Welcome to Dairy Queen of S.W. PA. We have been franchising since 1952 and we serve ten counties in Pennsylvania: Blair, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Mifflin, Somerset, Washington and Westmoreland.

The Dairy Queen® system is a proven business model with a 75+ year history. The world famous DQ® soft serve treats, tasty food offerings, and signature Dairy Queen Cakes all make DQ® Fan Food and not fast food.

In 1938, near Moline, Illinois, J.F. McCullough and his son, Alex, developed the delicious dairy product millions have come to know as Dairy Queen soft serve. The McCulloughs’ innovation was the beginning of today’s system of over 6,000 Dairy Queen and Dairy Queen restaurants in the United States, Canada, and many other countries in Europe, Central America, the Far East, and the Middle East.

The McCulloughs arranged to test their new product in an ice cream retail shop in Kankakee, Illinois, owned by Sherb Noble. Noble held an “All You Can Eat for 10 Cents Sale” one August afternoon. More than 1,600 people lined up to try the new treat, and the McCulloughs knew they had an exciting business opportunity. All they needed now was an efficient way to dispense their soft serve product – and they soon located a freezer, invented by Harry Oltz of Hammond, Indiana, which could produce a continuous flow of the product.

J.F. McCullough often referred to the cow as “the queen of the dairy business.” Thus, the Dairy Queen name originated. The first Dairy Queen restaurant, owned by Noble, opened in 1940 in Joliet, Illinois.

Locally, Dairy Queen of Southwest PA started in Connellsville with Lewis and Betty Lynn. In July of 1951, the Lynn’s were traveling out west to visit relatives when they had their first taste of Dairy Queen in New Mexico. Being very impressed with this new product, they pursued what was to become a lifelong relationship with Dairy Queen.

Today, there are 53 Dairy Queen locations franchised under Dairy Queen of Southwest PA. Please visit the site selection page to view available locations for development.