Dairy Queen Grill & Chill (Clifton)
1035 E 2900 North RoadRemember a few weeks ago when I went looking for a Dairy Queen because I wanted to try the Flamethrower Chicken Strips? And what I found was a DQ that didn’t have the Dairy Queen food menu?
Yeah, that was a bummer.
This past weekend, B and I took a trip back to Illinois to surprise my mom for her birthday. My nieces had a high school basketball game at my old high school so we went and watched them then ended up at my brother’s house for dinner and cake with my parents.
My sister-in-law was making Italian beef for dinner and I knew B wasn’t going to eat that. They also had mac ‘n cheese from Costco but again, B is weird and doesn’t like mac ‘n cheese.
I wasn’t going to ask her to make something else so I told B when we were about ready to eat dinner, I’d go get him a cheeseburger.
We were in the small town of Clifton in Iroquois County. There aren’t many restaurant options. The only fast food option in town is a Dairy Queen right on the south edge of town inside the Circle K gas station on 2900 North Road near the I-57 interchange. This building was built when I was in high school in the late 1990’s. It moved the old Phillips 66 gas station in the middle of the village to this much, much larger building with more pumps and a much bigger convenience store space. When the building opened, the restaurant space was actually a Taco Johns. The Dairy Queen was five miles south outside the Village of Ashkum. After a few years, the Taco Johns closed and the Dairy Queen relocated to this smaller, newer building.
This particular Dairy Queen has gone back and forth on the Dairy Queen food menu since it’s inception. When it was in Ashkum, it was a full on Dairy Queen with a big kitchen and a full food menu. They kept the Dairy Queen food when they initially moved to Clifton but dropped it a few years later and went with something called Char-grilled Cheeseburgers. It stayed that way until pretty recently when the business changed hands and the Grill and Chill was brought in.
The Dairy Queen restaurant is in the east end of the building at the back of the store. There’s a large space carved out for the counter and the kitchen. The order counter has an order window and a pick up window. The menu boards are analogue back lit sign boards that hang above the Blizzard machine. I had to take a few moments to look to see how I was going to order. I had more than a few minutes though. All three employees were busy and didn’t even take time to acknowledge me despite walking by the register several times. Eventually, the employee that was working the fryer finished up and order. She then came to the front to take my order while the other two just continued making Blizzards.
I put in an order for a plain double cheeseburger and (what I thought) was the four piece Flamethrower Chicken tender meal. I wasn’t paying attention and she just rang me up for four pieces of the Flamethrower Chicken tenders…not the meal. That was fine. I was eating dinner at my brother’s and really I just wanted to try the tenders. The cost for the burger and four tenders was right around $7. My mom had given me a $20 to pay for it so I just used that instead of putting it on my card.
This Dairy Queen location is inside a gas station but they actually have a decent size dining room near the front of the store. There are a couple of booths and a few tables near the large glass windows that look back out in to the parking lot. I ate here pretty regularly in high school..again, when it was a Taco Johns…so I would always sit down and eat. I’m sure it’s been updated over the years but I don’t have any pictures from 30 years ago to prove that…we didn’t have cameras on our phones then…hell, we barely had cell phones.
It took a little less than ten minutes for my number to be called. I grabbed the bag from the pick up window then headed back to my brother’s to eat.
I pulled B’s cheeseburger out of the bag and gave it to him. I went with a double cheeseburger because he hadn’t really eaten since we stopped at Sbarro earlier in the day and he had Dunkin’. I grew up loving Dairy Queen’s cheeseburgers. Again, because it was the only fast food in town so we ate there a lot. The double cheeseburger is two thin, kind of greasy burger patties with melty American cheese between the layers. It’s really just a fast food cheeseburger but it’s comfort food. B really liked it and actually asked me before we left my brother’s that night if we could get another one. I said no, but now he has something to look forward to when we go to my parents house.
The Flamethrower Chicken Tenders were pretty much what I expected and I really liked them. They’re pretty typical fast food chicken tenders but there is a little bit of heat in the breading. They’re not super hot and to me, the heat is more subtle than it is in your face but definitely better than a standard fast food strip. The commercials for these show the meal coming with soft serve to dip them in. I wasn’t offered any dipping sauce and again, at the time, didn’t realize I hadn’t ordered the meal.
I didn’t get any “ice cream” because we had something special for my mom. My sister-in-law had ordered a Blizzard cake from Dairy Queen and it was already sitting at the house waiting to be eaten. I have always loved Dairy Queen’s cakes. This one was a peanut butter cup Blizzard so it was layered with the cake, a peanut butter cup Blizzard then topped with more soft serve and Peanut Butter Cup chunks. There were quite a few people there because my nieces boyfriends were there so they took my extra piece of cake….damn kids 😉 It was a delicious cake though and we got our Dairy Queen Blizzards without having to each get a Blizzard before leaving town.
This Dairy Queen location always has a nostalgia factor for me. It’s not the one I grew up with….that one was in Ashkum…that’s the one where all my friends worked and where my grandma would take me for lunch when she was watching me. The Clifton location came about after I moved away to college but I’d still stop there when I was home. My sister-in-law says this place has gotten so much better since they switched back to the Dairy Queen Grill and Chill menu. The prices seem to have gone down and the food is way better. I was happy to finally find these chicken tenders I keep seeing in commercials and B was happy to have a cheeseburger instead of whatever we were eating. It was a win for everyone.
SW Michigan Dining 