about 100 yards from a strip mall space to the building where the Sonic drive-in had operated since August 2009. Lake Zurich village board trustees this week approved Dairy Queen's request to modify the structure's exterior so it no longer looks like Sonic.
Anyone with a limeade or jumbo popcorn chicken craving is met with a sign at the former Sonic's parking lot entrance stating the building will open this month "as a newly remodeled brand."
Lake Zurich officials voiced satisfaction the Sonic building won't sit empty in a visible spot on Rand Road's west side near busy Paulus Park. Trustee Jim Beaudoin said he appreciates Dairy Queen franchisee Vernon Dreher's financial commitment to the new location and his roughly 26 years as a Lake Zurich business operator.
"I know I've enjoyed Dairy Queen several times with my kids after baseball games and basketball games and whatnot," Beaudoin told Dreher. "And I'm excited to see you're doing something with that Sonic building. It's not going to sit there empty. We're going to have a repurposed use for it. It's going to be a nice fit."
Dreher said new signs, tile and colors will turn the Sonic into Dairy Queen. He said moving from his current location to the Sonic should take one or two days.
"I just want to get in there and do it," Dreher said.
North Barrington-based Cywinski Enterprises LLC had owned the Sonic since it opened in 2009. Cywinski Enterprises' managing director and controller, David Fisher, said Wednesday the Sonic shuttered in late December.
Sonic got off to a hot start. Opening day was such a hit, a staging area was set up in the parking lot of an adjacent, vacant Kmart.
Employees with two-way radios and Lake Zurich police directed patrons to lines until one of the 20 car stalls opened or the Sonic drive-through lane was clear. Carhops on roller skates brought food to the diners in the stalls.
However, Fisher said, the excitement did not continue. He said the Lake Zurich location did not have enough of a local customer base as more Sonics opened in the Chicago area.
"Initially, all the (Sonic) restaurants were doing really well," Fisher said. "Like Chick-fil-A, it has almost a cult following."
Sonic started as a hamburger and root beer stand in Shawnee, Oklahoma, in 1953. As the nation's largest chain of drive-in restaurants, Sonic has about 3,500 locations including Palatine, Streamwood, Villa Park, Algonquin and Bartlett.