Dixie Queen is fit for a king. Make that THE King.
Elvis Presley was a regular at the original location of Dixie Queen, an ice cream/fast food chain founded in Memphis. He loved the Purple Cow milkshake.
Asked recently about Dixie Queen, Priscilla Presley said, “Dixie Queen brings back warm memories of Memphis and the happy times Elvis and I shared there.”
Now, after 77 years, Dixie Queen still reigns over Memphis and the Mid-South. And it has a new group of hot performers, including GloRilla, who frequent the legendary restaurant.
Today, Dixie Queen has 18 locations, including Southaven, Mississippi, and West Memphis, Arkansas. David Raffanti owns 10 of them. The other eight are franchises. Raffanti opened the 10th location four months ago at Poplar Avenue and Dunlap Street, across from Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. A couple of the Dixie Queens feature iconic life-size, concrete, snowball-throwing polar bears outside.
“You’ve got all these chains coming in, and we’re still around,” says Raffanti, 66. “It’s an honor to be here to serve Memphis. We don’t take it lightly.”
But Raffanti says he isn’t the “lone wolf” in the Dixie Queen operation. He’s had a lot of help from his team, including some employees who have worked there for 30 years.
Running in the Family
Raffanti is the third-generation owner of Dixie Queen, which was started by his grandfather, Regolo Raffanti, an immigrant from Italy, who originally went to work for Dairy Queen. “He had one of the first Dairy Queens,” Raffanti says, but “he kind of had a run-in with Dairy Queen, so he decided to do his own thing and started Dixie Queen in 1949.”
They “never heard from Dairy Queen” after they changed the name. But, Raffanti says, “It’s a totally different name. I think my grandfather changed it to ‘Dixie’ because of the fact we’re in the South.”
The original Dixie Queen was at 1181 South Bellevue Boulevard. “Just a mom-and-pop dairy bar. Strictly ice cream, that’s all they sold,” says Raffanti. It looked like the setup of most dairy bars of the day, he says. “You walked up to the window and placed your order.”
Dixie Queen began selling other food besides ice cream, including hamburgers and hot dogs, after Raffanti’s dad, John Raffanti, took over the business. John also opened a Dixie Queen on Mt. Moriah Road, “next to Putt-Putt and the skating rink.”
Regolo just served ice cream, but John began serving frozen custard. “He had old-time frozen custard over there for many, many years,” says Raffanti. Their ice cream, like today, came in a mix. “He bought it from Harbin Mix Co., which was in the Memphis area for many years. They had a great ice cream. With us, they added a little more butterfat to it, which gives it more flavor. We’ve got a good ice cream now. It’s all in how you prepare it. And I think that kind of sets us apart.”
Being the son of a man who owned an ice cream/fast food business was pretty sweet, Raffanti says. “We looked forward to dad bringing home milkshakes and cheeseburgers. I was raised on Dixie Queen.”
Raffanti also grew up in the business. “Back then, they closed at 10 or 11 at night,” he says. “I used to go with him to help clean up and close and all that. So I’ve been around the food business all my life.
“I always wanted to have my own business. I wanted to be a part of my dad’s company, but I’m fascinated with business, period,” Raffanti says. “If it wasn’t Dixie Queen, it would have been something else. I was always a dreamer. I knew what I wanted to do when I got out of school.”
A Puple Cow milkshake, hamburger, hot wings, and fries at Dixie Queen
Building on the Past
Raffanti added his own innovations after he joined Dixie Queen. “When I took over, we added quite a bit to the menu. The wings, the Philly [cheesesteak sandwiches], the nachos, and the breakfasts,” he says.
Nowadays, more people order food than ice cream, Raffanti says. And their hot wings are probably their most popular item. “We’ve had them for, heck, about 20 years or longer. They’re really good. Everybody raves about the wings. They still love the burgers, but I think the wings are the go-to. I hear more people talk about the wings than anything else.”
One thing Dixie Queen doesn’t sell (even here in a destination spot) is barbecue. “You don’t want to overdo the menu. Barbecue is a big deal. To do it right, you’ve got to really know what you’re doing. It’s a whole other business in itself. We never dabbled in barbecue,” says Raffanti.
His grandfather served barbecue at one of his other businesses, a restaurant called Regolo’s on Airways Boulevard, he says, probably in the 1940s.
These days, “We’re really picky about what we put on our menu. We test it and get other opinions on it [first],” Raffanti says. “Once it’s on the menu, it’s tried and pretty much proven.”
Raffanti is also the one who chose to keep Dixie Queen open 24 hours a day. Customers can come in anytime — even at 2 in the morning — and get “hot, fresh, made-the-way-they-want-it” food, he says.
The fourth Dixie Queen location was opened at Airways Boulevard and Ketchum Road. “About every year or two years I’d try to open up another location,” Raffanti says. “It takes longer when you’re an independent doing it all on your own. Plus, that makes you more solid. As far as my company, we have 10 locations and we’re still looking to grow. We’re taking our time. And we try to pick the right locations.”
Raffanti has also closed locations over the years. “I don’t have a lot of patience,” he says. “If the building or the location wasn’t doing what I thought it should do, I would cut my losses and move on to some other location.”
Dixie Queens are located in areas where “you can have late-night business, where people are out,” he says. As a 24-hour spot, “I try to go to areas where you can have 24 hours of business.”
