Mary DePalma still remembers ordering “Brown Derbys” and “Mister Misty Freezes” from the Dairy Queen on Park Avenue when she was growing up in Union City.
“I don’t even think they call them Brown Derbys anymore,” said DePalma last week about the ice cream cone dipped in chocolate that was a favorite among her friends in high school.
For generations, families in Union City would visit the Dairy Queen in the summer. Union City was once home to two of the chain ice cream stores, one uptown located at 4404 Park Avenue and one downtown on the corner of 19th Street and New York Avenue, right down the block from Emerson High School.
Although the New York Avenue Dairy Queen has been closed for more than 15 years, the Dairy Queen on Park Avenue only closed its doors this year. On January 31, 2002, the Park Avenue Dairy Queen was sold to Sergio Ariz and Sergio Ariz, Jr. of West New York. Plans to build a 30-unit apartment building in its place recently were approved by the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment.
“It was a popular place when we were kids,” said DePalma, who, growing up downtown used to frequent the Dairy Queen on New York Avenue. “Our parents used to take us there when we were kids. And in high school for years it was the place to be.”
“All summer long, at night we would meet there,” added DePalma. “We would all meet there and then go to a football game or a dance.”
Although the ice cream store may have lost its luster with the city’s recent generations of high school kids, many parents still visited the restaurant to buy ice cream for their children.
“I’ve only been to the Dairy Queen maybe once or twice,” said one Union City teenager who lives near the Park Avenue site but didn’t want to give his name. “But there was always a long line of kids waiting to get ice cream.” DePalma said that she still visited the Dairy Queen on Park Avenue on her lunch breaks.
New plans
The resolution approving the site plans for the 30-unit apartment building planned for the Park Avenue Dairy Queen site was passed at the Zoning Board of Adjustment’s July 11 meeting.
The new six-story building will include 20 two-bedroom apartments and 10 one-bedroom apartments. The approved plans also provide 18 parking spaces.
While city and state guidelines require 34 parking spaces for a building this size, a variance was granted to allow only 18 parking spaces.
The state number was set based on a formula requiring 1.3 parking spaces for every two-bedroom apartment and 0.8 parking spaces for each one bedroom.
Plans for this development were drawn by Jose I. Carballo with Design Group Architectura based in Edgewater.
Other Dairy Queens
With both of the Dairy Queen stores closed in Union City, Union City residents can still get their soft-serve ice cream and Blizzards in Hudson County.
Dairy Queen stores are located in North Bergen at 6903 Kennedy Blvd., and in Jersey City at 31 Broadway and 513 West Side Ave.
There are more than 5,700 locations throughout the United States, Canada and 22 other countries. The first Dairy Queen restaurant opened in Joliet, Illinois in 1940. The majority of Dairy Queen stores in the United States are individually owned and operated.