The story you are about to read is a whimsical tale about a young boys sweet soft serve dreams coming true. We should perhaps begin with a back story…
I grew up in Oakville and each June at the end of the school year my parents would drive us to the local Dairy Queen to celebrate our scholastic endeavours. My mother would chirp, “you can have anything on the menu you want, within reason.”
I should probably now go on a tangent about the fact that my mother was known for giving away sesame crackers and Fruit To Go’s at Halloween. During my youth my mother was a big fan of Jenny Craig, our freezer was full of sherbet and sorbet, ice cream was no where to be found. Each year as school was coming to a close I would fantasize about my DQ order. I stuck to my favourites: Root Beer, Chicken Strip Basket and Peanut Buster Parfait. By limiting culinary decadence throughout the year at the Dobson dinner table my parents were able to rather easily (and affordably) reward us for our hard work. I swear you could have offered me a free car at that age and I’d have shrugged, continuing to enthusiastically suck up my soft serve.
I’ve had the opportunity to eat at some of the most spectacular Michelin starred restaurants over the years but can honestly say there isn’t anything more exciting than an “all you can eat Hot Eats, Cool Treats adventure.” The anticipation was killing me. I had been working with the team at DQ for a few months and on the day of our departure I sat at home scrolling through the restaurants offering online.
I had invited three of my good friends to join me for the ride. Our mission: eat anything and everything on the Dairy Queen menu. We focussed on our favourites and tried a handful of new signature dishes we’d never had an opportunity to sample. I was looking for a new favourite while living out my childhood dream: enjoying an unrestricted and unbridled burger, milkshake and sundae bacchanal.
And so it was, one Sunday afternoon at the tail end of summer four queens met in The Village, hopped in a black Escalade and road tripped to Oakville in search of DQ’s Hot Eats and Cool Treats. Dale and Jamie were both seasoned DQ aficionado’s while Maxime, our friend from Belgium was going to be popping his DQ cherry that eve (and what better way?)
We sat ourselves down on a comfy bench and spent the next two hours indulging in an marathon meal. While sip and nibbling we passed our burgers, shakes and sundaes clockwise in an attempt to taste test the offering and come to an agreement on our favourite dishes of the moment. The Winners: strawberry milkshake, poutine, mushroom swiss grillburger, flamethrower chicken sandwich, peanut buster parfait and mint oreo blizzard.
What’s funny is that I had been to this DQ location in Oakville several times as a kid and that eve experienced some serious deja vu: walls covered in framed photographs of cool vintage DQ diners and a gaggle of giggling pre-teen girls fresh off a soccer field who coyly flashed their braces at us as they inhaled soft serve twirls right off their cones.
It is my firm belief that an epic tale should always end in a lesson learned. So take note: if you have a penchant for taking pictures of your food with friends, be certain to complete the chore with great haste when enjoying a handful of blizzards. As any Dairy Queen regular knowns, just before receiving your freshly whipped blizzard a smiling DQ staffer will flip it upside down to prove how thick and creamy your dessert is. Unfortunately our team spent a prolonged amount of time snapping photos and when the time came for us to pose for a picture we could all hear a wee plop. Dale hilariously turned over his pumpkin pie blizzard and seconds later the festive treat was slithering across our table. An unforgettable reminder that one should eat ice cream promptly but do so with great pride and poise.
The Feast:
Milkshakes,
mint oreo royal, chocolate, strawberry, vanilla
Fries
Onion Rings
Poutine
Grillburgers
bacon cheese, flamethrower, mushroom swiss, ultimate burger
Rooster Realness
crispy chicken sandwich, grilled chicken sandwich, flamethrower chicken sandwich, chicken strip basket
Royal Treats
oreo brownie earthquake, banana split, peanut buster parfait, turtle waffle bowl sundae
Blizzard Treats
chocolate chip cookie dough, mint oreo, strawberry cheesecake, pumpkin pie, georgia mud fudge
