Birth of the Brazier

As we’ve established, Dairy Queen was incredibly successful by the mid-1950s. However, the company still didn’t have a standardized menu and food system across their near-3,000 stores. That changed in 1957 when New York franchisee Jim Cruikshank came up with the “Brazier Concept” for Dairy Queen restaurants. Based around brazier grills — which cook burgers, hot dogs, and other typical fast foods — the concept took off and the Brazier name was a major part of DQ branding until 2001.