Couple brings Dairy Queen to Carson City

Hankering for a Dilly Bar? A Parfait or a Blizzard?

As of 10 this morning, when Dairy Queen franchisees Steve and Kathy Boeche throw open the doors of their newest restaurant, the whole range of DQ treats can be had without crossing county lines.

Kathy was busy Thursday drilling some of their 45 new employees on taking orders and using the registers. A couple of supervisors from Dairy Queen Corp. were making sure all the stock and equipment were set up for the opening.

And a selection of ice cream cakes, Peanut Buster Bars and four varieties of Dilly Bars, DQ's signature round flavor-dipped frozen bar, were stocked in display freezers by the entry.

The Dairy Queen at Highway 50 East and Airport Road, in front of Long's Drugs, is the Boeches' third. They built one in Minden in 1993 in what would become Ironwood Center. A few years later, they bought the existing Dairy Queen on Prater Way in Sparks.

"Carson City was supposed to be the first," Kathy said, and they moved their family to Carson from Southern California. But finding the right store location was a problem, she said.

"We looked at at least seven different sites over the years. Finally, the company chose this one," she said. "We bought this land, though we're leasing the land for the Minden store."

She said opening the Carson store has been fairly easy. All the employees are new, but 10 of them worked in the Minden store for a while to get familiar with the operations.

The Carson Dairy Queen is focused more toward drive-through sales, she said. While the 2,100-square-foot building will seat 50, it is 400 square feet smaller than the Minden location. She said the new store is Dairy Queen's latest concept.

One featured line of products is ice cream cakes. They combine baked cake with the soft-serve and can be decorated however a buyer wants. Two employees have been trained as cake decorators. Several predecorated cakes are kept on hand for quick purchase, too.

Dairy Queen continues to offer the Brazier line of hot foods, such as burgers, chicken sandwiches and fries, she said.

Steve's introduction to the business came 24 years ago when his parents bought some of the restaurants in Southern California. Kathy's first job, at age 16, was at one of the Boeche DQs in Rialto, Calif. At 17, she married Steve.

Steve spent 15 years building and servicing coin-operated laundromats, Kathy said, but joined with his brother, Jon, in 1990 to open a series of four DQs in California. He sold off his interest to move the family to Nevada and open these DQs.

The Boeches have two children. Jennifer is a sophomore at Colorado State University planning to become a veterinarian, while Christopher is a sophomore at Carson High School.

If you go

What: Carson City Dairy Queen opens

Where: 3198 Highway 50 East

When: Open daily 10 a.m.-10:30 p.m.

For information: 883-1002