New owners, new look, still iconic

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This article was published 08/08/2024 (683 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MINNEDOSA — I have a bit of a personal rule when it comes to diner-style restaurants — well, any restaurant really. And while it may not be very scientific, it’s proven itself to be true more often than not.

The idea goes like this: If an eatery can do the simple things really well, there’s a good chance that the rest of the menu will follow suit.

It was with this in mind that I stopped at the Dari Isle Drive-In — Minnedosa’s iconic ice cream and burger joint that has been a community staple and meeting place since 1965. The new owners, Zac Easton and Cass Cardy, took over less than two years ago, and they have gone to great lengths to make it their own.

From an updated menu to the remodelling the Dari Isle’s interior, the restaurant has become a reflection of the modern diner-style tastes of the owners. That’s reflected in the decor of old pictures and knick-knacks on the walls, to the unique style of food that they bring to the table.

And considering the quality of that food and the fact that the joint was hopping on a Monday afternoon, that was obviously a good instinct with which to follow through.

“I guess we’re just big fans of burgers, fans of food. Every trip we go on we’d make sure a burger place was involved,” Easton said during an impromptu interview in one of their diner-style wooden booths. “And it’s a big thing — and in the past started in California, the smashburger. And it’s big in the States. We don’t do any additives and bread crumbs or binders in the beef. It’s just good quality beef.”

“Yeah, we don’t freeze it,” added Cardy, who used to work for the previous owners as a teen and expressed happiness with coming home to run the place. “I say the biggest plus, obviously, the flavour is really good. But it’s very quick to cook. With the frozen patties, throwing them on the grill, it’s about 15 minutes until that’s cooked through fully. Whereas the smashburger, you sear it on a really hot grill and it’s super juicy and it’s done in three minutes.”

I ordered what I thought they should make especially well — a hamburger, done up “Isle Style” with a zesty house sauce for $8.65. Besides, one of my favourite foods is a well-made burger from a diner-style restaurant.

The Dari Isle single-patty burger is really simple too, with just a bun, a freshly-grilled beef burger patty and a pickle. The Isle Style sauce you’ve got to ask for — and you really should, because it’s that good.

The burger comes in red-and-white-checkered paper right to your table. And with that first bite I must admit to experiencing something for the first time — a crunchy edge to the beef patty, to the point of being crispy. But not burnt.

It reminded me of those delicious crunchy bits you’d get at the bottom of a frying pan after the meat has been removed from a particularly hot sear. Meanwhile the interior of the patty was perfectly cooked.

“That’s the science behind it — a super hot grill,” Easton said. “We have a smasher in the back, like a stainless steel-type press. And so it keeps all the juices inside. It gets super hot, sears up, and then all the juices stay in the beef instead of going over the grill.”

But it’s ice cream you’ve come to read about — this is the Summer of Ice Cream series, after all. And being the ice cream lover I am, I had to try that too. As I’ve done with the last two eateries I’ve written about, I had to ask what Dari Isle considered the most popular cool treat in its arsenal. And bar none, that’s a recent addition to the menu call the churro parfait.

It’s essentially a hot fudge parfait with vanilla soft serve, paired with a pair of fried churro — a kind of fried long donut dipped in cinnamon and sugar — for $7.

Honestly, the thought of mixing cinnamon and hot fudge did not entice me at first, as I didn’t see how those two flavours would meld well. But the inside window attendant said it was one of the most popular ice cream dishes on the menu — along with the banana split. And after tasting it, I’m glad I followed her suggestion.

The warm, crispy churro was a welcome addition to the cold ice cream and rich hot fudge. And while I couldn’t quite finish it — it was a lot of ice cream and I’m not growing any taller, only wider — I can see why it’s a local favourite.

Originally, the churro parfait was only meant to be available to customers as part of the Cinco de Mayo weekend celebration last May. But it was brought back as a permanent fixture due to popular demand.

“I found someone — our supplier — who just makes churros and we get to just throw them in our fryer and dip them in the sugar and cinnamon and people just go crazy,” Cardy said. “We were like, ‘It’s just gonna be Cinco de Mayo,’ but people were begging us to bring it back, so now it’s here to stay.”

But if parfaits and soft serve are not your thing, they also have a variety of hard ice cream and other treats on the menu. Ice cream flavours available last week included cotton candy, chocolate chip cookie dough, NSA maple walnut, bubblegum, tiger tiger, and a dairy-free peach sorbet.

When you find yourself driving down Highway 16 or up Highway 10, Minnedosa’s Dari Isle should definitely be one of the stops along your way.

Other places to check out:

• Lickety-Splits Drive In — A seasonal restaurant in Gladstone just a short drive east of Minnedosa on Highway 16, this community favourite offers home-made burgers and french fries, perogies and farmer sausage, and a wide array of ice cream cones, milk shakes, sundaes and flurries to quench that craving.

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com

» X: @MattGoerzen