Dairy Freez

368 West County Road 34, Northridge

Date visited: July 31, with special guests Opa, Ute, Katja, Jens, Lydia, Freya and Rhys

Why stop off at the Dairy Freez? We were on our way home after a day on a Point Pelee beach, natch. This is a tradition for Windsor families dating back to 1957, and Dairy Freez does not disappoint.

The drive-in stand serves vanilla soft-serve as well as sundaes (with fresh local fruit in season), milkshakes, and a full car-friendly menu centred on burgers and sandwiches, fries and onion rings.

Since the completion of the Highway 3 bypass, County Road 34 is no longer the fastest route between Windsor and Leamington—just the most interesting. If you have seen the Pixar movie Cars, you will recognize Dairy Freez as a place that would fit well in Radiator Springs.

There are picnic tables under roofs, but if the weather is fine, you’ll want to sit at one under a tree, or perhaps at a cafe table on the brick patio. There’s a large grass lawn for kids to play on away from the road, as well as a small wooded area behind for them to explore.

Carhops will take your menu order and deliver it to your car or table, but if it’s busy (as it was on our visit – Sunday of a long weekend), you must order ice cream at the window and wait for it there.

Our large group ended up with eight cones. A quite-substantial baby-size runs $1.65; small is $2.15; medium is $2.65 and large is $3.15. I have seen people order medium and large cones but never witnessed anyone finish one. I believe it would be impossible to eat more than half before it melts entirely. A chocolate dip adds another 25 cents; dipped in chocolate and nuts adds 40 cents.

Dairy Freez is one of the places that inspired us to start this blog; we waited this late in the season to go because we wanted to take our visitors from BC. They seemed to appreciate the gesture.

Marta’s notes: The ice cream is yummy. The French fries are yummy. The onion rings are yummy.

Marta likes to dip french fries into her ice cream.