The Dairy Barn in Dickinson may be for sale, but it will not close, a co-owner said Friday.
Kelly Roberts co-owns the restaurant with Duane Wolf. She said she put the restaurant up for sale in early September due to her impending move to Bismarck.
"It won't be shut down," Roberts said. "I'll stay until it sells."
Former owners Richard and Dorathy Schmidt say they still visit the Dairy Barn and have made a lot of friends there.
The Schmidts say they went under the Dairy Barn name around 1998 and continued to serve Dorathy's signature barbecue recipe, which she developed in the early '60s, when the couple owned a Dairy Queen in town.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Richard came home with 10 pounds of beef and asked me to develop a sandwich so we could stay open all year," Dorathy said. "I made five different batches and seasoned them different ways and that's the one we came up with. It's been the same ever since."
When she first began selling them, she said they cost 19 cents. Roberts said they still use the recipe.
"They're one of our most popular items," Roberts said.
The Schmidts sold the restaurant around 2000 to Roberts.
Roberts said pretty much everything at the Dairy Barn is homemade, from the pancakes to grinding the meat for the barbecues.
"All our ice cream bars, the ice cream cakes, the pancakes, all that," Roberts said. "That's how Richard and Dorathy did it, so we just wanted to continue on with it that way. Our menu has expanded, but we've kept the stuff that has always been on there."
Roberts said she has heard some concerns from customers over the sale.
"They come in and say, 'Kelly what's going to happen?'" Roberts said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Wolf said he's unsure of what the future of the restaurant will be.
"We're going to feel the market out right now," Wolf said. "I've enjoyed owning it."
Roberts said the restaurant employs 23 people.
"My favorite parts of working here are the customers and employees. The employees have been very good," Roberts said. "You've definitely get your regulars (customers). They get to be your friends and almost become like family. It's very fulfilling to work here. I'm just ready to move on."
