The scoop: June opening planned for LI's 7th Dairy Queen

Long Island’s seventh Dairy Queen will start serving up the sweet stuff to its first customers in the second quarter of this year.

The new ice cream and fast-food eatery, which will be at 1143 Montauk Hwy. in Shirley, is expected to open in June, according to Dairy Queen spokeswoman Olivia Schoenfeldt. The building is under construction now.

The town of Brookhaven has granted board of zoning appeals and planning board approvals for the construction of the 64-seat, 4,000-square-foot restaurant, said Jack Krieger, spokesman for the town.

The restaurant will be the first Dairy Queen franchise for owner Sonny Bathija, whose family has been in the franchising business in Shirley since 2000, with ownership of five Dunkin’ restaurants, Schoenfeldt said.

"When it came time to open his next franchise location, he chose DQ because of the quality it brought to its customer base," Schoenfeldt said.

Bathija was unavailable for comment.

He plans to open two to three more Dairy Queens on Long Island, Schoenfeldt said.

The six existing Dairy Queens on Long Island are in East Northport, Huntington, Massapequa, Levittown, St. James and Medford.

Based in Minneapolis, International Dairy Queen Inc. licenses and services more than 7,000 Dairy Queen restaurants in 23 countries, including more than 4,000 locations in the United States. Except for two corporately owned locations in Minnesota, all the restaurants are franchises.

International Dairy Queen Inc. is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate whose chief executive officer is legendary investor Warren Buffett.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.