June 15, 2006

Yellow Springs Dairy Bar manager Jennifer Foley sculpted a masterful blue goo cone on Saturday, the day after she and Bob Swaney opened their new business.

By Lauren Heaton

Two things in Yellow Springs seem to mark the beginning of summer, and after the opening of the Gaunt Park pool last week, villagers were waiting for just one: a cooling cone from the little window of the local ice cream business. Opening later than expected but chock-full of 10 new flavors, the Yellow Springs Dairy Bar opened last Friday under the new ownership of Bob Swaney and his wife Susan Rogers-Swaney, and their business manager, Jennifer Foley.

In a partnership that came together late last month, the three established the Yellow Springs Dairy Bar, LLC., and purchased all new equipment for their ice cream shop. On June 2 they moved into a building that lacked even the kitchen sink and the walk-in cooler door, and a week later they were serving raspberry-banana soft serve from their new flavor injector ice cream machine that lays a colorful ribbon of flavor at the edge of each swirl.

“I like to say it’s great taste with a new edge,” Foley said last week.

Bob Swaney, who lives across Walnut Street from the Dairy Bar, said he has been sitting on his front porch watching the business for three years “wanting to do something with it.” Among a host of other business pursuits, Swaney worked as a consultant for the theater chain Midstates Theaters, and said he knows how to sell concessions. Last month he sold his shares in a company which manufactures garden decor and took the short leap to invest in the business across the street.

Mike Chlanda owned the Dairy Bar for 12 years before Swaney became the new owner. The building and lot are owned by local resident Ralph Heaton.

The Dairy Bar opened in time to offer last weekend’s Street Fair visitors cones, shakes, flurries, and banana splits with a choice of raspberry, banana, butter pecan, orange, watermelon, black cherry, bubble gum, blue goo, chocolate and vanilla ice cream or a twist of any two flavors. In order to get that far, the new owners spent a mad week installing a new tile floor, new sinks and coolers, a new water heater and a fresh coat of paint both inside and outside the building.

But the plans don’t stop there. After Swaney finishes remodeling his wife’s new veterinary office in Centerville, he and Foley hope to begin work to expand the patio on the north side of the Dairy Bar building and install more tables for outdoor seating. They also hope to purchase a grill and other equipment to add hamburgers, hotdogs, coneydogs, french fries and waffle fries to their menu by midsummer, and maybe a small breakfast menu and a coffee bar in time for cooler fall weather, Swaney said.

Foley, who is also a server at Peach’s Grill and a full-time culinary arts student at Sinclair Community College, sees the business growing in phases and hopes to eventually see the patio enclosed and have the business open all year-round, she said.

The renewal at the Freeze calls for a new name, and one endorsed by its customers. The Dairy Bar is sponsoring a community-wide naming contest, and will accept suggestions at the window until a suitable name is found. The prize winner will receive one free cone a week for an entire year, Foley said. The business is also offering free kiddie cones to any Yellow Springs youth baseball player who comes to the Dairy Bar after a game in uniform with an appetite for ice cream, Foley said.

With the help of new and former employees Renee Deaton, Danielle Corona, Atom Lisi, Amy Hable, Christa Thomas and Mary Hyde, the Dairy Bar will be open 1–10 p.m. seven days a week. The new owners say they hope to extend their season to October or November this year and open by April at the latest next year.

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com