Freddy's Dairy Bar sees "a lot of excitement"

UW-River Falls students in search of a sweet treat can now visit Freddy’s Dairy Bar to satisfy their cravings. Located on the second floor of the Agricultural Sciences building, the Dairy Bar serves a variety of dairy products, such as ice cream, shakes, malts, sundaes, root beer floats, and orange floats, as well as three varieties of cheese curds.

While the cheese curds are made in UW-River Falls’ Dairy Pilot Plant, Freddy’s Dairy Bar does not currently make its own ice cream. The ice cream is sourced from a distributor of Kemp’s. Lisa Meyer, the manager of the Dairy Bar, said that the Dairy Pilot Plant is working to complete the equipment commissioning process for its ice cream line. “We’re up to the packaging point now. It will definitely be this school year,” she said. “It should be this fall.”

Meyer said the Dairy Bar has seen “a lot of excitement” so far, with 458 customers in September alone, including many repeat visitors.

Over the summer, the Dairy Bar served ice cream and cheese curds to UWRF employees, and expanded its offerings for the fall semester to include shakes, malts, sundaes, and floats. They now serve a flavor of the month as well. For September, it was the S’mores Sundae.

“We’re working on our October flavor right now,” Meyer said. The Dairy Bar is also working on a new themed flavor for UW-River Falls’ 150th anniversary celebration.

Freddy’s Dairy Bar plans to expand its product line further. They are in the process of purchasing a soft-serve machine, which will allow them to serve the “equivalent to a Blizzard,” Meyer said, “or a thicker ice cream with mix-ins.” The mix for the soft-serve machine will be produced in the Dairy Plant. They also aim to add grilled cheese sandwiches and quesadillas to the menu, pending state approval.

“We will be adding some products from the Meat Plant as well,” Meyer said, “for sure beef sticks and the potential of some other products from them as well.”

Once the Dairy Plant begins to produce its own ice cream, the flavors it offers will change from its current offerings. “We’ll obviously have our staples— the vanilla, the chocolate, and strawberry,” Meyer said. The Dairy Bar will add new flavors, such as the 150th anniversary flavor, in the months after. Many of these will be similar to its current flavors, noting that popular options like mint chocolate chip are likely to return.

“With our equipment, we will have the ability to do flavored ice creams,” Meyer said. “We can add what’s called inclusions, which are like nuts or fruits or things that [are] added to that ice cream. And we can do things like swirls, but anything that involves a Neapolitan ice cream or the Superman ice cream that we have‚ where it’s multiple colors in the same container, we don’t have the equipment to be able to do that.”

Students can expect only slight price increases when Freddy’s Dairy Bar switches over to Dairy Plant-produced ice cream. While the Dairy Bar will introduce new packaging options, such as half-pints with spoons built into the lid, Meyer stated that overall prices should remain stable. Any adjustments will reflect operational and labor costs, with the Dairy Bar’s revenue contributing to the Dairy Plant’s general fund. The pricing for these items has not yet been established. The Dairy Bar’s revenue will go to the Dairy Plant general fund.

The Dairy Bar plans to serve their products in the UWRF cafeteria and in Freddy’s C-Store as well. In addition, an online store is also set to launch soon, which will allow them to easily serve their products to the River Falls community. “We have worked on our online store over the course of the summer and it’s ready to go live,” Meyers said. “We’ve also purchased two parking spots in the back of the building that will be labeled ‘Freddy’s Dairy Bar Parking Spot.’

“Somebody from outside campus can drive up, park, walk up the stairs, come in right here and pick up their order. Or we can even bring it down to them,” she stated.

Currently, Freddy’s Dairy Bar is open Monday through Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with plans to extend hours for homecoming week, starting September 30.