JUST IN: Former Dairy Queen space springs to life as a locally owned, independent ice cream shop

A Dairy Queen that shut down unexpectedly last spring — or, to be more  precise, failed to reopen in the spring as it had for many years — will get new life in the coming weeks as a locally owned, independent ice cream shop.

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The successor to the Dairy Queen is coming to 2613 S. Smithville Road in Dayton’s Belmont neighborhood, and it is called “Sweet Retreat Ice Cream, Food & Sweets.” The shop is  the brainchild of Simon Wiley and Chris Tobias, who attended the same grade school and high school.

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“We went to St. Anthony together, then we went to Carroll high school together,” co-founder Wiley told this news outlet.

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“We plan on having over 20 flavors of soft-serve ice cream along with pizza and sandwiches,” Wiley said. “Our goal is to be open no later than June 1.”

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Belmont-area residents were stunned last Memorial Day weekend when they strolled up to their local Dairy Queen only to find hand-lettered signs on the doors say simply, “Closed — out of business.”

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Customers lamented the closure on Facebook at the time, and Belmont Party Supply owner Mike Schwartz jumped on the Facebook thread to say, “I own that building, and it’s for rent. It does not have to be rented as a DQ. I will help (financially) with the build-out.”

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Now, that hand-lettered out-of-business sign has been replaced with a “Coming soon” sign.

Credit: MARK FISHER/STAFF

Credit: MARK FISHER/STAFF

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