Dairy-Ette on Ferguson Road is old enough to collect Social Security benefits. Photo by Madelyn Edwards.

Visiting Dairy-Ette on Ferguson Road is like going back in time. In a good way.

It’s not so easy to describe why that is though. Dairy-Ette doesn’t shove ’50s nostalgia in your face. The building and carport for drive-in service are unassuming. Inside the small dining area are wooden walls, a handful of booths and barstool seating facing the kitchen. None of it looks like it was designed or made by anyone who has seen an iPhone. 

And it wasn’t, at least at first. 

Dairy-Ette, established Oct. 22, 1956, is turning 70 years old this month. Current CEO Robert L. Prikryl says the location in our neighborhood, which was started by his grandparents Ed and Andy, wasn’t even the first one. 

“My grandfather’s brother had a couple of them, and my grandfather was living in Oklahoma, doing radio antennas, like the ones that go way up high, and I guess they got together or something,” Prikryl said. “They built this themselves.”

He doesn’t know where the other locations were, though he thinks there may have been one on Garland Road. 

“I know that in the ’70s, my grandfather opened up another one in Grand Prairie sometime,” Prikryl said. “But they were running back and forth in the middle of the night. They just couldn’t do it.”

So how does a man working with radio antennas pivot to operating a burger joint? 

“He did everything. He was born in 1918 and grew up during the Great Depression, fought in the war,” Prikryl said, also mentioning that his grandfather grew up on a farm in West Texas with his Czechoslovakian parents and couldn’t speak English for a while. “That generation just could do everything. You name it, he could do it.”

There’s a nostalgic yet unassuming charm to Dairy-Ette. Photo by Madelyn Edwards.

Dairy-Ette was a family affair with both of Prikryl’s parents working there. His father started peeling potatoes, and so did he.

“I peeled my first 100 pounds of potatoes when I was 5 years old in 1984,” he said. “I started waiting tables up here when I was 13 in 1992 and started working in the back when I was 16. … I’m 46 now, so over 30 years back there. We still do things the same way. I still make root beer the way they taught me. I still peel potatoes the way they taught me. We still handmake the corn dogs.”

Of course, there have been updates over the years, but Prikryl said the only thing that has really changed is the prices. 

“A hamburger was 20 cents, and a cheeseburger was 25 cents,” he said. “We can’t hold that special.”

The key to the recipes is simplicity, Prikryl said.

“I think that a lot of restaurants out there are trying too hard,” he said. “A hamburger should be mustard, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions.”

Dairy-Ette has managed to stay open over the past 70 years thanks to loyal customers, Prikryl said. It also helps that his grandfather bought the land years ago, so there’s no rent payment to keep up with. But the COVID-19 pandemic was tough, there have been challenges in finding and retaining staff, and Prikryl had to step away from the restaurant for a few years as his father dealt with dementia. Now, he wants to see the restaurant grow (maybe even to a second location) and come back strong. One of his goals is to eventually be open seven days a week. 

“I consider everybody that works for me my family and all my customers,” he said. “That may be the secret of retention for the customers. They’re family. We know their names. We know their orders before they walk in.” 

Dairy-Ette, 9785 Ferguson Road, open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and closed Sundays.