News
Expanded Local Restaurant Planned for Old Dairy Queen
By: Steve Robb - Athens Messenger staff reporter
Posted on:
NELSONVILLE — Plans are firming up for a Nelsonville restaurant to move to a new location.
The former Dairy Queen building on Canal Street in Nelsonville has been purchased by Jay and Miki Brooks and will be leased to Tammy’s Country Kitchen, Miki Brooks confirmed Monday.
The Messenger reported earlier this month that Boyd Warner, who bought the building at the end of 2014, had abandoned plans to reopen it as a Dairy Queen. Warner said he could not reach agreement on renovations that would satisfy Dairy Queen International, although Warner said he’d already put nearly $100,000 into the building.
“It’s basically a restaurant ready to open,” Miki Brooks said of the condition of the building, although it is being a given a facelift to make it look less like a Dairy Queen. A dining counter is being added and other interior changes are being made, and the parking lot is being re-landscaped, she said.
Tammy Lee, owner of Tammy’s Country Kitchen, 240 Jefferson St., told The Messenger earlier this month that she hoped to relocate to the former Dairy Queen building. Lee said her restaurant has outgrown its current location, and the former Dairy Queen also offers the advantages of having more parking and being handicapped accessible.
Rather than operate a business there themselves, Brooks said she and her husband acquired the building with the understanding that Tammy’s would relocate there. She said work is already underway to prepare the building, and Aug. 1 is the target date for the restaurant to open.
“It’s a good thing for Tammy, it’s a good thing for the community …,” Brooks said.