When Dick Heidenberger was just 12 years old, he had his first bite of frozen custard and knew it was something special.
Special to the Coastal Point • MARY ROBBINS:
The crew at Dickey's Frozen Custard is always ready to arm you with a frozen treat.
Now he is the owner of Dickey’s Frozen Custard and is able to indulge in the unique treat on a daily basis.
Heidenberger, an avid surfer and vacationer in the area for more than 15 years, opened his first Dickey’s in Crystal City, Va., in 1990, and brought the store to Atlantic Avenue in Bethany Beach four years later.
In 1997, Heidenberger and business partner Jim Weisgerber opened Mango’s restaurant above the boardwalk and bought the space below to add a second Dickey’s in the town.
“I’ve always wanted to live at the beach, and having the store here just gave me more incentive to live here,” said Heidenberger.
What makes the frozen custard served at Dickey’s different from other ice cream stores is the way it is made, Heidenberger said.
The beach indulgence that causes long lines to form outside the stores on hot summer days comes all the way from a dairy farm in Minnesota before it is put into the cups and cones of customers.
“It’s different, it’s unique. Frozen custard is ice cream, but it’s premium ice cream,” he said. “There are people that will have this every night — and remember it when they leave.”
Dickey’s also serves 25 different flavors of hand-dipped ice cream, as well as milkshakes and a low-fat version of the frozen custard. Using a classic ice cream-store décor, Heidenberger said he wanted to make Dickey’s into a place like those he would go to when he was a kid.
“The thing about Dickey’s is we’ve been there now for about 11 years and it’s become a tradition here,” he said. “It’s a traditional ice cream stand that you should have at the beach.”
Brian Sklut is a supervisor at the Dickey’s on Atlantic Avenue and has been working in the store for three years. He, like many of the other employees, is in high school and hopes to work in one of Heidenberger’s restaurants in the area in the future.
“It’s just a really fun place to work,” Sklut said. “There’s a lot of fun people, plus free ice cream.”
Heidenberger and Weisgerber recently sold the four Dickey’s stores they owned in Washington, D.C., and Virginia so they could focus their attention on the Dickey’s shops in Bethany Beach. The two had at one time planned to franchise the store, but decided not to after running into a number of complications.
Heidenberger said he now lives at the beach for the majority of the year but continues to travel to D.C. and Baltimore to check on the other restaurants he and his partners own in the two cities.
Together, they own nine restaurants in three different cities, but Heidenberger said he chooses to stay in Bethany Beach because of the warm character of the town.
“I really like the town of Bethany Beach and what it stands for. Dickey’s has always been involved in the town,” he said.
“What makes it so enjoyable to be in the town is the town itself. The people that live here and work here make it a great place to do business.”