Dairy Barn restaurant expected to open Sept. 1 in Oswego

A new restaurant is under construction on the former site of the Dairy Hut at 121 Main St. in downtown Oswego.

Village President Troy Parlier announced that the new Dairy Barn restaurant and ice cream shop is expected to open Sept. 1.

Imperial Investments LLC, of Yorkville, purchased the Dairy Hut property in August 2019 for $290,000. The “Hut” had been a summertime institution on Main Street since 1962, when it opened as the Dairy Boat. The Dairy Hut building was demolished and the site cleared last September.

Mike Mann, director of developments for Imperial Investments, said that while the structure of the Dairy Hut may be gone, the original mission of the business will be maintained.

“It might not keep the original structure, but it’s going to keep the original intent, which was to provide a place for families to come down and enjoy ice cream or a meal after a baseball game or for kids to ride their bikes here,” Mann said in 2019.

Architectural renderings for the new building show a black roof, covered patio and stone exterior. Mann has said the interior and exterior sections of the Dairy Barn will have seating for about 165 patrons, combined. The building will have about 5,000 square feet inside, with about 1,200 square feet provided for exterior seating.

The Dairy Barn will feature an exterior service window behind sliding barn doors, and talks have included the possibility of an interior game space and birthday room on a second floor, according to Mann.

While the menu has not been finalized, Mann previously confirmed that items found on the Dairy Hut menu will return, including shakes, ice cream, floats, hot dogs, chili dogs, fries and burgers.

Mann also expressed a desire to continue the Dairy Hut tradition of hiring high school and college students to staff the business.

“What we want to do, at the end of the day, with any property we own, is make it better for the people here while still trying to maintain some of the downtown feel,” Mann said. “I hope people will really like it. … I want to keep the feel, and I want to keep what was offered here, so that the same people can come down here and have the same experience, just in a different place.”