Dairy Queen is an American chain of soft serve ice cream and fast-food restaurants since 1940. The soft-serve formula was first developed in 1938 by John Fremont "J.F." "Grandpa" McCullough and his son Alex. They convinced friend and loyal customer Sherb Noble to offer the product in his ice cream store in Kankakee, Illinois. On the first day of sales, Noble dished out more than 1,600 servings of the new dessert within two hours. Noble and the McCulloughs went on to open the first Dairy Queen store on June 22, 1940, in Joliet, Illinois. While this Dairy Queen has not been in operation since the 1950s, the building still stands at 501 N Chicago Street as a city-designated landmark. Stop in to your local Dairy Queen store today for a soft serve cone, Blizzard, shake or bring home a delicious ice cream cake!