Dairy Kurl

What's soft serve ice cream worth to you?

There is an ice cream shop by the name of Dairy Kurl in Clearwater, FL that has been around for ages. In many ways it has become a local icon, a historic site and a place that the entire city has been to at least once.

You probably have an ice cream shop that is similar to Dairy Kurl in your city. It's not a franchise, has no plan of expanding and isn't corporately owned.

The strangest thing about Dairy Kurl is that I have no idea why people go there. It seems there is some sort of magnetic ice cream force that drives people in droves to this tiny little ice cream shop.

It's a free standing white and red striped building that sits on busy Gulf to Bay Blvd. It's more of a shack than a building as there isn't any inside seating and the parking lot is half paved. Outside of this red and white shack are three metal picnic tables covered by an awning.

The owner of Dairy Kurl is a large silent troll like man with a moustache. He is there every day, every night, every moment they are open. The ordering process is similar to the Soup Nazi experience in Seinfeld. First you have to wait outside in a long line and once you finally reach the tiny little window that slides open and shut you have mere seconds to order before the silent man starts to get upset.

The menu is difficult to see as it is hidden in the back behind the window and hasn't changed in probably 20 years. However it's, basically a soft serve ice cream base that you can add anything you want to. He makes shakes, sundaes, or candy blends (blizzards). However the choice is sometimes difficult because there are so many options.

The silent man has a tiny little white paper pad that he writes your order on, (we're of the belief that no one understands what he writes except for himself). As you order he leans forward towards the window and glares at you, in his mind we know he is thinking: "order quickly, don't ask questions and no one gets hurt."

In desperate attempt to get him to crack I have made small talk, offered a few jokes and even asked ridiculous questions. His response has never changed, "grunt" is usually all he manages to get out.

He then proceeds to draw a line under your order. Manually ring it in his cash register, wait for your payment and then shut the window. Shutting the window is a key component of the service experience because it means it is time for the ice cream magic to start happening. Allow me to take a moment here and explain more of the reasoning behind the deliberate and abrupt window shut:

The silent man cannot keep employees working for him. Every time I go to Dairy Kurl there is a new 16 year old desperately trying to make ice cream creations without getting abused in the tiny shack. Because of this the service system is broken down. The angry man can't take orders at a constant pace because the ice cream can't be made fast enough, therefore he can only take 1 - 2 orders at a time. As you can imagine the line begins to back up pretty quickly and at any given time there will be 10+ people all waiting in line outside the shut window hoping the silent man will open it to take their order.

As you can see the process to get ice cream at Dairy Kurl is not simple, and no one seems to care. The food is more important. I recently wrote a post about service vs. food claiming that service always is more important than food.....Dairy Kurl may be the only exception.

I have been to Dairy Kurl many many times over the years and nothing every changes. The silent man, the window shutting, the white piece of paper and the pen, the long line of anxious people and the really really good ice cream.

The ice cream truly is amazing. The portions are generous, the prices are moderate and you can do pretty much anything you want (but be cautious in your requests).

I usually go with one of two things: 1. Ice cream with peanut butter sauce or 2. Peppermint candy blend. Both winners.

Underneath the awkward silence from the big man, the tired old atmosphere and the sticky picnic tables out front there is some sense of romance in the air. Customers think they have found a local Clearwater treasure, possibly the only true soft serve ice cream shop left on the planet.

My recommendation is this: if you have a thick skin and you want an interesting experience along with good cheap ice cream, go to Dairy Kurl. If you have an ounce of fear inside you though, turn around, you may be safer at Dairy Queen.