Some parts of town, where people don’t go out late, might not be as lucrative. “They’re pretty much done in those areas around 10 at night,” Raffanti says. “That’s usually when we’re busy.”
Another plus is if there’s industry in the area. Employees can come in and eat when they’re on break. “Those are the signs you look for,” he says.
Raffanti began the Dixie Queen franchise business about 30 years ago. “One thing about Dixie Queen is, we try to give people the opportunity if people want it,” he says. “If they want to try to get into the food business, we’ll help them along.” People come to him with a location in mind, and Raffanti will consider it. “I don’t want anybody investing money in locations I wouldn’t invest my own money in.”
Regolo Raffanti, Dixie Queen founder
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
Dixie Queen has had its share of notable customers. “A lot of the rappers come to Dixie Queen,” Raffanti says.
Young Dolph included Dixie Queen in his song “Chill” — “Pulled up at the Dixie Queen. And got a milkshake. Damn, Dolph, remember you used to serve me back in the day?”
And in “High AF,” GloRilla sings, “I just got the munchies, did the dash to Dixie Queen.” GloRilla may even be their greatest ambassador. “She’s always talking up Dixie Queen,” says Raffanti, who heard her in an interview. “She said when you come to Memphis, you’ve got to go eat at Dixie Queen. She wished they were in other cities where she’s at because she travels all the time. It was a really nice compliment.”
Elvis went to the original Dixie Queen on Bellevue, Raffanti says. He’d be outside and get Priscilla to do the ordering. He used to order a Purple Cow. “It’s a milkshake, but it’s made with grape flavoring. It’s really good.”
A photograph of Elvis and Priscilla is on view at their Germantown Parkway restaurant. He’s on a motorcycle, “but you see the building,” Raffanti says.
Elvis and Priscilla at the original Dixie Queen on Bellevue Boulevard
A painting of Elvis, Priscilla, and the B.B. King band visiting Dixie Queen hangs at the Germantown Parkway location.
Delectable Details and Decor
Most of the Dixie Queens are drive-throughs. Three of the locations have dining rooms. “We have our sign package and all our set colors,” Raffanti says, “an off-white with royal blue, and we have a pink trim that goes around the building.”
Employees wear Dixie Queen T-shirts, but they once wore a slightly more elaborate uniform. “We used to have visors, aprons. We invested a ton of money in uniforms,” Raffanti says. “Now, we just do the shirts. Girls didn’t want to wear the visors or hats because of their hair.”
As for those polar bear statues, Raffanti says the original ones were at the old Fairview Drive-In on Airways Boulevard. “They had the bears. I thought they were awesome. I still think they’re great. My whole family grew up around them on East Parkway in this area.” His dad “probably played on the bears,” he adds.
Raffanti was “drawn to them,” and when the Fairview Drive-In closed, he brought the two original bears to his Third Street Dixie Queen location. “When Fairview shut down, I decided to let the polar bears be our mascot.”
He then began tracking down and buying the heavy concrete polar bears wherever he could find them. “I kind of just adopted them, to be honest with you.”
The two original Fairview bears are at his Macon location. Two wooden bears at the entrance to the Dixie Queen Germantown Parkway location are handmade by “a guy who does woodwork around Pickwick Lake,” Raffanti says.
He hasn’t found anybody who still makes the concrete bears: “Somebody was saying we can get the cast of the bear and pretty much do them ourselves.”
The Next Generation
Raffanti’s son, Joe Raffanti, 35, is the fourth-generation member of the Dixie Queen family. “Back in 2011 was when I started with the company. Gosh, I was probably 20,” says Joe, who is a partner in the business.
Joe remembers hanging out with his grandfather at the old Bellevue location. “We’d go up there and visit him all the time. Sit back in the office,” he says. “He’d show us around. My dad would take me to work with him sometimes.”
Joe worked at Lowe’s for a time, but he always wanted to work at Dixie Queen. “I kept telling my dad, ‘Hey, I’m ready when you are.’ And it just so happened we were opening up our store on Pepperchase Drive in Southaven, Mississippi. He said, ‘You know what? If you think you’re ready, you can run it.’ And with literally zero restaurant experience, I said, ‘Let’s go for it.’”
Echoing his father, Joe says customers know they’re getting the best quality at Dixie Queen. “Fresh burger, fresh fries — everything is getting dropped when you order it. We don’t have burgers in warming trays. We don’t have warming trays. We don’t even have microwaves in our buildings. Even our desserts, when you order it, that’s when we’re preparing it.”
“Everything in Dixie Queen is done the same way it was done back in the ’50s,” David emphasizes. “Our burgers, everything, it’s all cooked to order.”
It may take longer to get their orders, but their customers “will wait a little longer for a good, quality product,” Raffanti says. “That’s what I stress to the cooks. We’re not in a race. We’re here for quality.”
And Raffanti is there for Dixie Queen itself. “I love this business,” he says. “I’m in these stores seven days a week. Sunday morning, you’re going to see me. I love it. And I love going around and talking to the managers. That’s one thing they know: I’m going to be there. Rain, sleet, snow, whatever. I’m going to be around.”
Loving his work and taking pride in his products helps stoke Raffanti’s enthusiasm, especially when customers pay Dixie Queen what he considers to be the highest possible compliment: “If the bag ain’t greasy, I don’t want it. It ain’t Dixie Queen.”
