Franchisee opens her second 24-hour Dixie Queen location

 
Andrea Kearney is helping to satisfy those late-night cravings for a shake, fries, a burger or a Philly cheesesteak, launching her second 24-hour Dixie Queen location in late December on Getwell Road.
 
Dixie Queen joins the Cookout restaurant on Highland Avenue as new 24-hour eateries that have opened in the past month in the University of Memphis area.
 
Kearney, a Dixie Queen franchisee, opened her first location on Airways nearly two years ago, and as that location performed well she began looking for an available building in another part of town to convert into a Dixie Queen.
 
“My husband and I had been involved with another restaurant before opening the Dixie Queen on Airways,” she said. “We just wanted to try something new.”
 
The location on Getwell had previously been home to a Checkers, which moved down the road and around the corner onto Park Ave., and all that was left after they vacated was an empty shell of a building.
 
The total cost to get the new Dixie Queen up and running topped $210,000, with the building getting all new equipment as well as an exterior facelift and a fresh coat of paint inside and out.
 
“We find buildings and convert them into Dixie Queens,” said Kearney. “For this new location, we remodeled the entire inside, including a new ventahood, walk-in coolers and freezers and the plumbing and electrical systems.”
 
Being one of the few restaurants in the area that is open 24 hours, Kearney hopes to pull in additional sales from the late night and early morning crowds. The menu also includes breakfast items, turkey burgers and hot wings along with ice cream cones and sundaes.
 
The new restaurant employs a staff of 12.
 
For now, Kearney will concentrate on building up business at her two restaurants and has no current plans for more locations.
 
Dixie Queen was founded in 1966, and there are now six locations in Memphis.