Dairy Bar a Tradition for Greasy-Spoon Fare

The Dairy Bar in Chehalis hasn’t changed much in the past 50 years or so, but that’s how customers like it. 

“You don’t see a lot of places open like this,” said Neil Wilson, who owns the burger joint with his father, Greg Wilson. “ … People say, ‘You can’t change it.’”

The stand offers a variety of soft-serve ice cream flavors and 30 different flavors of milkshakes, in addition to burgers, fries and more.

“In the summer, the milkshakes are kind of our specialty,” Neil Wilson said. “… The sign says 29 (flavors) but it varies.”

Dairy Bar has the traditional flavors of chocolate, vanilla or butterscotch, along with a number of fruit flavors and creations like a peanut butter and banana shake. 

“Everything is made-to-order,” Neil Wilson said. “There’s nothing healthy on the menu.”

The Wilsons work to keep their prices low while not directly competing with fast food restaurants. The burgers take a few minutes to cook, but customers are happy to wait, they said. 

The Dairy Bar has been serving up these burger-joint classics since it first opened in the 1950s.

Greg’s mother, June Wilson, used to stop by the Dairy Bar now and again back then, and always made a point to tell the previous owner that if he wanted to sell, she’d buy. When her kids all grew up and left the house, she got that chance. 

She bought the business in 1977, and it’s been in the family ever since.

“She was looking for something to do while her family was gone,” Greg Wilson said. 

Her own children were out of the house, but June soon became a surrogate mom to her staff.

“She was the mother of a big group,” Greg Wilson said. “She was the mother of all the kids who worked there.”

Neil worked at the building in high school and college, and he and his father took over management about nine years ago.

Their mostly-teenage staff comes and goes, but even their last names seem to stay the same. 

“We have staff whose grandparents have worked here,” Greg Wilson said. They’ve also met couples who say they got married after meeting at the Dairy Bar, and come back on their anniversary, he said. 

While the building is old, the Wilsons have recently replaced much of the internal workings, and recently purchased a new ice cream machine.

In 2007, floodwaters reached the bottom of the drive-through windows, necessitating some upgrades to the simple structure. It took a while, but the family got the business up and running again.

In recent years, the Wilsons have thought about changing the Dairy Bar’s color scheme, upgrading the building or even changing its French fries.

But their loyal customers tell them not to change a thing. 

“We take a lot of pride in that,” Greg said. “We have a really loyal base in the community.”