Decatur’s long-shuttered Dairy Queen is finally opening its new restaurant 10:30 a.m. Sunday in the ground floor of the Arlo Apartments, 245 East Trinity Place.
Longtime employee Nadera Momin confirmed Tuesday she’d just received a go-ahead from the health department. After additional employee training this week — there are 16 total — the resurgent DQ will also have an official ribbon cutting hosted by the city at 10 a.m. Monday.
Her husband Rasul Momin, along with with Nisar Momin, are co-owners of the restaurant that closed Feb. 22, 2014, and was subsequently demolished to make way for the Arlo’s construction. Throughout the interim there was much city-wide speculation when, or even if, the Momins would return.
“It’s been too long,” Nadera Momin said Tuesday. “I’m ready to get back to work.”
The new restaurant will open roughly 100 feet northwest from where the old one stood. One of the corporation’s last-standing barn-shaped structures, the previous building dated to 1969 and was bought by Nisar Momin on Oct. 11, 1986.
The Momins had been running a DQ in Greensboro, Ga., which they sold last May when Nisar became convinced Decatur would indeed reopen.
The new store is 1,826 square feet compared to the old barn’s 2,000 square feet on the ground floor. But the new restaurant will hold 47 diners compared to the barn’s 38.
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