Ice Cream News

Dairy Queen soft-serves up 3 new restaurant locations across Texas

There's a blizzard of DQs opening in the next year.

Texas's favorite soft-serve is here to cheer up our coronavirus blues: Bedford-based Dairy Queen is opening three new restaurants across Texas, including locations in Houston, Austin, and Godley.

The Austin store is already open, at 13301 ½ N. US Hwy. 183.
The Houston store is at 7161 Southwest Frwy., and will also open in August.
The Godley store is at 9127 N. State Highway 171, and will open by early August.

Google Maps shows that Godley is 30 miles southwest of Fort Worth, between Granbury to the east and Cleburne to the west. Granbury and Cleburne both already have a DQ; in fact, Cleburne has two. Yet none in downtown Dallas. It's a travesty.

CEO Lou Romanus notes in a statement that DQ has been a part of Texas for more than 70 years. "Texans love their local Dairy Queen, which is why there are more locations in Texas than any other state," he says.

Texas Dairy Queens have a diverse menu with DQ originals such:

the famous original cones, sundaes, banana splits
the Peanut Buster Parfait
Blizzards in a variety of flavors
Chicken Fried Steak sandwiches
Steak Finger Country baskets
Chicken Strip Country basket
salads, tacos and Tex-Mex options

Through August, they have a featured Blizzard Flavor of the Month: Cotton Candy, consisting of soft serve and cotton candy sprinkles.

Texas Dairy Queens continue to offer their menu via drive-thru windows, pick-up and take-out, as well as delivery and online ordering, where available. So they were ahead of the game, COVID-19-wise.

That said, they're enhancing their sanitation requirements with more frequent cleanings of equipment and service areas. And TDQ operators have refined their processes to make drive-thru and take-out orders ever more efficient.

Dairy Queen lost nine Dallas-area locations at the end of 2019 when a franchisee abruptly shut them all down, leaving about 40 locations in the DFW area.

But the company is in expansion mode. Since the beginning of 2019, 11 stores have opened in Texas with new and existing franchisees. In addition, there are six more locations targeted to open by before the end of the year or early in 2021.

desserts ice-cream openings

Relish responds

Houston restaurant breaks silence about wage theft allegations

Photo by Julie Soefer

undefined

A Houston restaurant has broken its silence about a lawsuit that accuses it of wage theft. Relish Restaurant & Bar issued a statement about allegations made by an employee that it improperly allocated money from the restaurant’s tip pool:

For more than a decade, we've worked hard to build a restaurant where our employees feel valued and respected. Our team is central to everything we do, and we take our responsibilities to them seriously. We remain committed to fair and lawful employment practices, and firmly deny the allegations that have been made. Given that this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not comment further at this time. Thank you for understanding.

According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, employee Michael Baron alleges that Relish and its owners, Addie and Dustin Teague:

Used his and other employees’ tips to pay the maitre’d, who also had managerial roles, such as disciplining employees. The maitre’d was allegedly paid at least $21,000 in 2026 from pooled tips, according to the lawsuit. The maitre'd position is not included in the restaurant's notice about which workers get paid from the pool, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit further alleges that the practices at Relish’s Town & Country location violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal law that governs how tipped employees are paid. Under the law, restaurants are allowed to pay tipped employees as little as $2.13 per hour, because the vast majority of their income is generated by customers’ tips. The law also governs which other employees — such as bartenders and other customer-facing positions — are eligible to receive a share of an employee’s tips. Salaried managers or employees in supervisory roles are not eligible to receive tips.

Baron is represented by attorney Josef F. Buenker, whose firm specializes in employment law, as noted by its domain name houstonovertimelawyer.com.

In March, a federal court ruled that Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille must pay $21 million for misallocating tips to more than 700 servers.

Relish is known for its classic American fare such as burgers, fried chicken, steaks, salad, and seafood. Its River Oaks location, which has been open since 2016, will soon close before moving to the RO mixed-used development next year. Relish’s Town & Country location will remain open.

news-you-can-eat anderson