DQ Grill & Chill apparently on tap again for Clinton
Clinton’s new DQ Grill & Chill restaurant from Dairy Queen is planned for this site on North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard between Walgreens and Anderson County High School. (photo:G Chambers Williams III )
The main Dairy Queen website (dairyqueen.com) now shows a DQ Grill & Chill restaurant “coming soon” to “approximately 2135 N. Charles G. Seivers Blvd.”
That piece of property – about 1.6 acres – shows on the Anderson County property map as 2141 Seivers Blvd., and also shows that it’s still owned by the people who bought the property in December 2020, and in July 2021 asked for approval of the Dairy Queen plans from the Clinton Planning Commission.
An official in the Planning Commission office said Monday that no new application for any kind of construction on the site has been filed with the city yet, and that the original site plan most likely would have expired by now. The developer would have to bring the plans to the city for a fresh authorization.
The company proposing to build the Dairy Queen on the site, which lies between Walgreens and Anderson County High School, listed Jay Patel as the principal owner in the first application to the city.
Property records show that Christy Hicks sold the parcel to Atul B. Patel and Jaymin Patel for $749,000 on Dec. 15, 2020, and that the Patels are still the property’s owners.
At that time, the Patels also owned the Red Roof Inn & Suites hotel on Buffalo Road behind Zaxby’s, just off Interstate 75, Exit 122. Neither of the Patels could be reached for comment.
Original plans for the project showed a building of 2,208 square feet, with at least 32 parking spaces outside, a drive-through, and inside dining tables.
Owners of the new Dairy Queen will not be the same as the owners of DQ Chill & Grill restaurants in LaFollette, Oak Ridge, Farragut, Sevierville and Morristown. Those restaurants are owned and operated by Minnesota-based Fourteen Foods, whose spokeswoman said is not involved in plans for a Clinton store.
One of America’s most iconic restaurant brands, Dairy Queen began making a comeback in the Knoxville area in 2016 with the DQ Chill & Grill concept stores opened by Fourteen Foods.
That company has more than 200 DQ stores and is the parent Dairy Queen company’s largest franchisee. Dairy Queen Corp. is a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
DQ Chill & Grill is a fast-casual concept that Dairy Queen introduced in 2002. They aren’t the quaint Dairy Queen ice cream stands of the past, where customers ordered from outside through a small window and ate sitting in their cars or on outdoor tables.
Instead, these stores have inside dining, where customers order at the counter and their food is delivered to their tables. The locations all have takeout windows, though, for drive-up traffic. During the pandemic, the dining rooms were closed while the drive-throughs remained open and busy.