MANCHESTER, NH – U.S. Representative Chris Pappas (D-NH-01) made a trip to the Second Street Dairy Queen on Tuesday afternoon to honor the restaurant after its recent success was read into the official Congressional Record, providing a commendation honoring the event.
In 2022, the Second Street Dairy Queen had more sales than any of the other more than 4,000 Dairy Queens in the United States, averaging about two to three times the business of most other locations. This follows their third straight year as the Dairy Queen with the most ice cream sales in the U.S.
General Manager Kevin Dion is still amazed that the support his store has gotten since the COVID-19 pandemic, and has aimed to put in the same level of quality his father David provided to customers running the store before he became general manager.
“I would say that if you put your heart and soul into a restaurant, customers end up realizing it,” he said. “They might not realize it the first time, but if you put your heart and soul into it, special things are going to happen.”
Dion says that quality has also come from retaining quality employees, with staff members who worked for David at the Second Street location up to 25 years ago remaining on staff, with some second-generation staff members serving at the location as well.
Pappas grew up helping run the Puritan Restaurant, which also serves ice cream, but not soft-serve ice cream. Dion says that many restaurants will either serve soft-serve or hard ice cream, but not both, and Pappas fondly recalls times in his childhood when he would come to this store and enjoy a soft-serve cone. The congressman said he was not alone in hearing these positive memories coming from this Dairy Queen, a key part of why people from across New Hampshire helped them become the nation’s top-selling Dairy Queen location.
“It’s been a difficult environment for small businesses in New Hampshire, so to see a business like Dairy Queen here on the West Side of Manchester so rooted in the community and punching above its weight nationally is really an exciting thing,” said Pappas. “We always seek to honor the experiences of New Hampshire small businesses and this is a great example of New Hampshire business really thriving as we recover from the pandemic.”
Shortly after the commendation presentation, Len Gauvin came to the Dairy Queen for a Blizzard sundae following a hike.
While there are other Dairy Queens within driving distance, this location’s cleanliness and staff friendliness makes it stand above other Dairy Queens, and other restaurants as well, especially during the pandemic when everyone in the world was on edge.
“I just think it’s an institution,” he said. “It’s an iconic place to go. When it comes to an ice cream place, this is where people want to come in Manchester.”
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