Owner Of New Brookfield Dairy Queen Eyes Out-Of-Town Expansion

BROOKFIELD, CT — Business is booming at the brand new Dairy Queen Grill & Chill franchise at 138 Federal Road.

In fact, the future is so bright, owner and longtime Brookfield resident Tim Bomba said he and his business partner are already eyeing expansion.

Bomba said they are currently scouting locations in the Danbury and New Milford area, but are going to "take some time" before pulling the trigger.

Formerly, Bomba was in software and server storage sales, but said he eyed the long lines of cars queuing up in front of fast food restaurants during the COVID-19 with an envious amazement.

"We were out multiple times (during the pandemic) seeing the drive-thru's out into the road for a lot of the quick-serve restaurants," Bomba said. "We knew it would break at one point, the whole COVID thing, but still we saw fast food restaurants doing pretty well."

Once having made the attitude adjustment from IT sales to fast food franchisee, the choice of brands was easy, Bomba told Patch.

"We think it's a great, great product ... and the closest Dairy Queens in this area are in Waterbury and Poughkeepsie, so we thought this was just a great target location."

Come For The Blizzard, Stay For The Cheese Curd

DQ's famous "blizzards" — soft serve with mix-ins such as cookie dough, Oreo cookies, chocolate brownies and — for a limited time — pumpkin pie pieces are predictably flying out the door, Bomba said. But the depth and variety in the menu has proven to be a surprise hit.

"We have everything from burgers to chicken strips to onion rings, which a lot of fast food restaurants don't have," Bomba said. "We have cheese curds as well, and the fries are really good."

Parent company International Dairy Queen Inc., based in Minneapolis, MN, licenses and services a system of more than 7,000 locations in the United States, Canada and more than 20 other countries, according to the corporation's website. The first DQ opened in Illinois in 1940.