when did the first dairy queen open

The first Dairy Queen opened on June 22, 1940, in Joliet, Illinois.

Quick answer

• Date: June 22, 1940.

• Place: Joliet, Illinois, on historic Route 66 at 501 North Chicago Street.

• Founders: Sherb Noble with J.F. McCullough and his son Alex, who had developed the soft-serve formula in 1938.

Mini history scoop

The first store grew out of a wildly successful soft‑serve test where 1,600 servings were sold in two hours at Noble’s shop in Kankakee, Illinois. That success convinced the team to launch the Dairy Queen brand in Joliet in 1940, focused on cones, cups, and sundaes rather than a full food menu.

Today, the original 1940 Joliet building no longer serves customers, but it still stands as a designated local landmark and a nostalgic reminder of where the “cone with the curl on top” began.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.