Forget Netflix, let’s Grill & Chill

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This article was published 24/04/2017 (3304 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dairy Queen Canada is looking to beef up its presence in Manitoba, with plans to open up to seven new DQ Grill & Chill fast-serve restaurants in Winnipeg over the next three to five years.

Chris Falle, the company’s director of franchise development, said the areas of the city where the company would like to see new franchises open include Sage Creek, Grant Park, the Westport Festival site next to Assiniboia Downs and the downtown.

“We do need some representation in the downtown-core area.”

He said the company also wants to open new DQ Grill & Chill restaurants in some additional rural Manitoba centres.

“We have a lot of successful locations in rural Manitoba, whether it’s Winkler, Steinbach or Selkirk. But we’d also love to be in Dauphin, Thompson, Flin Flon, Altona and Beausejour. They’re all target markets for us, as well.”

DQ Grill & Chill restaurants — the first one opened in Canada in 2002 — are fast-serve outlets featuring not only the chain’s signature ice-cream treats, but also an expanded food menu that includes items such as burgers, chicken sandwiches, artisan-style sandwiches, snack melts and hot desserts with ice cream.

“It’s really stepping out of that traditional fast-food and more into a quick-service type of dining experience,” Falle explained. “It’s really DQ 2.0. It’s taking the DQ concept into the next generation.”

New-build DQ Grill & Chill restaurants tend to be bigger than many of the original DQ locations, including those that have been retrofitted to include both treats and meal items.

The new-builds are typically 2,600 and 2,900 square feet in size, with an average seating capacity of 72. They have separate “grill” and “chill” sections, and feature large wooden tables, comfortable booths, warm lighting, music, an outdoor patio and a drive-through lane.

Although customers still place their order at the counter, their meal is delivered to their table.

Many of the company’s existing DQ outlets have been converted to DQ Grill & Chill restaurants, although not all of them have the same look as a new-build and some don’t offer table service.

Falle said that up until late last year, there had been no new DQ Grill & Chill restaurants built in Winnipeg in more than a decade. But that changed when a new 2,800-sq.-ft. outlet opened last New Year’s Eve in the new Seasons retail/office/residential development on the northwest corner of Kenaston Boulevard and Sterling Lyon Parkway.

Local entrepreneur Tim Wang owns the new outlet as well as a DQ Grill & Chill at the corner of Kenaston and Scurfield Boulevard.

Wang said the new Seasons outlet has done very well since it opened. Its state-of-the-art equipment includes new PhotoCake technology that allows it to print an image of the customer on rice paper, which can then be applied to the cake. The ice cream it sells also contains about half the amount of fat found in regular ice cream, he added.

He said his customers include younger clientele, families and seniors. He also gets lots of construction workers who are working on various projects within the Seasons development, including the new Outlet Collection Winnipeg fashion outlet mall, which is scheduled to open on May 3.

Wang said he’s so pleased with the DQ Grill & Chill concept that he’s looking to add more franchises if the right opportunities arise.

Falle said another new DQ Grill & Chill restaurant is under construction in the redeveloped Northgate Shopping Centre on McPhillips Street. It’s similar in size and appearance to the Seasons outlet, and is scheduled to open around the middle of next month.

The company also plans to relocate its DQ restaurant at 2525 Pembina Hwy. to the redeveloped Fort Richmond Plaza.

The new one may open later this year, but more likely it will be sometime early next year, he added.

In addition to the new DQ Grill & Chill outlets, the company plans to convert its Orange Julius store at Polo Park into a combined DQ/Orange Julius outlet. That will happen next spring.

While its DQ Grill & Chill model is expected to be the company’s biggest driver of growth, Falle said there are no plans to abandon the original DQ “treats” model.

“They do very well and they will continue to have a place within the market.”

But most of the new “treat” locations that open will be in either shopping malls or non-traditional locations such as airports and university campuses, he said.

“There is also potential to look at… some office towers in the downtown core that are adding new food courts,” he added. “But any discussions we are having with them right now are very preliminary.”

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca