What Makes the Dairy Queen in Hartford So Dilly-Lightful?

There are over 4,300 Dairy Queen locations scattered throughout the United States. The state of Texas has the most, with 580 DQ locations to be exact.

But do they have a certified Dairy Queen training location? South Dakota does, and it's located in Hartford.

The Dairy Queen store in Hartford, South Dakota was recently given the prestigious title of being one of only five certified training locations in the U.S.

Typically these training locations are found in larger U.S. cities like Minneapolis, but, not in the case of the one located in South Dakota. The Dairy Queen franchise thinks so highly of the Hartford location, that they decided to plant a corporate training store smack dab in the heart of blizzard country, Hartford, South Dakota, a tiny little town of only 3,614 people.

That's quite the honor!

As Dakota News Now reports, that means the Hartford Dairy Queen will be hosting owners and managers from around the country and even from around the world for a series of intensive two-week training sessions.

Michael Ruppert, General Manager of Hartford’s Dairy Queen told Dakota News Now, “It is truly an honor that we have been gifted to be a certified training store for the operation. We’ve spent a lot of hours and a lot of hard work over the past 10 years bringing this all to fruition, but to be able to help grow the DQ brand and keep things consistent across all Dairy Queen locations that you go to, we’re so excited to bring in these trainees from all over the United States.”

If you frequent the Dairy Queen in Hartford, be prepared to see a flurry of new faces in the store during the coming weeks. According to Dakota News Now, the Hartford DQ will begin conducting two-week training sessions for new DQ trainees.

Once these trainees arrive in Hartford, they won't be just grillin' and chillin! They'll be attending eight to 10-hour-a-day strenuous training courses over a two-week period.

Trainees will be learning all the tips and techniques that go into running a highly successful Dairy Queen restaurant.

Upon graduating from DQ University in Hartford, trainees will take all of the valuable information they learned with them, to help set themselves up for success before they banana spilt back to the DQ locations in their hometowns.

Congrats to everyone who is part of the Hartford, South Dakota Dairy Queen team on such a well-deserved honor!

Source: Dakota News Now