Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 20, 1995 TAG: 9511210002
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT NOTE: BELOW LENGTH: Long
It's a fast-food phenomenon.
You have to get past the hamburgers, fries and fish fillets. And wade through the Dilly bars, Blizzards and Peanut Buster Parfaits.
And then you can pose the question: How did this passionate love affair between Dairy Queen and Franklin County come to be?
Drive anywhere in Franklin County, and chances are the closest fast food to be found will be at a Dairy Queen.
There are five of them - one for every 8,000 people. No other fast-food chain has more than one site here.
In Virginia, the only locality that can match Franklin County's crop of Queens is Richmond, which also has five. But Richmond has a population of 203,000.
According to the Dairy Queen International public relations office in Minneapolis, Franklin County is unique. The company could not determine if Franklin has the most Dairy Queens per capita in the world, but company spokesman Dean Peters said, ``It's extremely rare to have five Dairy Queens in a county that size.''
Yes, Dairy Queen is king in Franklin.
Said L.D. Arrington, chief executive officer of the company that owns four of the five Dairy Queens in the county:
``I think the key to our success is due to the fact that we were here first. I mean, we were here offering people good food before anybody else even thought about Franklin County. Our customers have been loyal. And we've been loyal to them.''
Dairy Queen is unique among national chains because it franchises all its restaurants. None is company-owned. Most are owned by people who live in the communities where the restaurants are built.
That's one of the main reasons Arrington decided to build his Dairy Queen empire in Franklin County.
``I knew the company was family-oriented, and that's been our philosophy over the years: God, family and the local community,'' he said, sitting in his office in a strip mall behind one of his Dairy Queen stores on Virginia 40 West.
Arrington's office has framed Dairy Queen prints on the walls, and all kinds of Dairy Queen mementos - including a toy truck with the company's logo and a miniature Dairy Queen shop - sit here and there.
Arrington's Dairy Queens give back to their community. Five of the past six years, one of his four restaurants has led the nation in contributions to the Children's Miracle Network - the charity with which Dairy Queen is affiliated.
The food isn't bad, either.
A few days ago, Sula Hylton and her brother-in-law, Pete Doyle, were sitting in the Dairy Queen on Virginia 40 West. They had traveled to Rocky Mount from their homes in the Fork Mountain area of the county.
Between bites of a hamburger, Hylton said she doesn't get into town much anymore, but when she does, she tries to eat at Dairy Queen.
``The food is just so good,'' she said. ``My favorite thing is sausage gravy and sausage biscuits for breakfast. Today, we got here too late. But I got this hamburger and, boy, it's packed full.''
Arrington, whose two sons, daughter, and two grandchildren work for Dairy Queen, said he's proud of the service and the product his restaurants provide.
Arrington, 59, eats a Dairy Queen yogurt-based Breeze with bananas every day for lunch. Years ago, before he bought his first restaurant, he would go to a Dairy Queen in Martinsville to get a strawberry milkshake.
On this day, he has the employee fix his Breeze, then turn the cup upside down.
``Look at that,'' he said. ``You don't see any of it pouring out. That's the way we make 'em every day.''
Arrington was a meat cutter for a local grocery store chain when he was transferred from Martinsville to Franklin County in 1955.
In 1969, Arrington ventured into business for himself.
He bought a drive-in restaurant, Hugh's Place, on Virginia 40 West in Rocky Mount. In 1970, he bought the county's first Dairy Queen - which had been started by a local minister - on Virginia 40 East in the town.
Soon, Hugh's Place became the county's second Dairy Queen.
``I remember the employees at the store on 40 East were worried that the new store would take business away from them,'' Arrington said.
At that time, Franklin County had half its current population of 40,000.
But Arrington said he didn't consider it a gamble to open two Dairy Queens about two miles apart.
Both restaurants - offering Dairy Queen desserts and a local, independent menu of hot food - flourished.
A couple of years later, Arrington opened another store on U.S. 220 North just outside Rocky Mount.
Arrington brought all three of his stores on line with Dairy Queen's national ``Brazier'' hot food line in 1976. ``That's when business really took off,'' he said. ``People think about dessert when they think of Dairy Queen, but our food can rival anybody's.''
Three years ago, Arrington opened his fourth restaurant, in Ferrum.
Just recently, a fifth Dairy Queen operated by Smith Mountain Lake entrepreneur John Suprenant opened at Smith Mountain Lake.
The Dairy Queen news keeps coming.
Arrington recently announced plans to close the existing U.S. 220 Dairy Queen and open a new restaurant about a mile down the road. A Bojangle's Chicken restaurant will be built on the site with the new Dairy Queen, he said.
``That's another thing we've tried to do as we've gone along - we want to keep things modern.''
Arrington said a sixth Dairy Queen in the county "might be pushing it," but ``we'll just have to wait and see."
by CNB