The Dairy Queen on 8th Street
Like everyone in Saskatoon, my family officially heralded in every Spring with a trip to the Dairy Queen on 8th. The stand-alone walk-up DQ has been a touchstone of winter’s end and a summer fixture for kids and kids at heart since 1959, offering treats to beat the heat from its window-front, brick building that hasn’t really changed in the last 62 years. For me, though, the Dairy Queen on 8th Street has a sentimentality that is more personal: it was my great-Aunt Emma’s. Any year before 2015, you’ll have spotted that black-haired, bright-lipsticked lady bustling around to keep those two lineups moving. She may have even made you an ice cream cone. I know the Dairy Queen on 8th Street is a special place for many of you so I’ll share a little bit of its history, as well as my Aunt’s.
Special thanks to my dad, Don Kardash, for digging through the family albums for all but a few of these photos, fact-checking, sharing stories, and editing for accuracy. And before I dive in, just a reminder that I appreciate your support on Instagram where I’ve built my own small business as an Influencer. I often highlight Saskatoon points of interest and pride myself on bringing my followers quality recommendations. Please click here to follow along!
My Aunt Emma Kemp was actually, as I mentioned, my great-aunt (my paternal Grandpa was her brother) but we were very close. Emma never had children of her own— she was married to a man named Norm whom I remember fondly but who passed away when I was about 5 and, though they were a doting pair to their nieces and nephews, I know she was content not being a mother because she told me so. She and her husband enjoyed travel (Emma fondly recalled their trips to Hawaii, Las Vegas, San Francisco and more, most while attending Dairy Queen conferences) and were very committed to their businesses.
Emma was the first in my family to be born in Canada. Her parents, my Kardash Great-Grandparents, immigrated from Borodyanka, Ukraine to Canada without a word of English when my Great-Grandma Tina was a young teen. Here, they had a homestead on which they farmed. Tina married and gave birth to Emma in 1919 and my grandpa Joe two years later. The family always sought education how they could, taking borders into their home in exchange for English and music lessons, especially during the 30s. Those formative years are certainly what propelled my Aunt to choose Business College at a time when the accepted roles of women were basically homemaker, nurse, or teacher.
Emma married and in 1951, she and her husband, Norm opened the city’s first drive-in restaurant, The Nite Hawk. My dad recalls its name came from the fact that my Aunt was indeed a night owl. “She liked to get things done and thought sleep was a waste of time!” You can picture the location easily: it’s now home to Fuddruckers on 8th Street. Hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, and drinks were the extent of the menu, but it was a hit and my Aunt and Uncle thrived in the excitement.
It was when their friend, Joe Young (who owned El Rancho and later, Kentucky Fried Chicken) told them about the Dairy Queen franchise that they became inspired to try something new. Emma and Norm wanted to use the Nite Hawk property to build a walk-up Dairy Queen but the company said it was too far out of the city to be a franchise location. That’s right, the busy 8th Street we know hadn’t developed at all yet! photo credit above: SPL Local History Room
So, they sold the property and built a Dairy Queen at 20th and Avenue J that looked exactly like the 8th Street one we love. Shortly after, Emma and Norm were approved to build a location on 8th Street and they operated both for a time. It was a lot. They sold the 20th Street location to the McGregor family who eventually closed it to build a Dairy Queen Brazier location on 22nd. Credit for 20th St location photo: SPL Local History Room, photos of Norm and Emma are my dad’s.
Although she was minimalist in her purchases, never buying what wouldn’t serve her well for years, I thought of Emma as glamorous. She was always in lipstick. And you, reader, can gauge your age by the brand of luxury car you recall her driving ‘round town: Thunderbird, Lincoln, or Lexus. Her 1960s home, much like the Dairy Queen itself, was perfectly designed and decorated but remained happily stuck in a time of its own. And I can’t recall the stove in that cute little mid-Century modern kitchen getting any use at all! Otherwise working around the clock, Emma enjoyed her meals in restaurants. She and I went to the Samurai every Saturday for years, we enjoyed Il Secondo and other local lunch spots, and she simply looooved a good buffet.
My Aunt was a major character in my life. Interested and intelligent, she spent lots of time with us kids.
You won’t find much on Google about Emma. My dad says, “There were often requests for interviews as it became a landmark but she was a private person and avoided any opportunities she had to speak about her success.” I recall her being very tempted to participate in the CTV Saskatoon documentary about the development of 8th Street but even with my enthusiasm, she ended up declining.
Emma was strong-willed and a very hard worker. Like my dad says, “The older she got, the more hours she put in.” My Aunt operated the Dairy Queen until the year she died, although she had been relying more and more on her dear friend and longtime employee, James, whose whole family she was close with. When Emma passed away in 2015, she left the Dairy Queen to James. To this day, he makes me feel it is still in my family. The Dairy Queen on 8th is a special part of Saskatoon and I know how lucky I am to be so close to its story.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please feel free to comment your memories of the Dairy Queen or of my Aunt Emma, or just leave your go-to order below. I’ve tried literally everything on the menu and my favourite is the Skor and Smarties Blizzard. In case you’re stuck for an order the next time you visit Saskatoon’s iconic Dairy Queen on 8th Street :)
xo Maygen
